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Simpsons, Family Guy pirate must pay Fox $10.5 million

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 05 Jan 2014 11:24 User comments (17)

Simpsons, Family Guy pirate must pay Fox $10.5 million A Canadian man who was accused of running streaming websites allowing users to watch "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" illegally online, has been fined $10.5 million in statutory and punitive damages.
The websites, "Watch The Simpsons Online (WTOS)" and "Watch Family Guy Online," launched in 2008 and lets visitors stream the shows via embedded media players using external video sources including Megavideo and other. The sites did not host the infringing content but made it easier to access.

Altogether, the sites saw about 87 million visitors and had drawn the ire of Fox, the MPAA, WIPO and more. In October 2013, Fox filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in Canada, and the site's admin had his house raided later that month. The site admin could not afford to try the case against Fox and the case was resolved in his absence.



"The Judgment awards $10 million [CAD] for statutory damages, $500,000 for punitive damages and fixed/assessed solicitor client costs of $78.573.25 (in addition to an earlier cost award of $107,665.55)," read a statement from Fox's attorneys (via TorrentFreak).

"The significant judgement in this case points up the risk courted by those who engage in internet piracy, in particular for commercial purposes. The Federal Court considers that such activities warrant significant assessments of statutory damages, in this case $13,888.88 per work infringed, and that such misconduct is also deserving of substantial awards of punitive damages to achieve the goal of punishment and deterrence of the offense of copyright infringement."

The admin has filed for bankruptcy but says Fox continues to press for the money while hounding him and his family: "Fox are pursing for the money and they are doing so as hard as they possibly can. They've ruined my life and continue to do so as long as they don't leave me and my family alone. As it's been referenced by a lawyer: 'they are killing a fly with a nuke.'"

"This experience was the worst thing I could possibly imagine, Fox takes no mercy when destroying your life as you once knew it and then begins to drag your new life down as much as possible as well. I don't wish this upon anyone and simply wish the dinosaurs would just give their consumers what they want -- which is to be able to stream their videos online easy, fast, worldwide."

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17 user comments

15.1.2014 12:17

What about this site of his did not think he was going to be painted a target from all the previous lawsuits that would have been in the news.

26.1.2014 04:34

If he doesn't have the money and can't get the money fox isn't getting paid.

36.1.2014 10:06

Particularly funny if you saw the Simpsons episode last night.

46.1.2014 13:45

The idio-t said that Fox ruined his life. Fox didn't ruin his life. He did.

But, since you can't get blood out of a turnip, Fox should focus on trying to get a dollar from each of the 87 million people who illegally streamed the video. (Sarcasm intended.)

56.1.2014 14:20

he streamed a few tv shows i don't think thats worth 10 million dollars.
I should make a tv show copyright it then sue everyone that distributes illegally for millions.doesn't even have to be a good show.

either way if he can't pay his possessions may be taken away and sold and he may do prison time,if he gets imprisoned the fines will be payable by the government not by him.

66.1.2014 16:15

fines are not payable by the government.

77.1.2014 03:54

Originally posted by ddp:
fines are not payable by the government.
so what happens if he can't pay and all his stuff is sold and he still can't pay.

87.1.2014 10:04

Originally posted by xboxdvl2:
he streamed a few tv shows i don't think thats worth 10 million dollars.

Had he even bothered to show up for his trial, he wouldn't have been fined that much.

How can he claim he didn't have the money to do so? It wouldn't have cost him a penny to walk in to court and defend himself. Sure, he still would have lost his case, but at least then he could have laid out his financial situation to the judge who then could have given him a more appropriate fine and costs.

But no, he didn't even bother to do that. Being that lazy, he received his just deserves.

97.1.2014 11:18

Originally posted by xboxdvl2:
Originally posted by ddp:
fines are not payable by the government.
so what happens if he can't pay and all his stuff is sold and he still can't pay.
Nothing. I'm sure they will circle like vultures picking every crumb he ever does get but they'll never see that money. Lucky for him we don't have debtor's prisons.

