Those who watched the PPV UFC 169 illegally, pack your bags. Jesse Holland from MMAMania reported today that the UFC has successfully shut down the domain cagewatcher.eu and has obtained.information from its website, which include, but are not limited to usernames and IP adresses. The UFC has been an adamant opponent of copyright infringement even supporting Congress' SOPA bill, that received such a public outcry against the wide sweeping bill that could possibly shut down sites like Facebook and YouTube. Zuffa LLC., the UFC has policed its copyright and licenses persistently, going after a number of restaurants and bar's for transmitting fights without the express license of the UFC. The UFC continues to grow, depending on the domestic pay-per-view revenue. The company spends millions organizing and promoting events in the United States and at the same time their markets have grown internationally as well: both Brazil, and Canada have become major markets for Zuffa Europe and Asia are developing as well. As season of the Ultimate Fighter China is set to debut later this year. The UFC have also outspent other sports providers in pursuing copyright and trademark infringers,outspending the MLB and NBA in its fight against streamers. On the other side, the UFC has recently increased it cost for PPV events and in an economy where the power to buy is diminishing it seems like a counter-productive measure. Because as disposable income diminishes, fight fans will pursue other venues for pursuing their passion. Only time will tell what will come of this.
It makes no sense because you can't stop the internet. A lot of people can not afford the 75 dollar price tag for HD and they are just going to end up finding another online stream. This action by the UFC is just going to piss people off an encourage them to create more streams.
ReplyDeleteMike I agree with you about not stopping the internet. But the UFC has already demonstrated that it will try very hard. If they succeed in prosecuting individual users, it may create a far reaching precedent. The UFC depends on PPV revenue for its monetary expansion, while in other countries like Brazil the fights are put on free tv or at least subscription tv in other countries. As much as I don't like this, I can't fault them for it, because in copyright and trademark law if you don't police your rights then you lose those rights over time. The NFL is doing the same thing, sports and tv providers are restricting the way you can view material, which then brings up another issue of the lack of availability.
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