Adam Lackman of TV Addons and Shahjahan Durrani the developer behind 3rd party Kodi addon Zem TV are seeking to have a lawsuit by Dish Network thrown out of a Texas Federal court due to the fact that neither of the defendants live in the US.
While the defendants may hope to make such an argument there is precedence to sue people who live outside of the State of Texas. According to Nolo.com a business defendant who lives outside of a state can be sued if:
- A business with its headquarters in another state maintains a branch office, store, or warehouse in the state in which the suit is filed.
- A business with its headquarters in another state sends mail order catalogs into the state in which the suit is filed.
- An individual who is a citizen of another state solicits business by making phone calls to customers or publishing advertisements in the state in which the suit is filed.
- An Internet service provider that is a citizen of another state does business with paid subscribers or takes online orders from customers in the state in which the case is filed.
If Dish Network has evidence that TV Addons has reached out to citizens of Texas in any way they may already have the legal standing to bring the suit. You would have to wonder if the court itself would have allowed the suit to even proceed to this point if it were on shaky ground legally in the first place.
For info more specific to International defendants see here.
TV Addons has been attempting to claim total ignorance as far as its understanding of what they have been accused of. TV Addons has for years been distributing and advertising 3rd party add-ons that link to copyrighted content claiming regularly that the apps they were promoting are totally legal because the content is streamed and that the apps do not host content etc. Yet the entertainment industry has been growing wise to this sort of angle. As court cases continue to be filled across the globe judges are beginning to see through such arguments such as the ruling by the EU Court of Justice concerning a streaming box being marketed under the name ‘filmspeler’. TV Addon’s claims to have had no knowledge that the addon’s they marketed every day through posts like this had anything to do with copyrighted material.
The evidence of their actions has pilled up for 6 years and its there for all to see. We will see if the latest attempt to get out of trouble works, but if it continues to act with hubris it will be brought down by some operation soon enough.
