TVAddons: Telco Bailiffs Enter Operator’s Home Over Unpaid Attorney’s Fees

[steven36]

Exactly a year after Canada's largest telecoms companies executed a warrant against TVAddons founder Adam Lackman, unwelcome visitors have again attended his home. After a court order to pay attorney's fees of CAD$50,000 went unsettled, bailiffs representing Bell, Rogers, and Videotron turned up at Lackman's home Wednesday in an effort to seize property.

 

 

On June 2, 2017, Canadian telecoms giants including Bell Canada, Bell ExpressVu, Bell Media, Videotron, Groupe TVA, Rogers Communications and Rogers Media, filed a complaint in Federal Court against Montreal resident, Adam Lackman.

 

Lackman is the founder of Kodi addon repository TVAddons and someone described by the telecoms companies as a serial infringer of their intellectual property rights.

 

The companies demanded injunctions against Lackman, preventing him from developing, promoting or distributing allegedly infringing add-ons and software. The plaintiffs also requested damages and costs on top.

 

Without Lackman being present or able to mount a defense, on June 9, 2017, the Federal Court handed down a time-limited interim injunction. Bailiffs took control of TVAddons’ domains, shutting TVAddons down. They also obtained an Anton Piller order, a civil search warrant which granted no-notice permission to enter Lackman’s premises to secure evidence.

 

On June 12, 2017, Lackman’s home was searched against his wishes, but on June 29, 2017, a judge decided that Lackman had been mistreated. The Anton Piller order was vacated and the application for interlocutory injunction was dismissed.

 

The plaintiffs took this decision to appeal during November 2017. A three-judge panel handed down its decision February 2018, effectively turning the earlier ruling on its head.

The telecoms companies emerged victorious with the Anton Piller order and interim injunctions declared legal. As the image below shows, Lackman was also told to pay the telecoms companies attorney’s fees of CAD$50,000.

 

 

Yesterday, just one day after the anniversary of the original search of Lackman’s home, representatives of the plaintiffs were back again to carry out yet another search.

 

“Bell, Rogers, and Videotron showed up once again to force their way into our founder’s home,” TVAddons said in a statement.

 

“They had a court order that allowed them to search through anything and everything, in order to mark down things of value which would be sold to repay the debt.”

 

Speaking with TorrentFreak, Lackman said he could find no deadline dates on the order issued by the court and believed he had much more time to tackle the issue.

 

“I didn’t think they expected to be paid prior to the conclusion of the [full] lawsuit,” Lackman told TF.

 

“I’ve already been forced to fundraise in order to defend myself, they have seized millions worth of property (domains, social media) and destroyed my only source of revenue already. Harassing me to pay them when I don’t even have money to pay my own lawyers is really disruptive to my general well being.”

 

But surely the TVAddons founder was given notice that the monies were due and a visit was imminent? Not so, he insists.

 

“Other than the appeal judgment, I had not heard from them since. I had no clue they could even show up again. How could I expect that collections would begin while the entire lawsuit on the actual merits (the only important part) is still ahead?” he told us.

 

But turn up they did. Yesterday morning three bailiffs working for Smart & Biggar Fetherstonhaugh on behalf of Bell, Rogers, and Videotron arrived at Lackman’s home and made their presence known.

 

“As soon as I opened my door, one of the bailiffs put his foot in it and said that they had the right to enter. I called my lawyer who told me I should comply with their demands,” Lackman says.

 

“One of the bailiffs appeared to be there for ‘muscle.’ The other bailiff was extremely aggressive, even asking me to show them copies of my invoices with lawyers. And the third bailiff (who seemed to be in charge, he was also part of the original seizure last year) was a bit harsh, but it seemed like he was just trying to do his job.”

 

Lackman says the visit wasn’t particularly fruitful. The bailiffs found a laptop and “two near worthless” prints on his wall. The goods will be sold at auction come July 31 unless Lackman can either come up with the funds (now CAD$57,500, up from the original CAD$50,000) or get a court to suspend the action. But for a man with no money, it’s a catch-22 situation.

