ABS-CBN Corp. said Friday it a filed a suit in US Federal District Court against kissasian.com for damages of over $8 million pertaining to kissasian’s infringement of trademarks and registered copyrights of 27 of its television shows and movies.
ABS-CBN this week also won an amended default judgment of nearly $11 million against 11 online streaming websites that the company said regularly showcased pirated versions of its programming.
“We are stepping up our anti-piracy enforcement in 2017. These pirate sites often victimize our fans when they access these sites and are later attacked by malware which steals their financial and personal data,” ABS-CBN assistant vice president for global anti-piracy Elisha Lawrence said.
“We are going after every pirate wherever they live and operate. We arrested and sued numerous pirates last year and we plan to quadruple that effort this year,” Lawrence added.
US District Judge William Dimitrouleas, in an amended default judgment, ordered the defendants to pay at least $1 million each in statutory damages.
The judge also ordered the defendants to stop advertising, promoting, performing, copying, broadcasting or distributing ABS-CBN’s copyrighted work, which includes a variety of television programming.
Among the pirate websites, Freepinoychannel.com and Pnoytambayantv.com were each ordered to pay $1.18 million in statutory damages, while Lambingan.to, Pinoynetwork.to and Tambaytayo.com were on the hook for $1.09 million each. Pinoymovie.to was ordered to pay $1.24 million in statutory damages.
The sites provide on-demand streaming performances of full-length versions of television shows and movies through their sites, according to the suit.
“Defendants’ websites are classic examples of pirate operations, often with poor quality. We invest a great deal in our television shows and movies so the customers have a superior viewing experience. These pirates are willfully infringing ABS-CBN’s copyrighted works and damaging the ABS-CBN brand,” Lawrence said.
