Until recently, Boom Media was one of the most active and recognizable 'pirate' IPTV reseller brands available to the public.
Operating in the United States under the name Boom Media LLC, the company acted as a reseller for IPTV subscription services including MFG TV, Beast TV, Nitro TV, Murica Streams, Epic IPTV, Vader Streams, and OK2.
As reported early November, this attracted the unwanted attention of DISH Network and partner NagraStar, who teamed up to sue Boom Media LLC and son and mother team John and Debra Henderson.
The broadcaster claimed that the Boom Media service, which was allegedly operated from John's home, received payments from customers via accounts operated by mother Debra. This operation, DISH said, resulted in willful violations of the company's rights under the Federal Communications Act.
While some of DISH's similar lawsuits have dragged on for some time in court, there's evidence to suggest that in addition to obtaining cash settlements from targets such as Boom, the broadcaster views such litigation as a stepping-stone to further litigation against their associates. And, of course, more settlements.
John Henderson certainly believes this is the case. In an expletive-ridden video posted to YouTube this week, he says that DISH and NagraStar want to break him down in their hunt for information on others involved in the IPTV supply and consumption chain.
He says he's not comfortable with that at all so he wants to take the fight to DISH in order to prevent that from happening. But of course, that will take money – lots of money – and he wants that to be donated by former customers and other interested parties.
"I set up a GoFundMe to help me pay for legal fees. The point of that is i'm gonna take this shit to a trial by jury, that's my intent. So basically, the lawyer just to start is $15,000," he says.
"The basic point is in order for me to get any kind of settlement, I have to turn over information on fucking everything, everything I've ever known, and I'm just not comfortable doing that. Yeah, so you bought [subscriptions to IPTV services through Boom] but they have the right to subpoena Google and PayPal."
The $15,000 to get started is, well, just that. The GoFundMe currently has a target of $250,000 but whether that sizeable amount will cover the costs of lengthy litigation is up for debate. Nevertheless, Henderson says that by biting back, he can stop DISH from getting his customers' details and sending them demands for cash settlements for alleged piracy.
"What they've done with these cookie-cutter lawsuits is that they've turned them into a stream of revenue for themselves. This isn't really about fucking lawsuits and protecting anything at this point, it's about getting information to send you a fucking letter demanding $3,500, which is what they've been doing with everyone.
"Everyone has settled, no one has taken them to trial, so it's going to be interesting to see how it unfolds," he says.
Henderson acknowledges that the legal process is going to cost "a shit-load of money" but if people don't want to support him, "that's fine". However, he warns that these types of cases can set a precedent and handing over the information is something he wants to avoid, to protect everyone in the supply and consumption chain.
"I think I have some valid points why they shouldn't be able to get that information at all. That's really all there is to it, I'm asking for support. I think resellers across the fucking globe should be jumping on this because whatever happens to me, does affect you because now they can say 'we got this from Boom Media', this is the way it worked out, now you must settle," he adds.
Henderson believes that IPTV providers themselves should also take an interest in a successful outcome to the case because if resellers are no longer a legal target, they won't have any reason to give up information on their suppliers.
"The only reason that people are getting snitched on is because resellers are pussies, I mean that's just the way it is," he claims.
Boom Media: We need $250,000 to fight DISH lawsuit
"I have [the GoFundMe] up for $250,000. I know that when TVAddons was going through this, that's pretty much how it went. They just bled them dry," Henderson says.
While TVAddons did have a huge legal dispute with DISH that undoubtedly cost founder Adam Lackman a lot of money, Lackman insists that he never handed over his users' data to DISH. That suggests there may be a way out of Henderson's situation without compromising his suppliers and former customers but only time will tell if a jury trial can deliver the type of victory that avoids that.
If it even gets that far, that is.
While a quarter of a million dollars is a significant sum, Henderson fully expects to face tactics designed to break his ability to fight back. Already he claims that DISH is attempting to get a gag order to prevent him from telling the world "what garbage they are for suing an innocent woman, my mother, knowing goddamn well she had nothing to do with anything."
Until he gets served with a gag order, however, he's not shutting up at all, he insists. Meanwhile, he says that DISH is generating money from a "stupid tax", a reference to all the IPTV and IKS (Internet Key Sharing) users to whom DISH sends letters and receives settlements in return.
The fundraiser's goals
"They [DISH] want everything from me. They want my soul, they want all the information, they want me to roll on everyone, which isn't even really possible but I'm not gonna do it," Henderson adds.
"I'm fully prepared to go to war over this shit but I'm gonna need financial help. Obviously, everyone knows I'm out of business, that's the way it is. I'm not a millionaire, I'm not a billionaire, I'm barely a thousandaire."
