The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) has confirmed that member company DISH Network has filed a complaint in the Western District of Washington against Virtual Systems, a Ukraine-based company providing hosting services from data centres on multiple continents. The complaint asserts claims against Virtual Systems and Vyacheslav Smyrnov, the owner and CEO of Virtual Systems, for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. The lawsuit was coordinated by IBCAP, with evidence for the case obtained and provided by the IBCAP lab.

The filing alleges that Virtual Systems implemented a ‘DMCA Ignored’ policy under which it advertised that “we ignore DMCA takedown notices”, that Virtual Systems ignored more than 500 separate notices of infringement from IBCAP and allowed the continued use of Virtual Systems’ servers and network by numerous pirate services. The pirate services directly infringe IBCAP member copyrights by transmitting more than 20 television channels and the programmes that air on those channels over the Internet to users in the US. The complaint also alleges that Virtual Systems was notified about but did not comply with orders from US courts — entered in separate lawsuits involving three pirate services — that permanently enjoined Virtual Systems from providing its servers and network to those pirate services.

Smyrnov was sued in his personal capacity because he authorised, directed and participated in Virtual Systems’ infringement and failed to exercise his ability to stop that infringement.

The complaint seeks statutory damages of up to $150,000 (€138,000) each for the wilful infringement of 279 registered works — up to $41,850,000 total; Virtual Systems’ profits attributable to the infringement of thousands of unregistered works; an injunction prohibiting Virtual Systems from providing access to copyrighted works owned by IBCAP members; attorneys’ fees and costs; and pre-and post-judgment interest.

This is the second lawsuit coordinated by IBCAP against a non-US-based CDN or hosting provider. The first, the Datacamp lawsuit, resulted in Datacamp paying $3 million and agreeing to implement takedown and repeat infringer policies.

“This case against Virtual Systems represents the culmination of IBCAP’s strategy to identify non-compliant CDNs and hosting providers and make them not only cease their illicit activities, but also pay for ignoring IBCAP takedown notices,” said Chris Kuelling, executive director of IBCAP. “As we have made clear through other legal actions, CDNs and hosting providers who support pirate services by delivering infringing content over their networks will be held accountable. The Datacamp case’s favourable outcome and the filing of this lawsuit should send a clear message to non-compliant CDNs and hosting providers that supporting pirate services is not worth the risk.”

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Categories: Articles, Business, CDNs, Content, Piracy, Policy, Regulation, Rights

Tags: Dish Network, IBCAP, International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy, Virtual Systems