Seminole company sued by media conglomerates for piracy
SEMINOLE (FOX 13) - A company in Seminole is being accused of stealing from the biggest media conglomerates in the world.
"Set TV Now: offers almost-unlimited TV channels and streaming shows for $20 a month. But now the Motion Picture Association of America is insisting they pay up and shut down.
The website for the service is flashy, with promises of hundreds of the most famous channels, on-demand entertainment, and easy-to-use technology.
"If you are not really looking that far as a consumer, you look at the website, you think hey this is an interesting service," said Jon Van Voorn, the MPAA's chief of global content protection.
The street address listed for their principal office is a UPS store on Park Boulevard in Seminole.
"It is not super-difficult to set things like this up," continued Van Voorn. "You basically need a server to host this content on."
A 20-page lawsuit -- filed in federal court on Friday by FOX, Amazon, Columbia, Disney, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. -- is demanding Set TV Now be shut down.
One of their operators, Jason Labossiere wasn't home. Their registered agent, lawyer Michael Faehner, wasn't in his office, nor did he return a call and email. A chat agent on setvnow.com said it was legal with a smiley face. But further questions were directed to an email address, to which we got no response.
"This is just an illegal operation," said Van Voorn.
The lawsuit is demanding $150,000 per show stolen, plus that the site be shut down.
The MPAA says there are numerous services like Set TV Now, including one run by a couple arrested last month in Hudson for promising "free TV for life."
The MPAA says they deprive real content producers of their jobs.
"This is a big deal," added Van Voorn. "This undermines legitimate platforms and legitimate TV stations."
The MPAA says there are 2 million site visits per month, but it's hard to know how many actually join.
The MPAA says a similar site that was open in Britain got about $125,000 subscribers in a year, the same length of time the MPAA says Set TV has been open for.