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Netflix, Amazon, and Hollywood Studios Shut Down Dragon Box (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the piracy-enabling-services dept.

The entertainment industry has shut down Dragon Media Inc.'s "Dragon Box" device, which connects to TVs and lets users watch video without a cable TV or streaming service subscription. According to Ars Technica, the company has "agreed to shut down the Dragon Box services and pay $14.5 million in damages to plaintiffs from the entertainment industry." From the report: Dragon Media was sued in January 2018 by Netflix, Amazon, Columbia Pictures, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. Dragon Media's lawyer initially predicted that the lawsuit would backfire on the entertainment industry, but the Dragon Box maker must have decided it had little chance of winning at trial. The plaintiffs and defendant filed a proposed settlement Monday at U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The settlement requires Dragon Media to "cease all operation of the Dragon Box system" and related services within five days. Under the settlement, "[j]udgment shall be entered against Defendants and in favor of Plaintiffs on Plaintiffs' claims of copyright infringement, and damages shall be awarded to Plaintiffs in the amount of U.S. $14,500,000," the document says. Dragon Media, Dragon Media owner Paul Christoforo, and reseller Jeff Williams "[s]hall be further enjoined from operating any website, system, software, or service that is substantially similar to the Dragon Box service," the settlement says. The settlement also prohibits the defendants from making its source code or other technology available to others.

8 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. What was this? by jwhyche · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Was this just another box that streams torrents off the net and pretends that it was legal?

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    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    1. Re: What was this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It was legal, thatâ(TM)s the problem

    2. Re:What was this? by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure they where that clueless. Their business motto was probably along the lines of, "Lets toss this out there and milk the masses for as much free money as we can before they shut us down." I doubt any one, other than those that bought it, though that this was legal.

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  2. It Was Far More Than A Torrent Streamer by dryriver · · Score: 5, Funny

    Designed by Bruce Lee before his death, and kept in a secret vault since, Dragon Box was capable of turning Hollywood films with American actors into Chinese films with Chinese actors. Its a shame they shut it down. Rumors are that Ghandi, before his death, also designed a similar box. This one turns Hollywood movies into Bollywood action movies as you watch them. Look what the box does to a typical Woody Allen film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

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    1. Re:It Was Far More Than A Torrent Streamer by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      Indeed it was. That was probably one of the best bitch slaps I've seen on film. I will have to think about giving Bollywood movies a better chance. I really couldn't take that fight scene seriously, but I have the feeling that I wasn't supposed too. That being said I was far more entertained watching that few minutes that all the Hollywood dreck that has come out last year.

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  3. Second Verse Same As The First by DeWayneDurrett · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is similar to Kodi, and how they tried to shut Kodi boxes down. Like a hydra this will multiply.

  4. Re:Settle this? by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's no indication that anyone at DB actually believed they could win. You can't take a lawyer's public statement as representative of what he's saying to his client or what the client himself thinks.

    If I were to hazard a guess, I suspect the people behind this were gambling that they could fly under the radar screen long enough to make a quick buck then close up shop. It's not like it takes a lot of up front investment to throw open source software onto a commodity set top box and then point it at some servers tracking pirated content.

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  5. summary sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The entertainment industry has shut down Dragon Media Inc.'s "Dragon Box" device, which connects to TVs and lets users watch video without a cable TV or streaming service subscription.

    Every PC that has been connected to a TV has let the users watch video without a cable TV or streaming service subscription.

    Your summary sucks slashdot.