Hollywood Alliance v Pirate Tusa: The Copyright Saga

A Hollywood gathering of media production companies have come together to file a copyright infringement and breach of contract claim against repeat pirate IPTV service operator, Jason Tusa. The claimant’s include Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bros. and Disney which allege Tusa has infringed their rights via the Area 51 platform by making available streams of films and TV shows which include Dunkirk, Joker, The Office and Friends.

Before filing the claim, Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bro. and Disney issued a cease-and-desist letter to Area 51 to put a stop to its infringing activities. However, during settlement negotiations in July 2020 Tusa created a close replacement service called Singularitymedia.net, and informed his customers that this new service would take over Area 51. A few months later, a confidential settlement was agreed in respect of the two services and Tusa had undertaken to not run or assist in running of further infringing activities. Tusa launched a third service, Digital UniCorn Media. The claim also alleges that Tusa launched a fourth service called Altered Carbon.

It is alleged that Tusa infringed copyright by streaming 110 works. The media giants claim damages for copyright infringement of each title, damages for breach of contract by way of a settlement fee and requests injunctions to prohibit Tusa from continuing his operations. Furthermore, the impounding of hardware along with all infringing documents has also been requested.

If you have any questions on the above, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com.