More high-traffic pirate sites sued, shut down by ABS-CBN
Suspected pirate site owner Jonathan Dela Cruz, BANDILA PHOTO
REDWOOD SHORES, California – More owners of pirate sites were sued before the US Federal District Court by ABS-CBN Global, which received an ex parte order allowing it to take down several pirate sites and serve their owners with the company’s pleadings placed on the sites.
These sites, which had previously drawn considerable traffic, are:
freepinoychannel.com; phstream.com; pinoytambayan-replay.com; pnoytambayantv.com; tambayanatin.com; tambaytayo.com; tvnijuan.net; streampinoy.info; lambingan.to; pinoymovie.to; pinoynetwork.to
These latest developments in ABS-CBN’s anti-piracy efforts follow its partnership with the Dubai Department of Economic Development & Intellectual Property Rights Section to stop online piracy of the Mayweather-Pacquiao world championship welterweight match in the Middle East last May 2 and the arrest in Bataan last April of Jonathan Dela Cruz, creator of https://pinoy-tv-replay.com. The arrest was carried out in partnership with the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG).
Dela Cruz had allegedly created a website that illegally replays movies, various television series, news and other programs of ABS-CBN and other TV networks. On the same site, he has reportedly started collecting subscription fees for the livestreaming of the Mayweather-Pacquiao mega-fight which he allegedly planned to pirate from ABS-CBN. He was in jail for over 30 days and now faces criminal charges and damages of over US$6 million from a US federal lawsuit.
ABS-CBN’s Assistant Vice President of Global Anti-Piracy Elisha Lawrence said that ABS-CBN will pursue cases against pirates such as Dela Cruz and will continue to work on shutting down illegal sites.
“We are enforcing against these sites to protect our viewers. But in the meantime as we go after each and every one of these sites, protect yourself and your family and stay away from free sites and free streaming sites. There have been numerous reports of malware on these free sites, which infect viewers’ computers allowing hackers to invade people’s computers and steal personal and financial information. Don’t pay a high price for free,” Lawrence said.