Henderson doesn't provide any proof, but claims that Vader Streams – a pirate IPTV provider that was targeted by the MPA-backed Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment earlier this year, "snitched on everyone, they snitched and they rolled over and they gave up everything." Prior to the settlement agreement, Vader said it would not compromise customers.
Henderson says he doesn't want to go down the disclosure route but DISH is on record wanting Boom Media to do just that. In addition to a permanent injunction against the company, it wants Boom's domain name plus "all hard copy and electronic records" regarding persons involved in the entire "Rebroadcasting Scheme".
At the time of writing, the GoFundMe has raised $700 of its $250,000 target.
The original complaint against Boom Media can be found here (pdf)
There are plenty of options for copyright holders to frustrate the operations of pirate sites, but one of the most effective is to attack their domain names.
In recent years, various entertainment industry groups have called on the domain name industry to help out on this front.
As a result, the MPAA signed a landmark agreement with the Donuts registry under which the movie industry group acts as a "trusted notifier" of "pirate" domains. A similar deal was later announced with the Radix registry.
Not all registrars and registries are welcoming these types of voluntary actions. The Public Interest Registry (PIR), which oversees the registrations of .org domains, was previously asked by the RIAA to suspend The Pirate Bay's domain name. However, the organization chose not to do so.
Many registrars and registries don't like the idea of acting as "content police." Instead, they prefer these matters to be handled through the courts instead. This is one of the main reasons why The Pirate Bay, after more than 15 years, is still accessible on its .org domain.
Ironically, the infamous torrent site moved to over a dozen other domains in the past, fearing a .org domain seizure. However, while many other the other domains were suspended or taken by court order, thepiratebay.org stands tall.
The question is whether things will remain this way, as PIR is in the process of being sold to private equity firm Ethos Capital. At the moment, PIR is part of the Internet Society, which is critical of stringent copyright policies, but its new owner may see things differently.
Possible policy changes are also a concern many organizations and groups have. A few days ago, EFF, Wikimedia, Internet Archive, Creative Commons, Demand Progress, and several others, sent a letter to Internet Society President Andrew Sullivan, urging him to stop the sale.
The groups are concerned that Ethos may raise domain name prices and that it will implement rights protection mechanisms. In addition, they caution that domain names could be suspended for alleged illegal activity, without any judicial oversight.
Ethos will have "the power to implement processes to suspend domain names based on accusations of 'activity contrary to applicable law'," the letter reads.
The organizations are concerned that this will put NGOs at risk. However, the same issues are very relevant for The Pirate Bay as well. After all, that will be one of the prime candidates for a voluntary domain name suspension.
Thus far there is no indication that Ethos has any plans to do so. However, if we look closely at the company we do notice something worth sharing. Erik Brooks, the founder and CEO of Ethos Capital, served (or serves) on the board of the Donuts registry.
Yes, that's the same Donuts the MPAA has an agreement with to suspend copyright-infringing domains. Brooks joined the board after that deal was struck, but it's an interesting observation nonetheless.
TorrentFreak reached out to both the Internet Society and Ethos Capital for further details but at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back.
We doubt that The Pirate Bay is worried about any of this. While it may become more likely that they'll lose their original .org domain sometime in the future, the site always has alternatives ready. We have little doubt that they still have a few lined up, just in case.
In the months leading up to the now infamous raid on Kim Dotcom's New Zealand mansion and his cloud storage site Megaupload, the entrepreneur and his associates were under surveillance.
Between December 2011 and March 2012, New Zealand authorities used the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) spy agency to snoop on the private communications of Kim and former wife Mona Dotcom, plus Megaupload co-defendant Bram van der Kolk.
Since the GCSB is forbidden from conducting surveillance on New Zealand citizens or permanent residents in the country, the spying carried out against Dotcom was illegal. The GCSB admitted liability and will at some point pay damages, but Dotcom also demanded access to the recordings.
In 2017, however, the High Court rejected Dotcom's access request, stating that the release of the intercepted communications would not take place. Citing security concerns, the Court said that the public interest in not disclosing the information outweighed the benefits of disclosure.
This denial triggered a claim by Dotcom to the Court of Appeal. The result of that process is now in and it's more bad news for the Megaupload founder.
"The intercepted communications are relevant, and there is a public interest in them being disclosed so they may be put to use in and for purposes of this proceeding. Natural justice and open justice are the two dimensions to the public interest in favor of disclosure," a Court of Appeal statement reads.
However, the Court believes that disclosure is not absolutely necessary for justice to be done in this particular case. Furthermore, it must also weigh the broader public interest and potential fallout that could harm national security, if the GCSB's methods are compromised.
"The GCSB has admitted liability; what is in issue is the quantum of damages for dignitary losses. Summaries of information already disclosed will permit a fair trial in this case. The GCSB's claim that disclosure would harm national security and international relations is well-founded. The balancing exercise favors non-disclosure," the Court concludes.
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