📰 New article from TorrentFreak
Hollywood Secures $9 Million Default Judgment Against IPTV Operator
https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-secures-9-million-default-judgment-against-iptv-operator/
If you’ve ever been tempted by a “too good to be true” IPTV subscription offering every movie ever made for the price of a latte, consider this a cautionary tale.
Hollywood just landed a massive $9 million knockout blow against Brandon Weibley, a man accused of running a massive pirated streaming empire. From his brands like “Beast Mode Live” and “Shrugs,” Weibley allegedly sold access to copyrighted content from giants like Disney, Netflix, and Amazon for years.
The catch? Weibley tried to ghost the legal system. After being personally served with a lawsuit, he simply didn’t show up to court. This allowed the studios to secure a “default judgment”—basically a win by forfeit. Because the court found his infringement “willful” (he even rebranded to dodge pressure), the damages were calculated at a staggering $150,000 per infringed work.
The big takeaways:
- The Bill: A $9 million judgment is on the table.
- The Shutdown: The court ordered a permanent injunction and a domain takeover to kill his sites for good.
The Precedent: The judge used a strict legal standard to prove he wasn’t just aware of piracy, but actively intended* for his service to facilitate it.
Whether Weibley actually has $9 million sitting in a bank account is another story, but for now, the “cheap streaming” dream just got a lot more expensive.