legal hell and first fine of 86,477 dollars to father and son for supplying piracy

The latest blow to IPTV has revealed a list of users who purchased pirated football via chat app Telegram. Now a Canadian judge has ordered the payment of 86,477 dollars to one of the two defendants by Bell, Rogers and Hollywood Studios for providing pirated content via SmoothStreams.

In July 2022, provider SmoothStreams had to shut down due to demand from a number of companies, including Bell Media, Rogers and MPA Canada’s (The Motion Picture Association – Canada) Hollywood Studios. After both defendants failed to comply with the strict terms of a search and seizure warrant, Both were subject to contempt proceedings..

In the weeks following SmoothStreams’ receipt of the requested by Bell Media, Rogers Media, Disney, Paramount, Columbia and Warner Bros.

the service received an unexpected attack that caused it to stop providing content via IPTV.

A sophisticated and lucrative business

A month later, after obtaining the court order, Anton Piller —authorizing the plaintiff, his attorney, or other responsible agent to seize items without notice to the defendant for purposes of preserv ation or discovery—

The plaintiffs were authorized to search for evidence in the premises related to the provision of the service: Dozens of receivers, encoders and entire rows of servers were seized in three different locations.

But not everything went as planned on the part of the plaintiffs, because even with the power granted to them through Anton Piller’s injunction, they were met with great resistance from the defendants. First, Marshall Macciaccera and Antonio Macciaccera (son and father respectively) were asked to reveal financial and technical information about the service’s operations. Actually, Antonio denied any involvement in the operation

a position he still maintains today.

Both defendants were held in contempt of court proceedings, but the father’s case progressed more quickly. Especially since no evidence has been found linking Antonio to the technical and financial information presented by Judge Duchesne, who issued a warrant with 10 related charges with alleged violations of the Anton Piller Ordinance; six of which ultimately failed.

In an order issued by Chief Justice Crapton, the the plaintiffs demanded immediate payment of 110,343 dollars. Antonio’s legal team proposed a much lower amount: $6,801 because the amount was appropriate in view of the six dismissed charges and any subsequent amounts imposed by the Court.

Antonio continued to insist that he had no role in SmoothStreams. The plaintiffs and the court had to face a complex case and an allegedly illegal trade which Justice Lafrenière previously defined as being very sophisticated and lucrative.

By refusing authorization, according to Torrent Monster, so that the Independent Supervising Attorney (ISS) could enter his home and execute Rochester’s interim order, Antonio disobeyed that order and defied the Court. Presumably, the purpose of the order was to prevent the destruction of evidence or the transfer of funds. Actually, prevented Antonio from being linked to the six dismissed charges. Ultimately, the judge pronounced a reduction of 25% which was applied on December 15 this year with a total payment of costs of 86,477 dollars.

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