A legal crackdown has been launched by the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Warner Bros, Universal and Sony in the fight against IPTV and illegal streaming.

IPTV, or Internet Protocol television to give it its full name, is regularly used by criminals to illegally stream premium content that you can only legally access by paying subscription fees.

And one of the most common ways organised criminals offer IPTV services is to jailbreak Amazon Fire TV Sticks. This is where they will bypass the fire stick operating system in order to install the illicit apps that have thousands of links to films and television shows, new and old.

But the crackdown on illegal streaming is now growing across the world, with a landmark conviction taking place just last month.

New court orders have also been passed to protect the copyright holders of the likes of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as well as Spain’s top flight football competition, La Liga.

And in the UK, police have brought in almost a dozen IPTV suppliers in one of the latest police raids on UK soil.

Now, over in the United States, a massive court case has been filed by eight of the world’s major TV and film providers.

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Who is involved in the case?

It’s pretty big and involves Amazon, Netflix, Disney, and Sony to name half of them.

The firms named on paperwork with the case are Disney Enterprises Inc; Netflix Worldwide Entertainment LLC; Amazon Content Services LLC; Columbia Pictures Industries Inc; Paramount Pictures Corp; Sony Pictures Animation Inc; Universal City Studios Productions LLLP; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

The eight firms are being represented by Los Angeles-based legal firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, with a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas.

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What are the big eight arguing?

No surprise, but it’s all down to copyright.

Netflix and the other seven believe their copyright has been infringed on a mass scale.

Generally speaking, copyright laws around the work protect your work, and more importantly, stops others from using it without your permission.

Who is accused of violating the copyright of Netflix, Amazon, Disney and co?

The eight media companies have filed the case against a defendant who goes by the name of William Freemon.

It is also nine companies, which the lawsuit alleges have been a group of illegal websites hosting premium content for free. Among them is ‘InstantIPTV.net’ and ‘CashAppIPTV.com’.

The complaint says the actions of Freemon and his company, Freemon Technology Industries LLC, as well as the other websites, ’caused irreparable harm’ to the eight companies filing for copyright infringement.

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What do the court documents allege?

The court documents allege ‘Freemon operates an extensive and commercially scaled network of illegal streaming services that offers unauthorised access to live channels and video-on-demand streams of copyrighted movies and TV shows’.

It adds: “Freemon makes money by selling subscriptions to his infringing services directly to the public, but he pays nothing to for the copyrighted works he exploits.”

The documents state that the websites offered subscription packages from $20 a month to $150 a year, with those paying up given access to 11,000 illegal channels, 27,000 movies and more than 9,000 TV shows.

It also claims that Freemon sold modified Fire TV Sticks that let people access the content.

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What happens next?

Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Columbia, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros are demanding this goes to trial.

Through their legal counsel, lawyers have told the court that the eight companies ‘demand a trial by jury on all claims, issues, and damages’.

Statutory rights indicate that each company could be awarded a maximum of $150,000 for every piece of copyright infringed work.

The total amount that could be sought would be determined by the legal team to then be presented at trial.

William Freemon could not be reached for comment despite LADbible’s extensive attempts.

Featured Image Credit: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images/Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

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