ABS-CBN files raps vs int’l firm

ABS-CBN says they formally filed a complaint against a certain Texas resident Anthony Brown and his company 1700 Cuts Technical seeking damages over $4 million for copyright infringement.

Local network giant ABS-CBN on Thursday announced that it has filed a complaint in a U.S. Federal Court in the Southern District of Texas against an international firm for allegedly pirating the network’s content and trademark.

In a statement, ABS-CBN said they formally filed a complaint against a certain Texas resident Anthony Brown and his company 1700 Cuts Technical seeking damages over $4 million for copyright infringement.

The lawsuit alleges that Brown promoted and sold modified illegal set-top boxes via various Facebook pages operated by Brown and his firm and the network noted that accused enabled buyers to access ABS-CBN’s live programming without paying the appropriate fees for such services.

The Facebook pages used to promote the illegal set-top boxes included two personal profile pages and a business page for “Lifeforgreatness.”

ABS-CBN AVP & Head of Global Anti-Piracy Elisha Lawrence also warned the public of operations that are not licensed or affiliated in any way with the network.

“We will continue to protect customers by shutting these operations down. The only genuine ABS-CBN internet subscription services are TFC on cable and satellite, IPTV and TFC.tv,” Lawrence said.

For his part, ABS-CBN Managing Director for North and Latin America Jun Del Rosario said they will protect their content so that the team of creative and technical people will be rightfully acknowledged and compensated for their work.

“What these pirates do is rob from this ecosystem of content creators, pretend to own the content, and scam customers by making money off that content. ABS-CBN is committed to stopping them and bringing them to justice,” Del Rosario said.