A Triller piracy lawsuit has been filed against individuals who illegally streamed the April 17 Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren boxing event. The company made the announcement on Monday. The company also announced that it has opened a website for people who pirated the April 17 Triller Fight Club to pay the PPV event fee or face a civil penalty of up to $150,000 per illegal stream. Individuals can pay the original $49.99 fee at the website https://www.fite.tv/page/041721piracysettlement/ by June 1.
Triller Piracy Lawsuit
FITE.tv says that it will not pursue action against individuals who pay the $49.99 fee by the June 1 deadline. Per Piracy laws, the civil penalty for piracy is $150,000 per illegal stream. Individuals can also face up to 5-years in prison. Anyone who pirated the event is subject to the lawsuit. Triller says it intends to pursue the full penalty against anyone who illegally streamed the event.
Paul vs. Askren Triller PPV Event
The April 17 fight aired live with the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. Although Triller has not released official numbers, the event sold between 1,300,000 to 1,500,000 million units. The new lawsuit says that even more people illegally streamed the highly-anticipated event. Paul won the fight by way of TKO in Round 1.
How Will Triller Obtain This Information?
Triller spokesperson Matt St. Claire, Head of Piracy for Triller, told reporters that Triller can identify each person who streamed the content thanks to a unique fingerprint embedded into the content. VPN firewalls must comply with any requests of information during a piracy lawsuit and must turn over the actual IP address of any person who stole the fight.
Triller Piracy Lawsuit Announced
Triller filed a lawsuit on April 23 in the U.S. District Court of Central California against H3Podcast owners and more than a dozen other sites that re-streamed and profited from the fight. Altogether, more there were more than two million illegal streams of the Paul-Askren boxing match.
Triller seeks more than $100,000,000.00 in damages against defendants for the outright theft and illegal viewing of the event. Novan & Novan represents Triller in the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that defendants used various torrent streaming services, including www.youtube.com, www.filmdaily.co, and www.accesstvpro.co, to stream the fight.
Triller lists the following complaints in its lawsuit: copyright infringement; violation of Federal Communications Acts 47 U.S.C. § 605 & 47 U.S.C. § 553; conversion, breach of contract; conspiracy; violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act 18 U.S.C. § 1039; and vicarious copyright infringement.
Admission of Guilt
Triller began legal action after the H3Podcast owner admitted on his podcast that he illegally streamed and shared the fight. The owner faces the original fine of up to $150,000, as well as an additional $250,000 in criminals fines. He may also face up to 5-years in prison for the action.
For companies like H3Podcast who streamed the download to hundreds to thousands of viewers, the fines can add up to millions of dollars.
Triller Says “Do The Right Thing”
Triller wants everyone to do the right thing and pay the $49.99 PPV fee to avoid further legal actions if they streamed the fight illegally. Once the fee has been paid, the individual receives a complete release from Triller prohibiting further legal action against them. That release also brings peace of mind with it, since lawsuits never bring us comfort. The lawsuit gives one-month amnesty to anyone who illegally streamed the fight. It is in their best interest to avoid further conflict and pay the fee.
Wonder what Jake Paul will say about this one on Twitter? He’ll be excited to hear how many more people saw him do his thing against Askren, no doubt!
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @AmandaG_LWOS for the latest updates about the Triller piracy lawsuit, as well as all your other UFC and MMA news.
