The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) has confirmed that member company DISH Network has filed a $25 million (€22m) complaint in the US District Court for the Northern District of California against Innetra PC, a UK-based company providing hosting services from data centres in the Netherlands.

The lawsuit asserts that Innetra and its general partner, Elna Paulette Belle, are liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement for facilitating the illegal streaming of content on behalf of at least 15 pirate services in the United States. The pirated programming includes content from 22 IBCAP member channels. Belle is being sued in her personal capacity for her role in authorising, directing and failing to exercise her ability to stop Innetra’s infringing activities.

The complaint alleges that Innetra used its servers and network infrastructure to host and transmit IBCAP member-copyrighted works over the Internet, enabling access to unauthorised streams through pirate-operated set-top boxes, apps and websites. In 2024, Innetra was responsible for delivering approximately 15 per cent of unauthorised IBCAP member streams detected by the IBCAP lab.

Despite receiving more than 300 infringement notices from IBCAP, the defendants failed to respond to all but one. In that single response, Innetra stated it would not comply with IBCAP’s takedown requests. Further underscoring its disregard for US copyright law, Innetra openly advertises on its website that it does not recognise or follow the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The complaint seeks a court injunction prohibiting Innetra from transmitting IBCAP member content and statutory damages for registered works of up to $25.65 million, based on a maximum of $150,000 per infringement for 171 registered works. The lawsuit also seeks to recover profits for unregistered works and attorneys’ fees and costs.

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

“This lawsuit against Innetra underscores IBCAP’s continued commitment to identifying non-compliant CDNs and hosting providers, halting their unlawful activities and ensuring they are held accountable for infringing the copyrighted works of IBCAP members,” asserted Chris Kuelling, executive director of IBCAP. “Innetra blatantly disregarded IBCAP’s notices to its detriment – if you are a hosting provider or CDN and disregard our repeated notices, there is a strong chance you will be sued for copyright infringement.”

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, Content, DTH/Satellite, OTT, OTT, Pay TV, Piracy, Policy, Regulation, Rights, STB

Tags: copyright, Dish Network, Elna Paulette Belle, IBCAP, International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy