The US District Court for the Central District of California opened a complaint on behalf of major movie studios, joined by Amazon and Netflix – nine in all – against TTKN Enterprises, which runs a pirate streaming operation known as Crystal Clear Media (CCM), and two individual defendants. The plaintiffs say that CCM not only damages the plaintiffs themselves, but also their legitimate distributors. They are members of the Alliance for Creativity in Media (ACE).
CCM offers ‘IPTV’ packages by subscription, at prices that range from $14.99 to $39.99 per month. The CCM platforms offer more than 6,000 TV channels from around the world, including live sports, series programming, and other popular formats. Its illegal VOD service offers more than 14,000 movie titles and 3,000 television series for on-demand viewing.
The plaintiffs are Walt Disney Enterprises, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Amazon Content Services LLC, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Universal City Studios Productions LLLP, Universal Content Productions LLC, Netflix Studios, Columbia Pictures Industries, and Studiocanal S.A.S. Parent companies are also identified: The Walt Disney Company; ViacomCBS Inc.; Amazon.com Inc.; AT&T Inc.; Comcast Corporation; Netflix Inc.; Sony Corporation; Vivendi SA.
Read the Complaint, Case number 2:20-cv-07274 (requires PACER access)
Why it matters
It’s a major case. The studios seek to shut down Crystal Clear Media, seize its domain names, shut down its resellers, and take the case to trial by jury. The complaint requests maximum damages of $150,000 for each instance of copyright infringement. One of Crystal Clear Media’s consumer-facing sites says it offers a virtual reality gaming service, but one of the defendants has admitted that it is actually a front for an illegal VOD service.
