Suit Seeks to Stop ‘Illicit’ Streaming Service From Using Stolen Dish, Sling Content

Vaneet Sharma and his company, Astro Vastu Solutions, are trafficking in an “illicit” internet streaming television service called Sharma IPTV using Dish Network and Sling TV channels that are retransmitted without authorization to users that purchase the Sharma service, alleged Dish and Sling in a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00961) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Identifiers that are unique to Dish’s internet transmissions of its channels “were detected when conducting a technical analysis of the corresponding channels” on the Sharma service, said the complaint. The analysis confirmed that channels retransmitted on the service originated from Dish and Sling, it said. Sling’s logo was also "observed on certain channels" retransmitted on the service, “further proof” that the Dish and Sling channels were used to “seed” the service with unauthorized content, it said. Sharma was notified that he must cease providing the service because it infringes Dish’s and Sling’s rights, but he “failed to comply,” said the complaint. Sharma admitted that he won’t stop providing the service because the profits that he receives from the service “are too good to stop,” it said. He told Dish and Sling that if they prosecute a DMCA case against him, he'll simply blame his ex-wife for running the Sharma service under his name, said the complaint.