‘Illicit’ Streaming Service, IPGuys, Pirates Dish Signal, Alleges Brooklyn Complaint

Dish Network seeks to shut down what it calls an “illicit” streaming service called IPGuys for allegedly retransmitting Dish programming without authorization, violating the Communications Act. Dish traced the unauthorized programming to at least seven “seeder accounts,” each created “with what appears to be false or inaccurate information,” said a complaint Wednesday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. A valid “device code” is required to watch Dish on IPGuys, which sells the codes for $15 monthly through “a network of resellers,” said the complaint. The codes are “compatible with various set-top boxes,” it said. The complaint alleged Ottawa resident Tomasz Kaczmarek is the IPGuys ringleader and that John and Julia Defoe, a Brooklyn couple, are his co-conspirators. Dish hopes through discovery to learn the identities of “potentially other responsible parties,” it said. Attempts to locate the defendants' lawyers for comment were unsuccessful. It's the second known legal crackdown in recent weeks of allegedly illicit streaming services for pirating Dish programming (see 1908010016).