UFC Files Lawsuit Against Justin.tv For Illegal PPV Streams
Zuffa LLC, owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada against the website Justin.tv. The suit accuses the website of copyright and trademark infringement due to the constant illegal streams of live UFC pay-per-view events.
Zuffa claims that Justin.tv has continually failed to "to meaningfully address the rampant and illegal uploading of video of live pay-per-view UFC events by members and users of the Justin.tv website." The company alleges that more than 50,000 users viewed UFC 121 illegally over the website this past October. Zuffa has been attempting to combat illegal streams for several years since the explosion in popularity of the UFC and the advent of various new ways to view illegal streams on the internet.
Justin.tv allows users to upload and view live video streams that others broadcast. This includes everything from college basketball games to professional wrestling events, and, of course, UFC pay-per-views. While the website states that any copyrighted material is prohibited from being broadcasted, Zuffa claims that the website has not done an adequate job in limiting the illegal streams. They even go so far as to claim that Justin.tv has encouraged its users to broadcast its events illegally.
"Regrettably, Justin.tv has not only turned a blind eye to the massive online piracy occurring on its website, we believe it has actually induced its users to commit copyright infringement thus leaving Zuffa no alternative but to take this fight to the courts," Zuffa's Las Vegas attorney Donald J. Campbell stated in a press release. The UFC broadcasted 16 pay-per-view events in 2010, including one WEC event, generating an estimated 9,145,000 buys and $411 million in gross revenue. The top three UFC events last year were UFC 116: Lesnar vs Carwin (1.1 million buys), UFC 114: Jackson vs Evans (1.05 million), and UFC 121: Lesnar vs Velasquez (1 million).