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Usually when someone is charged with a crime, they've already committed it, but not in this instance. HBO and Showtime, the two premium TV companies set to broadcast the Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing match in a few days time, have announced their intention to sue the owners of two different sports streaming websites, which have claimed that they will be offering an illegal stream of the matchup.
The fight is set to be the most lucrative in history with some $300 million expected to be raised through its various tickets and streaming sales. In the minds of HBO and Showtime however, streaming sites will cut into that figure and they want to put a stop to them.
Pictured: HBO's pre-piracy division.
As evidence in their complaint (via TorrentFreak) the two media companies pointed out that the homepages of BoxingHD.net and Sportship.org, both had highlighted streams that would have allowed a live and on demand viewing of the matchup once it had taken place. While both pages have since been removed, HBO and Showtime want the owners hit with legal action merely for the intent to supply the copyright protected content.
Initially at least, they want a temporary restraining order made to prevent either site from even offering links to other sites that may stream the content, but more than that, they are also demanding damages payments from the sites' owners, for theoretically lost revenue.
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KitGuru Says: Even though the entire concept of taking someone to court for something that they haven't yet done is a little ridiculous, the damages claim is even more so. It's hard enough to argue that pirated streams can equal lost sales, but to claim that damages should be paid before an act of piracy has even taken is ludicrous. If HBO and Showtime win this case, it could set a worrying precedent where site owners could be charged for piracy just for providing a platform where it could take place.
From a legal standpoint I couldn’t comment. From a “come on mate” standpoint, if the sites specialise in these illegal sports streams and this is set to be the most lucrative fight in history then it does seem pretty obvious what was going to happen next.
I have a netflix subscription and buy steam games so I have a right to swan around like I’m better than these naughty people (jokes) but that doesn’t mean I’m on big business’ side either. They have spent the last decade desperately slowing down the uptake of digital services. The ease with which sites like these set up the illegal streams just goes to show its not a technical limitation its just big business greed.
Whether or not the case itself produces fruit, what they have done will be effective regardless. Its the same technique that was successfully employed against the torrent sites. They get blocked. Oh, we scoff, do you think we haven’t heard of a proxy to get around this, muhahahaha? Well no, most people haven’t and now people like our parents and our non-geek friends either have trouble downloading or succeed but end up downloading a “my favourite show.torrent.exe” and get their computers infected.
If they can put the spotlight on these two sites and stop them doing it then it will work for a big chunk of these viewers. If these sports fans really want to see it and they don’t have the technical prowess to seek out alternative sites in time I think they will get a lot of panic purchases out of it.
The irritant for me is that I would be happy to pay for a legitimate stream.
But I can’t, there isn’t one. I don’t have or want Sky, which is the only way to watch on TV here in the UK. You cannot PPV this event without also taking a full Sky package.
So my options are either to hope my VPN works into spoofing HBO that I’m in the US, lets me pay for the PPV on a UK credit card and then hope the VPN doesn’t flake out during the fight… or simply to find an illegal stream, for free, that just works.
It’s ridiculous.
I really don’t think that an illegal stream is going to take away from HBO and Showtime’s profits. If someone was planning on watching the pirated stream, and that was no longer available, I don’t think it would force the would be pirates to pony up the cash to watch it legally. If I really wanted to watch people beat on each other I’d just watch the police in America.
Why bother. They will agree to take it down (if they even do that) then another site and many more will put it right back up and just not tell them bout it.
rtpharry is correct, tech savvy young adults have been doing what the big corps said is unreliable, too expensive or simply not possible for many years now. Gabe had it right when he said; (part quote)
“In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy.
Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For
example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7,
purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the
legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your
country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a
brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.”
Offer the customer a better service with you millions and in some cases billions than a kid in a data centre and a few home servers worth 2 thousand and it would not be such a big deal.
Do you use Zenmate for Chrome?
Well If the sites claim they will stream it, then ofcourse HBO will sue before they do (and they can even win)..
I think you’ll find that there are a lot of other countries with much worse police behavior…
This is getting ridiculous, i can understand when they sue someone for lost revenue because of that “one download is one sale lost” thing. But theoretical lost revenue? It’s like suing someone for theoretically killing you because he could cause a car accident.