Man Ordered to Pay Studios for Piracy
A federal judge in Los Angeles has ordered Malaysian businessman Tan Soo Leong and his California-based company, MasterSurf Inc., to pay $23.8 million to the major Hollywood studios for online piracy. Without the studios’ permission, Leong operated a website, Film88.com, that let users watch hundreds of hit movies and classic television programs online for $1 per viewing.
Leong and MasterSurf never put up a defense against the lawsuit, and it’s not clear how the studios will collect the judgment. Based in Iran and the Netherlands, Film88.com operated briefly in 2002 before Dutch anti-piracy officials seized the computers on which the movies and TV programs were stored.
Jon Healey
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