ABS-CBN Corp. said Wednesday it filed a $5-million lawsuit against a Canada-based company for copyright infringement.
The broadcast network, led by the Lopez family, said it served a statement of claim issued in Canadian Federal Court against Techspeed Canada Inc., Joe Baddas, Ferdinand Molina and Todd Ross for damages of over $5 million for copyright infringement, trademark infringement and enabling and inducing copyright infringement of ABS-CBN’s copyrighted works.
The lawsuit alleged that Techspeed Canada, Baddas, Molina and Ross sold set-top boxes that enabled buyers to access hundreds of ABS-CBN’s copyrighted movies and TV shows.
“ABS-CBN alleges that Techspeed Canada Inc., Joe Baddas, Ferdinand Molina and Todd Ross were taking advantage of ABS-CBN’s premium subscription service through its digital platform, TFC.tv, by registering over 78 emails and distributing the usernames and passwords to hundreds of customers,” ABS-CBN’s assistant vice president and head of global anti-piracy Elisha Lawrence said.
“These customers were participating in this illegal activity by paying the Techspeed group and giving access to their credit card information,” Lawrence said.