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Protecting online videos against counterfeiting
With more and more ways of distributing videos online, video protection remains a major issue for copyright holders.
This is often achieved through Digital Rights Management, better known as DRM; an anti-piracy tool that dictates when and where digital content can be accessed.
Widevine DRM is one of the major players in this field. This Google-owned technology is used by many streaming services, including Amazon, Netflix, Disney+ and others. So it's essential to keep it secure.
Unfortunately for rights holders, most protection measures have their flaws. Widevine DRM offers different levels of security, and pirates have repeatedly shown that the lowest specifications are not totally watertight.
Trial against IPTV pirates circumventing DRM
As a result of these weaknesses, pirate IPTV services are booming. This poses a problem for Sling TV and its parent company, Dish Networkwhich this week sued one of these operations in a US court.
The complaint, filed in federal court in Atlanta, targets "Channel Wala", "Doordarshan" and several related individuals and companies, all based in Georgia. They are accused of selling set-top boxes via their websites and Amazon stores.
While the equipment itself is not illegal, the sellers also promoted free trials and paid subscriptions via stickers on these decoders. According to the undercover agents who bought them, this poses a problem.
"An investigator purchased a decoder from the defendants via Channelwala.com. Upon receipt of the decoder, the investigator sent a message to the defendants on the WhatsApp number on the sticker on the box and requested a free trial of the services," the complaint states.
The WhatsApp conversation below shows that the investigator did indeed benefit from the promised free trial. This gave him access to Dish and Sling channels, as well as those of numerous other media companies. According to the complainants, all this is done without authorization from the rights holders.
Stickers and leaflets
In addition to the free trial, the investigator also discovered boxes with other stickers via Channelwala.com and the "MAG Box" store on Amazon. These versions enticed buyers to visit Tvplususa.com, where they could obtain installation instructions and a streaming subscription for 6.99 $ per month.
All these offers are unauthorized, Dish and Sling claim. In addition to the sticker promotions, the plaintiffs also discovered several ads on Facebook, as well as flyers in physical stores in Atlanta.
"Defendants market the services by distributing flyers and business cards in grocery stores, liquor and retail stores, gas stations and other locations in the Atlanta metropolitan area," the complaint states.
As the above flyers show, the IPTV streaming service is presented as an "authorized reseller" of Dish and Sling, allowing people to "WATCH FOR 7 $/month". This constitutes false advertising and misuse of the Dish and Sling trademarks, the complaint notes.
Bypassing Widevine DRM
So far, the charges are fairly straightforward. The individuals and companies involved, including Channel Wala LLC and Parshva Distributor LLC, sold set-top boxes linked to pirate IPTV services. But it doesn't stop there.
The complaint mentions several DMCA violations, accusing the defendants of circumventing Widevine DRM. This isn't the first time Dish and Sling have brought DRM-related charges to court, but here they're pretty specific about what happened.
"Widevine DRM [...] is circumvented using a specially developed computer program that emulates the behavior of a back-engineered hardware device," explains the complaint.
"The computer program tricks Sling's Widevine DRM server into granting access and providing a string decryption key by tricking the server into thinking the request is coming from a legitimate Widevine device that would keep the string decryption key secure."
Back-engineered hardware obviously doesn't protect Sling's programming, as it can now be easily copied.
"The unencrypted channel can be uploaded to a server outside the Sling platform and retransmitted to any number of users who can receive the channel without purchasing a legitimate subscription from plaintiffs," the complaint notes.
Judgment and damages
The DRM bypass technique is described in detail, but it's not immediately clear whether the defendants participated in it. However, they are accused of using it to broadcast a variety of channels protected, also by many other rights holders using Widevine.
Last summer, Dish reportedly warned the defendants of their allegedly illegal activities. The company sent a formal notice in June, asking them to stop, but to no avail.
According to the complaint, some sites were shut down, but the IPTV operation continued with resellers. Defendant Abhishek Shah reportedly ran a business worth over $20 million, while encouraging resellers to ignore legal threats and carry on.
"Abhishek Shah sent an image of plaintiffs' demand letter to numerous resellers who purchase set-top boxes and services from defendants, stating that he has made over $20 million, 'continue business as usual,' 'DISH can't stop us,' 'I'm shutting down my website but that doesn't impact you in any way,...," the complaint states.
Injunction and damages
Through this lawsuit, Dish and Sling hope to recover damages, which could easily amount to several million dollars. In addition to DMCA violations, where each subscription sold is considered an individual infringement, the rights holders are also seeking damages for trademark infringement.
Finally, they are seeking a permanent injunction to shut down IPTV's operation and have all infringing products destroyed.
At the time of writing, Channelwala.com, Thegreatiptvsub.com and Tvplususa.com are all offline. However, the resellers may still be in business, as the defendants have indicated.
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A copy of the complaint filed by Dish and Sling in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, is available here (pdf).
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