The “Nitro TV” IPTV Service Has Been Shut Down by the California District Court
Last updated May 13, 2020
- Nitro TV has been taken down by its registrar after a US Court Judge ordered a permanent injunction.
- The defendants didn’t appear in court to produce anything that would oppose the accusations they face.
- It is likely that we’ll see the pirate IPTV service reappear through another domain, but for now, it’s shut down.
Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the US District Court of California has decided to approve the permanent injunction request that was submitted against the “Nitro TV” IPTV platform by Columbia Pictures. The online service is accused of facilitating, promoting, and accommodating piracy, infringing the copyrights of a large number of holders by broadcasting thousands of movies and TV shows to its subscribers without having a license to do so. The service was charging $20 per month, offering support for two devices. Now, the website is down, and the 45,000 people who were illegally consuming content through Nitro TV were left hanging.
We covered the news about the lawsuit back in April when the plaintiffs requested the Californian court to consider approving a permanent injunction, as well as statutory damages that were set to $150,000 per infringed work. The operator of Nitro TV was identified as “Alejandro Galindo,” while up to twenty “Does” were included in the copyright infringement complaint as well. The judge has approved the request for ordering a preliminary injunction, so the Namecheap and Domain.com registrars were ordered to take down the “TekkHosting.com” and the “NitroIPTV.com” domains.
Furthermore, these domains shall not be modified, sold, deleted, or transferred to another owner. This is done to help prevent the resurgence of the same pirate brand via a different entity, operator, or owner. The California judge has found that the balance of equities tips strongly in the plaintiffs’ favor, with all factors advocating the support of the requests. On the other side, Alejandro Galindo has produced no evidence to back his case or to defend against the accusations. So, this is the end of the road for the domains - but will it be a “game over” for the service?
We could see Nitro TV emerge on a different but similar domain, as the original operator and the “Does” are still free to do as they please. That is at least as long as they stay far from the law enforcement authorities’ reach. Yesterday, TorrentFreak reported the resurrection of the seemingly dead “Nites.tv” to the “Nites.is” domain. The new platform uses the exact same website theming and brand, so the operators of the original platform are likely behind the recent launch as well. Of course, ACE, MPA, and the rightsholders that stand behind these organizations will keep on fighting any reincarnations, and the sooner they manage to take them down, the fewer the chances of them getting a firm grasp of the piracy community.
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