ICE is at it again, trying to put a stop to those who try to make money off UFC pay-per-views by streaming the events online for a discounted fee. Washington’s The Hill has the story:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a New York man on Tuesday accused of running a website that illegally streamed Pay Per View boxing and mixed martial arts events over the Web.
Queens native Mohamed Ali, 19, was arrested at his home on Tuesday morning and charged with one count of criminal infringement of a copyright.
Authorities claim he operated HQ-STREAMS.COM and HQ-STREAMS.NET, both of which were seized in February as part of the Obama administration’s unprecedented crackdown on digital piracy.
ICE Director John Morton said the arrest “sends a clear message to website operators who mistakenly believe it’s worth the risk to take copyrighted programming and portray it as their own.”
The article goes on to state that according to Doug Jacobs, president of PPV distributor Integrated Sports Media, a major UFC event can lose as much as 30 percent of their PPV revenue due to digital piracy.
Ali reportedly earned in excess of $6,000 between February 2010 and January 2011 from the two sites by allegedly streaming UFC, WWE and boxing events. Since the sites have been shut down, they have received more than 50,000 hits combined.
I get it, but the thing about this is im not rich. I don’t have money to spend on much entertainment stuff. The problem? I’m a DIEHARD UFC fan. So I iether watch illegaly or don’t watch at all. They aren’t losing money with me watching their PPVs on the internet because theres no way I could have the money to buy them otherwise. If I was rich I would buy every single UFC PPV but i’m not and I will watch them with any means necessary. So chew on that!hahaha