DISH NETWORK L.L.C. v. VIRTUAL SYSTEMS LLC, et al.

CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedNovember 12, 2025
Docket2:24-cv-01683
StatusUnknown

This text of DISH NETWORK L.L.C. v. VIRTUAL SYSTEMS LLC, et al. (DISH NETWORK L.L.C. v. VIRTUAL SYSTEMS LLC, et al.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
DISH NETWORK L.L.C. v. VIRTUAL SYSTEMS LLC, et al., (W.D. Wash. 2025).

Opinion

1 The Honorable Barbara J. Rothstein

5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 6 AT SEATTLE

7 NO. 24-cv-1683-BJR DISH NETWORK L.L.C., 8 ORDER GRANTING DEFAULT Plaintiff, JUDGMENT 9 v. 10 VIRTUAL SYSTEMS LLC, et al., 11 Defendants. 12

13 I. INTRODUCTION 14 Plaintiff, DISH Network L.L.C., sued a Ukraine company, Virtual Systems, LLC, and its 15 owner and CEO, Vyacheslav Smyrnov, for copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501. Compl., 16 ECF No. 1. Defendants were served in accordance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(1), 17 which authorizes service under the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and 18 Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, Nov. 15, 1965, 20 U.S.T. 361, 658 19 U.N.T.S. 163 (“Hague Convention”). See Proof of Service, ECF Nos. 11-12. Defendants neither 20 responded nor appeared, and on July 1, 2025, the Clerk’s Entry of Default was filed. ECF No. 18. 21 Now pending before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for Default Judgment Against Defendants, ECF 22 No. 19, to which there has been no response. Having reviewed the materials, the record of the case, 23

24 ORDER GRANTING DEFAULT JUDGMENT 1 and the relevant legal authorities, the Court will grant the motion. The reasoning for the Court’s 2 decision follows. 3 II. BACKGROUND 4 DISH Network L.L.C. is one of the largest pay-tv providers in the United States. Compl. ¶ 5 1. It has millions of subscribers nationwide and holds copyrights in programming (“the DISH 6 Copyrighted Works”) that aired on 23 international channels that DISH exclusively licensed for 7 transmission in the United States (“the Channels”). Id. Virtual Systems, LLC is a hosting services 8 provider1 with a data center in Seattle, Washington. Id. ¶¶ 3, 10, 25. 9 Without DISH’s authorization, the DISH Copyrighted Works were transmitted on pirate 10 streaming services to users of those services in the United States. Id. ¶ 3. DISH alleges that the 11 pirate streaming services were able to illegally transmit the DISH Copyrighted Works by using a 12 network and servers provided by Virtual Systems, which openly advertises that it does not comply 13 with—and does not require its customers to comply with—United States copyright law. Id. DISH 14 made hundreds of requests to Virtual Systems to stop the infringement by pirate streaming services, 15 but, according to DISH, Virtual Systems refused to take simple measures that would stop the 16 infringement. Id. ¶ 4. DISH has also notified the pirate streaming services of their infringement 17 multiple times and was awarded a judgment and permanent injunction against parties located 18 abroad that were involved in operating at least three of the pirate streaming services. Id. ¶ 24. 19 However, despite being enjoined, the pirate streaming services have continued to use Virtual 20 Systems’ servers and networks to infringe DISH’s copyrights. Id. 21

22 1 A hosting services provider is a company that provides computer infrastructure connected to the internet, offering 23 individuals or organizations the ability to deliver online content such as websites or media streaming services.

24 ORDER GRANTING DEFAULT JUDGMENT 1 Virtual Systems charges customers to use its servers and network and provides additional 2 services for a fee, such as storage and software to enable high-speed streaming services. Id. ¶¶ 26- 3 27. According to DISH, Virtual Systems appeals to streaming services that violate United States 4 copyright law by promoting in its Ukraine data center that it “ignore[s] DMCA2 takedown notices.” 5 Id. ¶ 31. Similarly in Seattle, it states that “all DMCA notices we receive are processed by our legal 6 team, but we do act courteously towards our valued clients, who might be having occasional issues 7 with copyrights.” Id. Virtual Systems also encourages the pirate streaming services to keep their 8 identities anonymous and undiscoverable. Id. ¶¶ 38-39. 9 DISH alleges that Virtual Systems and its owner, Smyrnov, received at least 512 10 Infringement Notices delivered by mail and email, but they did not respond, nor did they comply 11 with court orders enjoining Virtual Systems from providing its servers and network to certain pirate

12 streaming services. Id. ¶¶ 33-36. DISH filed this lawsuit on October 15, 2024, asserting three claims 13 of willful secondary copyright infringement3 under 17 U.S.C. § 501: Count I – Materially 14 Contributing to Copyright Infringement; Count II – Inducing Copyright Infringement; and Count 15 III – Vicarious Copyright Infringement. Compl. ¶¶ 45-69. DISH seeks a permanent injunction and 16 damages, including statutory damages up to $150,000 for each registered work infringed. See Mot. 17 15, ECF No. 19. 18 III. LEGAL STANDARD 19 Obtaining a default judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 55 is a two-step 20 process. First, a plaintiff must request that the Clerk of the Court enter a default against the party 21

22 2 Referring to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), 17 U.S.C. § 512. 3 Secondary copyright infringement is a form of indirect or vicarious infringement, which occurs when someone helps or encourages another person to illegally copy or use copyrighted material. See INFRINGEMENT, Black’s Law 23 Dictionary (12th ed. 2024).

24 ORDER GRANTING DEFAULT JUDGMENT 1 who has “failed to plead or otherwise defend” against an action. Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(a). Once default 2 has been entered, the plaintiff may move for default judgment. Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(b). 3 In deciding motions for default judgment, courts take “the well-pleaded factual allegations 4 in the complaint as true, except those relating to the amount of damages.” Rozario v. Richards, 5 687 F. App’x 568, 569 (9th Cir. 2017) (citations omitted); Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(b)(6). “Plaintiff must 6 support a motion for default judgment with a declaration and other evidence establishing plaintiff’s 7 entitlement to a sum certain and to any nonmonetary relief sought.” LCR 55(b)(2). Courts also do 8 not accept the truth of statements in the complaint that amount to legal conclusions. DIRECTV, 9 Inc. v. Hoa Huynh, 503 F.3d 847, 854 (9th Cir. 2007). “[N]ecessary facts not contained in the 10 pleadings, and claims which are legally insufficient, are not established by default.” Cripps v. Life 11 Ins. Co. of N. Am., 980 F.2d 1261, 1267 (9th Cir. 1992) (superseded by statute on other grounds,

12 Pub. L. No. 100-702, 102 Stat. 4669). 13 It is in the court’s discretion to grant or deny a motion for default judgment; however, default 14 is disfavored. NewGen, LLC v. Safe Cig, LLC, 840 F.3d 606, 616 (9th Cir. 2016). “Cases should be 15 decided upon their merits whenever reasonably possible.” Id. (quoting Eitel v. McCool, 782 F.2d 16 1470, 1472 (9th Cir. 1986)).

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DISH NETWORK L.L.C. v. VIRTUAL SYSTEMS LLC, et al., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dish-network-llc-v-virtual-systems-llc-et-al-wawd-2025.