107.1.2014 12:22

Originally posted by xboxdvl2:
Originally posted by ddp:
fines are not payable by the government.
so what happens if he can't pay and all his stuff is sold and he still can't pay.
He'll have to pay until the day he dies. Bankruptcy does not clear him of his court-ordered repayment.

And then, when he does die, if he happens to own anything then that too will be auctioned off towards his debt. He couldn't "will" anything to others without his fine being paid off first.

Right now he'd be better off just moving to another country and starting over.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 07 Jan 2014 @ 12:23

118.1.2014 14:46

People need to understand that the whole system is a freeky rolled scam.
And plea No-guilty til the end of time, even if they guilty. The big pay-off is save money, time, etc. in your pocket in stead of give it much to them (Corporations-Govts. MAFIA).

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 08 Jan 2014 @ 2:51

128.1.2014 21:20

Originally posted by bhetrick:
Originally posted by xboxdvl2:
Originally posted by ddp:
fines are not payable by the government.
so what happens if he can't pay and all his stuff is sold and he still can't pay.
He'll have to pay until the day he dies. Bankruptcy does not clear him of his court-ordered repayment.

And then, when he does die, if he happens to own anything then that too will be auctioned off towards his debt. He couldn't "will" anything to others without his fine being paid off first.

Right now he'd be better off just moving to another country and starting over.
he could just sell everything he owns to a m8 for say $1 then he doesn't own anything,anything he gets he sell to a m8 again,he could even have income put in someone elses bank so they can't touch it.

personally if i got sued for a rediculous amount and counldn't fight it my stuff would be given away to family or friends for a very small fee or if that wasn't an option it would be going in a skip with petrol and burnt rather than sold to pay off debt.

138.1.2014 23:27

I guess he was asking for it to some degree.

Still, the extent of the fine show how much the courts are corrupted.

There's the case of Alan Bond in Oz. Remember he won the America's Cup? Went to court over something involving BILLIONS of other peoples money. Got told to pay 0.5 (or less) cents to the dollar (he never has). Had a whole lot of stuff in his wife's name. Went to jail for a couple of years... cleared... now he's out making dodgy deals again and living the life of Riley.

No life sentence there.

149.1.2014 00:01

Originally posted by Jemborg:
I guess he was asking for it to some degree.

Still, the extent of the fine show how much the courts are corrupted.

There's the case of Alan Bond in Oz. Remember he won the America's Cup? Went to court over something involving BILLIONS of other peoples money. Got told to pay 0.5 (or less) cents to the dollar (he never has). Had a whole lot of stuff in his wife's name. Went to jail for a couple of years... cleared... now he's out making dodgy deals again and living the life of Riley.

No life sentence there.
i had to google alan bond as i wasn't familiar with his shady dealings,read his wikipedia page.i was only a baby in the 80s and growing up plus my family had just immigrated to australia so didn't see all the news back then.

159.1.2014 11:25

Originally posted by xboxdvl2:


he could just sell everything he owns to a m8 for say $1 then he doesn't own anything,anything he gets he sell to a m8 again,he could even have income put in someone elses bank so they can't touch it.

personally if i got sued for a rediculous amount and counldn't fight it my stuff would be given away to family or friends for a very small fee or if that wasn't an option it would be going in a skip with petrol and burnt rather than sold to pay off debt.
Yeah...in the USA at least they would watch for you selling stuff off cheap. They would be able to get it back and I think the burning it instead angle would get you some jail time. Once they sue you they kinda got you by the balls. IE the periodic issue OJ Simpson goes through any time they think he gets some money.

Just for the record I am not defending anyone trying to hide money they rightfully or not owe due to a judgment.

169.1.2014 21:20

Originally posted by dEwMe:
Particularly funny if you saw the Simpsons episode last night.
Yes, VERY ironic.

Though it focuses on the movie industry. There's a definite remark concerning the over-reaction.

1711.1.2014 19:09

we do have debtors prison. Look at all of the people the IRS have put in prison because people would not pay tthe IRS was wanting to steal from them

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