Updated: The headline of this story was revised to reflect that the lawsuit was settled, not won by Dish Network.
Dish Network has prevailed in its quest to stop at least one operator of an “add-on” within the Kodi ecosystem from retransmitting content on its satellite network.
Dish filed suit in Texas against the overseas operators of ZemTV and TVAddons last year. In the complaint, Montreal resident Adam Lackman, operator of TVAddons, and London-based Shahjahan Durrani, proprietor of ZemTV, were accused of copyright infringement, with Dish seeking $150,000 in compensation for each alleged instance of infringement.
In a statement, TVAddons said: “As a result of the settlement of a lawsuit, we have agreed with Dish Network to remove and cease providing assistance for all add-ons that retransmit any of the following channels: Aaj Tak, Aastha Bhajan, Aastha TV, ARY Digital, ARY News, B4U Movies, B4U Music, Dunya TV, Express Entertainment, Express News, Geo News, Geo TV, Hum Masala, Hum Sitaray, Hum TV, India Today (Headlines Today), Movies OK, Sahara One, Sahara Samay, Times Now, and Zoom.
“Furthermore, an expedited DMCA process has been enacted that will ensure a swift response to any future claims made by Dish Network. Please note that this settlement did not involve the exchange of any data or user information whatsoever. If you are interested in receiving any of these channels, you may contact Dish at www.dish.com or Sling at www.sling.com."
News of the settlement was first reported by Cord Cutter News.
Closure on the ZemTV case is uncertain.
According to a May report in TorrentFreak, Durban asked his lawyer to stop defending him, with the matter seemingly headed to default judgement, and Dish charged with recouping its award from a foreign national.
“I don’t have enough resources to fight this case completely with four kids that I am raising and anything more I do will be seem to be submitting to the U.S. Courts which I am not going to do unless I have enough money to fight the case,” told his lawyer at the time.
