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Movie, TV and sports giants sue Web operator

PITTSBURGH: Ten Hollywood film studios, three television networks and two professional sports leagues asked a federal judge on Friday to shut down a Canadian company they say is illegally broadcasting copyrighted TV shows over the Internet, lawyers said.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs who recently filed suit in U.S. District Court against iCraveTV.com crowded into the chambers of Judge Donald Ziegler to demand a restraining order that would stop the Web site from using their programmes until next month.

There was no immediate word on whether the judge would agree to the request. Ziegler already has scheduled a Feb. 8 hearing to decide whether to issue an injunction against the Internet operator.

Movie studios including Twentieth Century Fox and Disney DIS.N joined forces with the ABC, CBS and Fox networks in hopes of putting an end to what they called "one of the largest and most brazen thefts of intellectual property ever committed in the United States."

The National Football League, the National Basketball Association and NBA Properties also have sued in a separate but similar legal action.

The defendants are William Craig, the former Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh general manager who runs the Web site, and his business partner George Simons. Neither could be reached for comment Friday.

Their site bills itself as the worldÕs first 24-hour-a-day free Internet television company.

But the film studios, TV networks and sports leagues allege in their lawsuits that the Web site is stealing trademarked property Ñ including shows like "Frasier" and "Ally McBeal" Ñ and offering them in cyberspace to sell advertising.

iCraveTV allegedly obtains its sports and entertainment programming by picking up broadcasts from 17 television stations in Buffalo, New York and Toronto, and converting the programming into digital Web broadcasts.

The plaintiffs allege that Craig, who once served as development director of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team, moved to Canada in order to start the business. They want the practice stopped and are seeking damages of $150,000 for each programme allegedly pirated by iCraveTV.ÑReuters