FMovies is one of the most famous pirate streaming sites operating at the moment. But, as a result of a lawsuit by ABS-CBN, the website has been ordered to pay $210,000 in statutory damages. It’s noteworthy that the operators of FMovies didn’t defend themselves
in the court and they might end up losing their domain as well.part from torrent websites, movie streaming sites are another heaven for pirates that’s being heavily used to download TV shows and movies for free. Over the past year, such websites have grown at a rapid pace and collected a huge crop of fans. As a result of some latest developments, it looks like popular streaming site FMovies may soon lose its domain.
As reported by TorrentFreak, the court has issued a default copyright infringement judgment against FMovies operators, who didn’t defend themselves in a lawsuit filed by media group ABS-CBN. The lawsuit (find the PDF here) was filed last year.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. It claimed that FMovies offered pirated content and illegal streams.
As the defense didn’t produce any evidence to avoid any punishment, the Judge agreed to ABS-CBN’s assessment that FMovies was generating massive amounts of profit via advertising.
The court has ordered the FMovies to pay ABS-CBN Two Hundred Eighteen Thousand Two Hundred Dollars ($218,200). This number includes attorneys’ fees, costs, and statutory damages.
The pirate streaming website was found guilty on six counts, which are as follows:
- Federal trademark infringement
- False designation of origin
- Direct copyright infringement
- Contributory copyright infringement
- Unfair competition
- False advertising.
According to the default order, ABS-CBN can also take over FMovies.to domain name. At the moment, FMovies.to and FMovies.se are still operating.
It should also be noted that the operators of FMovies are still unknown. So, it’s unclear if they would pay the charges imposed on them.
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