Ustream Taps Out, Gives Pirate IP Addresses to UFC
Ustream Taps Out, Gives Pirate IP Addresses to UFC
Posted 08/02/2010 at 5:06pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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We recently told you about the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) attempting to get IP addresses of suspected pirates from Ustream and Juntin.tv. UFC's parent company Zuffa LLC claimed that several IP addresses were streaming pay-per-view UFC content to tens of thousands of individuals. Zuffa is only pursuing those accused of streaming the content, not the viewers. Today, Ustream has announced that they have complied with the subpoena and handed over the IP addresses.
Ustream has gone a step further by updating their video monitoring tools to take down copyrighted content more quickly. Zuffa's CEO, Lorenzo Fertitta seemed to make it clear in recent House Judiciary Committee testimony that they would be pursuing this matter aggressively. He claimed in his testimony that UFC was losing "tens of millions" because of these streams. Maybe fuzzy math, but Ustream took them seriously. Juntin.tv has not said if they complied with the order as of yet.
Do you think Zuffa should be going after the streamers like this, or is there another way?
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andria
September 09, 2010 at 5:44am
Your making generalizations. Proven facts are what is needed and something tells me that they can pull up stats from PPV's that were not illegally streamed and revenue vs ones that were. Just because some people can't afford to buy it, does not mean all of them could not afford to. And just because people regularly bought it in the past, does not mean they would hear about this and go 'well I am going to buy it and be a good person rather than click a link and save 50 bucks' I will say it one more time, if you can not afford something, it does not make it right to refuse to pay for it and take it anyway no matter how easy it is. However the easier it is and the less risk involved (in this case none to the viewer, all to the streamer and the web provider) the more people will do it regardless of the cost of the product. They could have charged a buck per view and because it was streamed and you could click a link in a second rather than punch in a channel, call a cable provider, give a credit card (whatever the process is, it's longer than the click) people would still do it because basically all consumers want things to be simple.
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Ziphead
August 03, 2010 at 2:03am
99% of the people that watch these streams would not pay $50 to watch the fights. I would venture to guess that most of them couldn't afford to pay for the fights if they wanted too. The UFC has a fairly young fan base. They are going to alienate a huge segment of their fan base and they will fail to stop the streaming.
tri8gman
August 04, 2010 at 12:06pm
UFC can look at this and begin looking into managing their own streaming service - of course, their PPV contract might get in the way of that with exclusivity agreements and all that.
I don't agree with pirating so much as I hate the want to keep progress held back because the revenue is lessened upfront, even if the viewership and popularity is raised exponentially (raising possible merchandise sales).
Mobius II
August 02, 2010 at 8:43pm
Their content is being distributed illegally so they have a right to chase down the offenders if they choose. IMHO, they, like many content providers, would be better served by looking at streaming or torrents as a marketing tool for their product. They don't get revenue from these viewers but they are also exposing their product to a lot of people who would never in a million years actually pay the exhorbitant PPV pricing. I'm sure a percentage of these viewers may grab a UFC DVD or buy a UFC console game directly as a result of the interest this free viewing generated. I think Zuffa LLC is wasting their time and money.
fuddco
August 02, 2010 at 6:21pm
Yes they should go after the streamers of the content,they are the breaking the law and costing the ufc possible income,though I also doubt the amount stated above.
Content providers should be allowed to control their product however they wish as long as it's within the copyright law. If you don't like what the content providers are doing then stop usuing their product,there is plenty of free content out there on the internet you can watch/listen to.
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