Attorney Steve® Boxing Piracy Defense [Joe Hand, J&J, G&G] - Information resources.  If you received a call, letter, or email demanding money, call us at (877) 276-5084.

Make sure all the soccer, UFC fights, and boxing championship fights are properly licensed for display in your commercial establishment.  We can help if there is a dispute involving proper licensing.

Introduction

Our copyright and federal litigation law firm is a leader in representing defendants (usually small bar owners—often minority- and immigrant-run restaurants, bars, and clubs) accused of showing a fight at their establishment without purchasing the proper commercial license.  These cases can start as innocently as having an aggressive lawyer from Pasadena calling you to threaten a federal court lawsuit if you do not pay a large damage request (the last one I heard was for $50,000).  These companies can be extremely aggressive and over-the-top.  In my opinion, they like to go after the smaller businesses with threats of litigation.  They are more than threats however, because they CAN and DO file hundreds, if not thousands, of lawsuits over the years.

How did they find out I showed the fight?

Some common things they do are:

1.  They will find you advertising the fight on social media websites like facebook.  Advertising can lead to not only "statutory damages" but also potential "enhanced damages" up to $100,000.

2.  They will assume you are going to broadcast the fight illegally (they will check to see if your business purchased a COMMERCIAL—not PERSONAL license).  If you did not purchase the commercial license, you could face "statutory damages" up to $10,000.

3.  They will send one or more private investigators into your business (pretending to be a customer, but they are there to catch evidence of illegal broadcasting and perhaps buy a drink).  They will photograph the TVs that are broadcasting the PPV fight, but we also saw one photo where they photographed the waitress (for some odd reason), which we used to fight a claim.

4.  The informant will typically draft a declaration stating they saw you show the fight on one or more TVs (via cable or satellite) and send their report with the pictures to the law firm that will handle the case.  We have dealt with many of the law firms in this space.

5.  Next thing, you may get the dreaded phone call or letter accusing you of violating copyright law and/or the federal telecommunications laws, and a significant legal demand may be made.  

This is typically how it goes.  To make matters worse, the IP lawyers for the fight companies will usually NOT SHARE ANY EVIDENCE, which to me is bogus, but they may tell you, "You will see it in court."  If they are accusing a company of wrongdoing, they should be willing to show the evidence, but they will not typically do that.

Our firm gets called in to settle many of these cases with many of the major distributors.

Weighing Monetary Demands vs. Potential Damages in Default Judgment

Key Cases in Boxing Piracy

As you can see, there have been a ton of cases filed in the boxing litigation arena (what we call TV Signal piracy cases - which can be satellite or cable) and sometimes streaming internet.  We will be briefing more of these cases as time permits.

