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A Dallas man who ran multiple pirate IPTV services and sold loaded Fire TV Stick devices now faces an $18.75 million default judgment recommended by a federal magistrate judge.
Netflix, Amazon, and several major Hollywood studios filed suit against William Freemon and his company, Freemon Technology Industries (FTI), in March 2024.
The complaint accused him of copyright infringement through four unauthorized IPTV services: Streaming TV Now, TV Nitro, Instant IPTV, and Cash App IPTV.
His operation started between 2016 and 2019 with modified Fire TV Sticks sold through two websites registered in his own name.
Streaming TV Now was the largest service, boasting 11,000 live channels, 27,000 on-demand movies, and 9,000 TV series.
Three of those services shared a single backend server, and a tutorial video even showed someone logging into an Amazon account under Freemon’s name.
Getting Freemon before a judge took seven service attempts. Once served, he told attorneys he wouldn’t file an answer. The court ordered him to hire a lawyer for his LLC, but he ignored that too.
Rather than mounting a proper defense, he filed motions that broke court rules and were thrown out. Freemon even demanded payment from the studios, telling them to pay him if they wanted the infringement to stop.
After receiving a cease-and-desist letter in February 2023, he claimed to have transferred his domains. The studios turned that against him, noting that domain transfers require owner authorization. His services kept running through at least January 2024.
Magistrate Judge Renée Harris Toliver recommended granting the full default judgment, finding the infringement was willful. The court awarded statutory maximum damages of $150,000 per work across 125 titles, including Universal’s Oppenheimer, totaling $18,750,000.
Beyond the financial penalty, the plaintiffs also secured a permanent injunction covering eight domains tied to the operation. Registrars must transfer those domains once the district judge approves the ruling.
Another massive IPTV judgment is headed for the books with hard lessons attached. Selling loaded Fire TV Sticks and operating pirate streaming services can bring life-altering financial consequences.
While studios celebrate wins like these, thousands of similar pirate operations continue worldwide. It’s the timeless question of would the entertainment industry see better results by making content more affordable or chasing endless court battles?
For more details on this story, refer to the official court documentation (PDF) and the report from TorrentFreak.
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