Regarding the fight against pirated IPTV, one of the most notorious cases is that of Nitro TV. This service had thousands of clients and throughout its history it is considered that it earned millions of dollars that should be used to pay the hefty court sentences to which it has already been punished.
Nitro TV offered pirated IPTV subscription packages consisting of thousands of live television channels, as well as a selection of titles available 24/7 both in the United States and abroad. This movie and series content included, among others, The Office, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Toy Story 3, Star Trek Beyond and Joker, titles owned by the plaintiffs and illegally distributed by Nitro TV.
Nitro TV’s court record
The one on Nitro TV is one of the soap operas with the most chapters in the fight against pirated IPTV. This channel list subscription service has faced two massive lawsuits. One of them was against some of the companies that are part of the ACE, such as Columbia Pictures, Amazon Content Services, Disney Enterprises, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment and three companies owned by Universal. He ended up with a penalty of $51 million.
The other lawsuit was against DISH Network, Sling and NagraStar and ended in June 2022, when the operators of the pirate IPTV service Nitro TV were ordered to pay $100 million in damages to the DISH Network broadcaster.
To recoup at least part of the millions generated by the service, DISH was granted permission to foreclose and sell a home worth nearly $1 million, though now the pirate service’s operators have decided to fight back and avoid foreclosure.
Was the house paid for with the proceeds of the pirate IPTV?
After receiving the green light, DISH began searching for the defendants’ assets, including more than $10 million generated by the Nitro TV service. Four banks that had received deposits of more than $9 million complied with the disclosure requests; two reported no active accounts, one confirmed a balance of just $49, and the final account was in the red.
The plaintiffs want to get the largest possible amount after the court has ruled in their favor, so they did not see with bad eyes that it was decided to sell the house of the owner of Nitro TV, valued at one million dollars, that is, only 1% of the total debt.
Even so, Alejandro Galindo, the owner of Nitro TV, has decided to fight back and Alex Galindo’s lawyer explained that his client bought the house in Friendswood in March 2020 and declared it his home.
“The Texas Constitution provides special protections for homestead property separate and distinct from the protections afforded to other types of property. Because constitutional family property rights protect citizens from losing their homes, statutes relating to family property rights are liberally construed to protect family property.”
However, DISH believes that 99% of the purchase price of the house was paid for by sales of illegal IPTV subscriptions. The company argued that homestead protection is not available when a property is purchased with improperly acquired funds. It seems that this case is far from being resolved and will still leave us with more chapters.