• Bronco Wine Company v. Frank A. Logoluso Farms (1989) 214 Cal.App.3d 699
• Cablevision of Michigan, Inc. v. Sports Palace, No. 93-1737, L994 U.S. App. LEXIS 13914, at. *11-13 (5th Cir. June 5, 1994)
• Cablevision v. Skyes (2nd Cir. 1993) 997 F.2d 998
• Carnegie Mellon Univ. v. Cohill, 484 U.S. 343, 350 (1988)
• Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 391 (1926)
• Don King Prods. v. Maldonado (N.D. Cal. 1996) WL 682006
• Fleuti v. Rosenberg, 302 F.2d 652 (9th Cir.1962)
• Garden City Boxing Club, Inc. v. Frezza (2007) 476 F. Supp.2d 135, 140
• Goldman v. United States, 316 U.S. 129, 134 (1942)
• Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108 (1972)
• Integrated Sports Media, Inc. v. El Guadalajara, Inc., 2011 WL 4434165, at *2 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 30, 2011)
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. v. Ferreyra (2008) WL 4104315
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. v. Flores, 2012 WL 6608915 (E.D. Cal., December 18, 2012, at *11)
• J & J Sports Prods. v. Hernandez (2010) U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48191
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. vs. Hot Shots, 2010 WL 3522809
• J & J Sports Prod., Inc. v. J.R.'Z Neighborhood Sports Grille, Inc., No. 9-3141, 2010 WL 1838432
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. v. Man Thi Doan (N.D. Cal. 2008) WL 4911223
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. v. Manzano (2008) U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84931
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. vs. Romenski, 845 F.Supp.2d 703 (2012)
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. v. Schmalz, 745 F.Supp.2d 844 (S.D. Ohio, Sept. 17, 2010)
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. v. Steve Sang Ro (2010) U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21425
• J & J Sports Productions, Inc. vs. Welch, 2010 WL 4683744
• Joe Hand Promotions, Inc. v. Alvarado, 2011 WL 1740536 at *8 (E.D.Cal., May 4, 2011)
• Joe Hand Promotions, Inc. v. Dailey (N.D. Cal. 2003) WL 1342998
• Joe Hand Promotions, Inc. v. Dock Street Enters. Inc., No. 11-1973, 2011 WL 6141058, at *5 n. 5 (D.Md., Dec. 8, 2011.)
• Joe Hand Promotions, Inc. vs. Jacob Evans Albright d/b/a Miners Ranch Saloon, 2013 U.S. Dist.
• Joe Hand Promotions, Inc. v. Kaczmar, 2008 WL 4776365, *2 (N.D.Ill. Oct.29, 2008)
• Joe Hand Promotions, Inv. v. Pete (N.D. Cal. 1999) WL 638215
• Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, (1967)
• Kingvision Pay-Per-View, Ltd. v. Backman (N.D. Cal. 2000) 102 F.Supp.2d 1196, 1197
• Kingvision Pay-Per-View v. Guzman (N.D. Cal. 2009) WL 1475722
• Kingvision Pay Per View v. Ortega (N.D. Cal. 2002) WL 31855367
• Kingvision Pay-Per-View, Ltd. v. Rivers 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4338, p. 11.)
• Planned Parenthood of Cent. and Northern Ariz. v. State of Ariz., 718 F.2d 938, 947 (9th Cir.1983)
• Premium Sports Inc. vs. Connell, 2012 WL 691891 (S.D.N.Y. March 1, 2012)
• Small Company v. American Sugar Refining Co., 267 U.S. 233, 239 (1925)
• Smith v. Cincinnati v. Post & Times-Star, 475 F.2d 740, 741 (6th Cir. 1973)
• That's Entmt. V. Anciano's, Inc., No. 94 C 7199, 1996 WL 514989, at *1 (N.D. Ill. 1996)
• Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111, 126–27 (1985)
• United States v. Makowski, 120 F.3d 1078, 1080 (1997)
• United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715 at 726 (1966)
• Universal Sports Network, Inc. v. Jiminez (N.D. Cal. 2002) WL 31109707
• Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, 455 U.S. 489, 498 (1982)
• Zuffa, LLC v. Justin.tv, Inc., 838 F.Supp.2d 1102 (D. Nev. 2012)

The "ESPN Defense" {Click for Podcast}

Sometimes we will encounter what we call the "ESPN Defense."  This is where someone buys the latest fight via a mobile application, believing they have the rights to do what they want with it.  However, there is usually a disclaimer license that limits what can be done with the fight (usually, only allowing using it for personal, non-commercial broadcasts).  Here is what a typical license might look like:

"Your subscription to the ESPN+ service (and any other services or events ordered via ESPN+) is a personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-commercial, non-transferable license to privately stream the content made available to you via the service.  We do not allow transmission of the ESPN+ service (or any other services or events ordered via ESPN+) for any commercial or business related use or in any commercial establishment or area open to the public (e.g., lobby, bar, restaurant, diner, stadium, casino, club, cafe, theater, etc.).  You may not rebroadcast, transmit or perform the programming available via the ESPN+ service (or any other services or events ordered via ESPN+) or charge admission for its viewing."

Keep in mind, using this RESIDENTIAL license to broadcast the event in your establishment is not a defense to the telecommunications laws.

Contact a Boxing Piracy Defense Law Firm

If you or your business received what we affectionately refer to as "the love letter," give us a call.  We offer low flat rate fees for experienced representation in this niche federal litigation area.

We have helped many companies (bars, restaurants, cigar and hookah bars, and sports bars), both large and small, over the years defend against companies like J&J Sports, G&G Closed Circuit Events, and Joe Hand Promotions, and two of the main firms, Janis and the Riley Firm in Pasadena.  In this area of law, there is no substitute for experience, especially litigation experience, as that's where many cases are headed if their settlement demands are not paid. 

We have appeared in over 500 litigation cases since 2004, and we are licensed to practice law in California and Arizona. Since these are telecommunications law legal issues, we are able to take cases nationwide.

Call us at (877) 276-5084 or email us through our contact form at the right side of this page.