UFC officials vow to sue individuals for pay-per-view piracy in forthcoming crackdown
by Steven Marrocco on Jan 04, 2010 at 10:35 pm ET

LAS VEGAS — Mixed martial arts fans who watch pirated internet content could soon be pressed against the cage says the president of an industry-leading fight promotion. In a move that could signal a sea change in the viral presence of MMA — the burgeoning sport of caged pugilism — Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, said his company is readying a legal assault on individuals and websites that deal in unauthorized content.

"When people start going to jail, people will stop doing it," White said.

The pay-per-view industry, of which the UFC has emerged as one of the most profitable players with an estimated $349 million in revenue in 2009, is the latest front in a war between consumers who want free content and entertainment companies with a product to protect.

The weapon of choice for digital thieves: streaming video websites that beam live pay-per-view signals to their home computers, free of charge.

UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta testified for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee earlier this month during a referendum on internet piracy of sporting events and said his anti-piracy team had uncovered 271 illegal streams of UFC 106 with over 140,000 viewers.

"The piracy of live sporting events is illegal, it kills jobs, and it threatens the expansion of U.S. based companies," Fertitta told lawmakers. "The UFC is potentially losing millions of dollars a year from piracy."

Thus far, the music and movie industries have been at the forefront of efforts to stop the spread of online piracy. The first shot was fired in 1999, when the Recording Industry Association of America sued online file sharing company Napster for copyright infringement. Since then, the black market for content — and the technology to provide it — has exploded in popularity.

Despite massive campaigns to educate fans on the illegal practice, streaming and sharing websites have become big business and are virtually impossible to curb when hosted in countries with lax copyright laws.

In recent years, the RIAA has begun suing individuals for illegal downloading, a practice that carries on today. Hollywood has targeted websites that carry pirated movies. Last July, Warner Bros. launched a massive campaign to halt the illegal download of "The Dark Knight" but failed to stem a tide of leaks and links that allowed seven million people to watch the blockbuster movie, according to The New York Times.

The fight industry has by and large limited their anti-piracy efforts to the online equivalent of a cease-and-desist, contacting websites that carry illegal content with a notice that they are in violation of copyright laws. Websites like Justin.tv, one of the biggest online streaming video websites, typically remove illegal broadcast feeds, though they often harbor links to sites that carry other feeds.

An angry White said his company had been considering legal action for years but mounting losses had forced action.

"It's going to be a battle, man," White said. "It's going to be a battle, but I'm ready to [expletive] fight.

"We're gonna go after them, we're gonna go after them hard, and we're gonna hurt them."

Lawrence Epstein, the UFC's general legal counsel, said the company could subpoena websites that carry illegal content for the IP addresses and user information of people who watch and download UFC fights, though he declined to say when that would happen.

"We're looking at all of our legal options, and I wouldn't rule out anything when it comes to fighting this problem," Epstein said.

White said the UFC's anti-piracy team monitors illegal streams during events and aggressively pursues offending websites, though he admitted suing websites and individuals would be a costly effort.

"[Piracy] hasn't cost us anything compared to what it's going to cost us to go after these guys," White said. "It's gonna cost us a lot of money, but guess what — it's gonna cost them a lot of money. It's gonna get to the point where it's like, you know what, [expletive] it, maybe we shouldn't pirate MMA any more.

"You got these websites like Justin.tv, and they pirate all kinds of things. They play all kinds of [expletive] on there. Well, we're gonna make it where it's not worth it to put UFC events up on the website."

And with at least 12 pay-per-view events per year — at $44.95 a pop, $55.95 for the HD version — UFC fans may be forced to ask if it's worth it.

Currently, the promotion has two authorized providers of internet pay-per-view – UFC.com, and Yahoo! Sports – at the same price as the standard television broadcast. Epstein says the internet price is mandated by the promotion's contract with pay-per-view providers like DirecTV and DISH Network and cannot be lowered.

Epstein says an average of eight to ten people split a legal UFC pay-per-view broadcast, bringing the price down to around $5 a head (plus beer and pizza), and events are often available in bars and clubs around the city. But for many fans under 21 — the so-called "Generation Wired" — the choice is simple.

UFC commentator Joe Rogan understands the promotion's plight but thinks an Internet crackdown is an unnecessary step.

"I think that kind of stifles innovation," Rogan said. "It stifles the direction the Internet is going. I like things being out there. I think people are always going to buy UFC pay-per-views. You're going to get a much better experience watching it on your television than all stretched out looking fuzzy and pixilated.

"They're trying to protect their money, but the Internet is a strange animal."

Epstein said the UFC had joined a coalition of major sports franchises including the NFL, MLB, and NCAA, and planned to lobby lawmakers to get tough on piracy.

"Are there always going to be people that are going to steal? Yeah," said Epstein. "There are going to be people that rob convenience stores and banks, too. You can put up bars, you can put up cameras, but people continue to do bad things. You're not going to stop all of it.

"I think this is about stopping the good majority of law-abiding citizens who, without education, might not understand that what they're doing is not the right thing to do."

(Pictured: Dana White)

This story originally ran on VancouverSun.com and is reprinted here with permission. The piece is also expected to run in the Business section of Tuesday's edition of The Vancouver Sun.

"[Piracy] hasn't cost us anything compared to what it's going to cost us to go after these guys," White said. "It's gonna cost us a lot of money, but guess what — it's gonna cost them a lot of money. It's gonna get to the point where it's like, you know what, [expletive] it, maybe we shouldn't pirate MMA any more.

"I think that kind of stifles innovation," Rogan said. "It stifles the direction the Internet is going. I like things being out there. I think people are always going to buy UFC pay-per-views. You're going to get a much better experience watching it on your television than all stretched out looking fuzzy and pixilated.

"They're trying to protect their money, but the Internet is a strange animal."