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Top Rank Ready To File Suit After Widespread Piracy Of Mayweather-Pacquiao
Top Rank President Todd duBoef said that the company "plans to pursue legal action following widespread piracy of Saturday's Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight on video-sharing smartphone apps and websites," according to Stuart Pfeifer of the L.A. TIMES. Many people "watched streams of the fight on video-sharing apps such as Periscope" instead of buying the PPV feed. Periscope is a smartphone app that allows users to share live video, and people who bought the fight "were able to record it with their smartphones and stream it live on Periscope and other sites." duBoef said that Top Rank, co-promoter of the fight alongside Mayweather Productions, "will go after individuals who streamed the fight and the companies that provided the platforms to do so" ( <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mayweather-pacquiao-piracy-20150503-htmlstory.html" target="_blank">L.A. TIMES, 5/4</a> ). VARIETY's Andrew Wallenstein noted countless people who paid for the fight used their smartphones to "re-transmit the fight to users of Periscope and, to a lesser extent, rival app Meerkat." Each stream "reached hundreds or thousands of non-paying fans with a picture quality that was shaky and pixilated, yet still quite adequate." If Twitter CEO Dick Costolo "understood the implications of this activity, he sure didn’t show it in <a href="https://twitter.com/dickc/status/594725651854139392" target="_blank">a tweet that declared Periscope the 'winner' of the night."</a> The app "got tremendous exposure" from the activity during Saturday's fight, but "the price of all that publicity may end up too steep if the content companies come after him." Live-streaming "has never been treated as serious a piracy threat as torrent sites or content lockers, but that looks about to change" ( <a href="http://variety.com/2015/digital/opinion/periscope-piracy-sets-up-grudge-match-hollywood-vs-twitter-1201486298/" target="_blank">VARIETY.com, 5/3</a> ). USA TODAY's Mike Snider notes HBO and Showtime " <a href="http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2015/04/30/Media/Fight-Lawsuits" target="_blank">had taken legal action in advance against some web sites</a> that promised to illegally show the fight." As soon as the fight began, "multiple live stream feeds of the action appeared on Meerkat and Periscope." New streams "would start each round of the bout" ( <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/05/03/periscope-meerkat-stream-mayweather-pacquiao/26832299/" target="_blank">USA TODAY, 5/4</a> ).
