A small electronics store in Queens just got buried by a federal court, and the case shows exactly how DISH likes to make examples out of the little guys in the pirate IPTV ecosystem.

Khaled Akhtar ran a brick-and-mortar shop called Massive Wireless in Jackson Heights. According to DISH, he sold “Glo TV” and “Rays IPTV” pirate IPTV boxes for years, even after the company mailed him six separate cease-and-desist letters.

DISH proved it by sending a private investigator into the store to buy a loaded box right off the shelf.

What the Court Decided

On June 9, 2026, U.S. District Judge Orelia Merchant granted DISH partial summary judgment, finding Akhtar and his store liable for willful contributory and vicarious copyright infringement:

“Massive Wireless admits that it, with the purpose of enabling customer access to the Service, sold set-top boxes preloaded with the Service and with a one-year subscription to the Service. Akhtar and Massive Wireless provided the mechanisms for Service Users to access and view the Works and therefore materially contributed to the infringing activity.”

A permanent injunction signed the same day orders them to stop selling and destroy every pirate box in their possession, plus file a sworn report on what got destroyed. We’ve watched courts go further, with one UK seller jailed for six months over the same kind of operation.

IPTV Box Seller Owes Millions in Damages

Akhtar blamed his supplier, Mumtazur Rehman Daud of Rays IPTV, who allegedly called the DISH letters a “scam.” The judge wasn’t moved, ruling that ignoring six warnings counts as willful blindness on its own.

Akhtar says he made just $5,000 from the boxes. The damages on the table run up to $25.5 million, based on 170 works at the $150,000-per-work maximum. DISH has chased numbers like this before, suing a pirate IPTV host for $25 million in a separate case.

Final Thoughts from Troy

A $5,000 corner shop is staring down a multi-million-dollar judgment while the no-show wholesaler, Daud, waits in line behind him. That gap tells you who these lawsuits are really built to punish.

Rights holders keep going after the easiest names to reach, an approach the recent IBCAP enforcement report only sharpens. Until legitimate live TV gets cheaper and simpler, sellers like Akhtar will keep stepping into the gap, and DISH will keep making examples of them.

Regardless, we always recommend our readers use legitimate streaming devices like Android TV/Google TV boxes and verified live TV services.

For more information on this story refer to the official judgement order (PDF) and the report from TorrentFreak.

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