MANILA – The US court in Oregon ruled in favor of ABS-CBN in a $10 million copyright infringement lawsuit filed against website operator Jeffrey Ashby.

The US Federal District Court in Oregon ordered Ashby to pay the network $10 million for damages resulting from his infringing the copyrights and well-known trademarks of ABS-CBN by rebroadcasting its TV shows and movies on video streaming websites.

Ashby owned and managed the sites watchfilipinotv.com, watchfilipinomovies.com and pinoytalaga.com, among others.

These sites have been shut down.

"Jeff Ashby is the first of many pirates that we are pursuing," said Elisha Lawrence, associate vice president of Global Anti-Piracy for ABS-CBN International.

"We have begun a relentless campaign to enforce against all pirate websites due to the numerous reports that these sites contain dangerous malware which cause substantial harm including identify theft of financial information and phishing attacks,” she added.

In a statement, Ashby warned other website owners publishing ABS-CBN content without permission to stop their operations.

"I wish to warn anyone who may be copying and/or publishing content owned by ABS-CBN without their permission, to stop immediately.

Continuing without authorization can and will lead to very serious consequences,” Ashby said.

ABS-CBN, which has recently partnered with Crime Stoppers USA, is represented in Oregon by Matt Levin of Markowitz Herbold PC, in New York by Tony Onorato of Steptoe & Johnson and inFlorida by Stephen Gaffigan.

ABS-CBNnews.com is the news website of ABS-CBN Corp.