 

“I am hoping that we will be able to get a sort of stay of proceedings on the collections, at least until the court hears the merits of the lawsuit at trial. The problem is that the goods they are going to seize probably aren’t even worth what it will cost to return to Federal Court. They’re trying to ruin me,” Lackman adds.

 

With Lackman’s back up against the wall, he’s still relying on well-wishers to help bail him out. However, the case is already a year old with many thousands spent in legal fees and no end in sight.

 

When or if a trial on the merits will ever take place is still anyone’s guess but with powerful deep-pocketed adversaries, there’s a possibility that Lackman might be worn down without ever having had his day in court.

 

“If they are going to harass me on an ongoing basis for every little thing I have (such as my laptop), I’ll have no chance of ever being able to fight the merits, which is what they want,” he concludes.

 

Source

 

[straycat19]

What does Lackman expect?  If you are a criminal then you get treated like a criminal.  And if Canadian courts are like U.S. courts, they can make sure he never owns another thing in his life or earns more than absolutely necessary to get by on until the money owed, plus interest, is paid.  Which is sometimes a never ending situation.

[aviator365]

Thats one way to give me the money.

[steven36]

On 6/15/2018 at 12:12 PM, straycat19 said:

What does Lackman expect?  If you are a criminal then you get treated like a criminal.  And if Canadian courts are like U.S. courts, they can make sure he never owns another thing in his life or earns more than absolutely necessary to get by on until the money owed, plus interest, is paid.  Which is sometimes a never ending situation.

Well hes also  tied up in the courts in Texas .Like i told him myself hes a darn idiot he had his chance to walk away a long time ago  and take a deal  but he wanted  to keep  on fighting now he $50K in legal fees in the hole in Canada alone  witch hes going to have too pay because  telco's prevailed and won the appeal over the Anton Piller dispute. If it would of went the other way then Lackman would not had to pay and most likely they would had to pay him.. Piller  took a deal  and got off easy  and Adam Lackman  kept on fighting stacking up legal bills. All this  unofficial kodi addon  stuff is new in Canada and the US Courts so every so every judgment that's made  sets a precedent.

 

He was not a DEV no way he used people to make a living off Kodi,  he was a good con man and hes not even that anymore because  about 90% of the Kodi community don't trust him anymore and have shunned him . Some of the things he says, he has to be  doing some good coke and you would have to be on something yourself to believe him .Hes unreal. All the bad things  Kodi.tv , Kodi users and  unofficial kodi addon devs said /say about him and he still wanted keep on fighting  every other person just took a deal and walked away ,The reason he didnt  it made him rich he has big boat and all that stuff witch will belong to the government soon.  They do nothing to Devs  and builders but give them Cease and desist letters one quits and two more take there place and they  fork addons with a different name and put it somewhere else .A game of whack a mole . Now we have 5 addons of this or that instead of 1.  There just making it worse. New forks come out everyday.

[Desperado]

TVAddons Founder “Resigns” to Ensure Kodi Addon Platform’s Longevity

TorrentFreak - By Andy on June 22, 2018

Under siege, third-party Kodi addon platform, has announced the resignation of its founder. Adam Lackman, who is being targeted by Canada's leading telecoms companies in a copyright infringement battle, says he will give up admin rights and access to sensitive information, in order to preserve the longevity of the TVAddons platform. TF spoke with the Canadian to find out more.

Right now, life isn’t particularly pleasant for the founder of TVAddons.

As previously documented, Adam Lackman is being sued by an army of Canadian telecoms giants including Bell Canada, Bell ExpressVu, Bell Media, Videotron, Groupe TVA, Rogers Communications and Rogers Media.

With mixed results in court thus far, last week saw bailiffs for the plaintiffs revisit Lackman’s home, hoping to secure property to pay off CAD$50,000 in costs run up by the telco’s attorneys.

In the end, however, the bailiffs only earmarked a laptop and two “near worthless” prints. The goods will be sold at auction come July 31 unless Lackman can come up with the cash amount, which has now swelled to CAD$57,500.

