Did you watch an illegal stream of April’s [autotag]Jake Paul[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Ben Askren[/autotag] boxing match? If so, Triller Fight Club officials are giving you one last chance to pay for the card.
This past week, the upstart promotion announced it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California “against certain parties who participated in the unlawful sale, distribution, and/or viewing of the April 17, 2021 pay-per-view event known as ‘Triller Fight Club: Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren.'”
“VPNs all have to comply and turn over the actual IP addresses of each person who stole the fight in discovery,” Triller head of piracy Matt St. Claire told Reuters.com. “We will be able to identify each and every person, VPN or not, as each stream has a unique fingerprint embedded in the content.”
Triller Fight Club officials said that under U.S. copyright law, anyone found to have pirated the pay-per-view could be liable for up to $150,000 in fines, penalties and damages, and that the organization plans on seeking the maximum damages available in each case.
However, the company is first offering an opportunity for clemency for any individuals “who unlawfully viewed or displayed the event but were not otherwise involved in its illegal sale or distribution” by paying original price of $49.99 before June 1. Those interested in taking advantage of the “one-time settlement and release for their unlawful acts” can pay at Fite.tv.
“We are taking this position because it is outright theft,” St. Claire said. “It is no different than walking into a store and stealing a video game off the shelf.”
Brash YouTuber Paul scored a first-round TKO win over former Bellator and ONE champ Askren in the featured bout of the pay-per-view card, which took place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
St. Claire said that in addition to individual viewers, Triller will also be pursuing damages from more than a dozen websites who pirated and rebroadcast the event on their platforms.
“In the case of the offending sites, it’s worse because they also then resold it to many people, illegally profiting from work they do not own,” St. Claire said.
[vertical-gallery id=604024]