Bill Omar Carrasquillo, the creator of Nitro TV, could be fined 350 million dollars by American justice.
It is a historic trial that is opening in the United States. Bill Omar Carrasquillo, better known in the business under his pseudonym “Omi in a Hellcat”, was arrested in 2019 after a police raid on his home. The man was the creator of the IPTV Nitro TV, one of the most popular IPTV offers in the market in 2019. He is suspected of having generated millions of dollars in profits with his illegal activities.
In 2021, the creator of Nitro TV was sued by DISH, Sling and Nagrastar. The three actors were seeking more than $100 million in damages – a “tiny” portion of what Nitro TV would have caused them to lose, according to the plaintiffs.
A second legal action was launched in parallel for the violation of 1897 cinematographic works, protected by copyright. Several films and series are cited as examples, including The Office, SpiderMan: Homecoming, Toy Story 3 and Star Trek Beyond. The damage is estimated this time at $150,000 per pirated work, for a total of $250 million. Which would bring the total slate to $350 million.
The various companies that are suing the creator of Nitro TV seem determined to make Bill Omar Carrasquillo an example. The piracy of television channels and cinematographic works represents a major infringement of copyright. Increasingly popular IPTV traffic generates hundreds of millions of dollars per year. A completely illegal market which today worries the majors of the cinema more than “classic” piracy on the Internet.