UFC Piracy Being Aggressively Pursued
January 6, 2009
Those looking to cut corners and short change the UFC and it’s commercial PPV partner Joe Hand Promotions are increasingly being rooted out for prosecution. Joe Hand Promotions acquired the UFC commercial distribution rights for the United States in 2001, with the rights to provide sports bars, casinos and restaurants with the UFC’s brand of mixed martial arts Pay-Per-View programming. TMCNET.com, a technology and communications website, details recent court actions by Joe Hand Promotions to ensure that piracy is dealt with swiftly:
Joe Hand Promotions hires contractors to monitor “random” taverns that have not ordered the company’s licensed events, and one of the contractors was at The Copper Penny on May, 24 2008, said Julie Cohen Lonstein, a lawyer for the promotion company. The contractor video-recorded the tavern’s managers showing the UFC Ill Will event on four televisions, Lonstein said.
Joe Hand Promotions seeks as much as $170,000 each from the bar and its owner. In November, South Bend-based federal Judge Allen Sharp entered a $16,000 judgment against two Lafayette bar owners accused of pirating UFC event in May 2007.
Piracy is somewhat of a fact of life in these times, but it is good for the the UFC that they have a partner that is staying vigilant in protecting the UFC’s product.
