Tusa knowingly distributed the Altered Carbon service for the purpose of infringing copyrights, Judge Phillips adds. “By operating the Altered Carbon websites and supplying the IPTV Service, Tusa facilitates, encourages, and enables the direct infringement of Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works,” the Judge writes, adding that both the contributory copyright infringement and inducement claims are also likely to succeed. As a result, he materially contributed to the infringement of his stream suppliers With direct infringement already established, the Judge says that Tusa had “actual knowledge” that his 24/7 streams were unlicensed yet continued to provide them to his customers. When considering whether their contributory copyright infringement claim would succeed, several factors come into play. In respect of direct copyright infringement, Judge Phillips says that since Tusa streamed the plaintiffs’ copyright works on Altered Carbon without authorization, the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in their claim. So, in August 2021, a clerk entered a default against Tusa leading the Judge to consider whether a default judgment was warranted. After the plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in July, Tusa engaged counsel but failed to answer or respond to the complaint. In February 2021, ACE/MPA investigators found that Tusa was running Altered Carbon, despite having taken a number of steps to hide his involvement.
Tusa then signed a settlement agreement but went on to launch Digital UniCorn Media but denied he had anything to do with it. Then, despite agreeing to shut down Area 51, launched Singularity Media, a service that was shut down after he was confronted by ACE.
AREA 51 IPTV SERVICE LICENSE
Judge Phillips begins by accepting that Tusa ran various pirate IPTV services offering 2,600 channels and PPV events without having any license to do so. Judge Summarizes Tusa’s ‘Particularly Egregious’ Behavior
Phillips this week ruled in favor of the studios but it seems unlikely that the outcome will be enthusiastically welcomed by the plaintiffs. United States District Court Judge Virginia A. They also sought execution of a confidential settlement sum previously agreed with Tusa, a permanent injunction, interest, and attorney’s fees in excess of $330,000.
Last month the plaintiffs filed a motion for default judgment, seeking maximum statutory damages for willful infringement ($150,000 per copyright work) for a total of $16,350,000. Tusa failed to honor that agreement by continuing in the pirate IPTV business, the lawsuit ensued, and in August the studios won a preliminary injunction to restraint Tusa moving forward. Tusa had been on the radar of the studios for some time and had previously shut down Area 51 after reaching a settlement agreement with anti-piracy coalition Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment. As part of their ongoing efforts to shut down or disrupt pirate IPTV services, Universal, Amazon, Columbia, Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, and other content creators sued Jason Tusa, the operator of the Area 51, Digital UniCorn Media, Singularity Media, and Altered Carbon services.