Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 | 1:45 a.m.
The Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship is suing a British man and wants a court order blocking him from airing pirated UFC broadcasts.
Zuffa LLC, owner of the UFC, filed suit Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against Daniel Wallace of Selsey, West Sussex, England.
Attorneys for Zuffa with the Las Vegas office of the law firm Lewis and Roca LLP charge in the suit that Wallace's website, livevss.tv (associated with livevss.net), has carried unauthorized live-streaming video of UFC events including UFC 119 on Sept. 25.
"Given that events are streamed for free on defendant’s website, defendant derives revenue from selling advertising space on the website such that the viewer is continuously bombarded with 'pop up' ads during any given broadcast," the lawsuit says.
"Based upon defendant’s history of offering 'live streaming' of plaintiff’s past events, as well as those of other MMA (mixed martial arts) providers, plaintiff believes that defendant will similarly offer an unauthorized 'live streaming' video of UFC 120 on Oct. 16, the date of the event (in London)," the lawsuit alleges.
"Plaintiff believes that defendant will 'live stream' UFC 120 to Internet viewers for free," the suit said, suggesting unauthorized broadcasts would undermine the authorized live broadcast on Spike TV in the United States and the pay-per-view broadcast in Australia.
A message for comment on the lawsuit was left with Wallace.
The lawsuit accuses him of copyright infringement and seeks a court order blocking him from copying, displaying and distributing UFC broadcasts as well as damages of $150,000 per infringement, attorneys fees and legal costs and forfeiture of any revenue derived from the allegedly unauthorized broadcasts.
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