With this latest aggressive act ringing in his ears, it appears that TVAddons have been considering what can be done to safeguard the future of the site. Lackman, perhaps understandably, is now seen as a potential Achilles’ Heel, something which has prompted a fresh announcement about his future.

“Under immense pressure, our team and I have decided that it would be best if I resigned from an administrative role in order to protect the longevity of our platform,” he informs TF.

“I will continue to remain onboard in a marketing position, also doing general community outreach like I always have.”

More information is available in a TVAddons post on the topic, which also details the rather unusual method used to select his successor.

“In selecting the individual to replace Adam in his former role as administrator, an automated script was used to randomly select his replacement from amongst our most trusted senior staff,” the report reads.

“At the time of selection, the automated script also delivered relevant passwords which the new administrator then changed so that only he would know them. Only the staff member selected knows that he is our new platform administrator.”

While unusual in its reported execution, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that given the ongoing assault on TVAddons, this latest move is designed to take the pressure off Lackman. We asked him if not being the operator of the site would be helpful moving forward.

“When we relaunched last August, it was decided amongst our team members that I would not be the owner of the new domain. The new owner was selected in a similar fashion to how the new admin was selected. I can’t say who the owner is, and actually I don’t know his identity anyway,” Lackman explained.

“I have therefore not been the owner of the new site since it was launched. And since we launched it without any of the assets of the previous website, we see it as an entirely new entity.”

 

Given the circumstances surrounding the resignation and the subsequent and unusual appointment of a successor, TF further asked whether the move would be viewed as credible by the telcos and their operatives. Lackman said he didn’t know but pointed out that since he’d been honest over ownership details in the past, that could stand him in good stead for the future.

“Considering I gave them the domains last year pursuant to their court order, even though they were owned overseas by a corporation in the first place, it should show them that I respect the law and the courts and would not take action to circumvent their authority,” he said.

“However, I am also not sure it matters whether the plaintiffs believe it or not, as they have demonstrated a willingness to create their own narrative in order to suit their own agenda anyway.”

In a final note, the TVAddons team says that their new administrator is likely to “surface publicly” in a few weeks’ time, something which could be followed shortly after by some upgrades to the site.

 

Update: Lackman informs TF that after speaking with his lawyers, they will be blocking the seizure of his laptop which falls under the seizure exemption of “work instruments needed for the exercise of your profession.”

“The bailiff would have known that the laptop was exempt, but put it down for seizure for the purpose of causing me additional grief in having to take legal measures to ensure that it is not seized,” he says.

TVAddons Founder “Resigns” to Ensure Kodi Addon Platform’s Longevity

[steven36]

3 hours ago, Desperado said:

TVAddons Founder “Resigns” to Ensure Kodi Addon Platform’s Longevity

 

It's fake news , hes like a drug dealer who puts all his money in the bank in some trusted family members  name so they want take everything he has... Adam Lackman is TV Addons, there no company , he is a con artist who is known to use sock puppets  , He's uses sock puppets  on his site and everywhere he goes in the kodi community  to make it look like he has friends and followers but the only friends he has are others who  monetizes off kodi  for and income. Other low life's like him . He has no addons left that anyone would use in his repo but urlreslover and he just copy and paste  the code out another devs repo that does the same addon with another name resolveurl.

 

He ran all the devs off and ban the good addons from his site. We already have Kodi.tv for legal addons  we dont need bottom feeders like Lackman's shitty addons and him stealing other devs leagl  addons and putting them in his repo so he can make ad revenue or put malware in them for profit.

 

. Sites  like torrentfreak posted this because Adam Lackman asked them too, they dont have no idea  of  who he is,  because they dont even use  kodi! It's nothing but fake TVA propaganda ,  tell that site is gone it's just a thorn in the kodi community's side   . When you read the comments over at torrentfreak  those p2p fanboys sound like fish out of water when they talk about kodi, they dont even have a clue.