The US District Court of the Central District of California found that the operator of Altered Carbon illegally distributed streaming video programming, violating earlier commitments not to do so. The court’s conclusion was announced by The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a coalition of major Hollywood studios, major online programmers, and the Motion Picture Association.
Prior to Altered Carbon, its operator Jason Tusa had run at least three illegal services: Area 51, Singularity Media and Digital Unicorn Media, which all had been shut down subsequent to being contacted by ACE. Further details of these services are in a July Piracy Monitor article that coincided with the filing of the complaint against Tusa and others, by ACE.
ACE has won a series of piracy settlements in North America in recent years, including Crystal Clear Media, TickBox, Dragon Box, SetTV Now, Vader Streams, and Omniverse.
Read the full announcement (via ACE)
Why it matters
Powerful forces are arrayed against piracy, but it takes significant time and effort to identify supected cases of infringement, build evidence against suspects, – and then time to work within the court system. Penalties have yet to be announced.
Updates made to US copyright law in December 2020 include the CASE Act, which established a ‘small claims court’ for rights-holders, and The Protecting Lawful Streaming Act (PLSA) which classifies piracy as a felony under US law, and carries the potential for stiff fines and prison sentences.
