US pay-television broadcasters HBO and Showtime have filed a joint lawsuit against a set of websites that have allegedly been advertising unauthorised live online coverage of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. v Manny Pacquiao welterweight world title boxing clash this Saturday.
HBO and Showtime, which are showing the fight on a pay-per-view basis, have been joined in the California federal court lawsuit by Mayweather Promotions and Top Rank, the co-promoters of the bout.
The lawsuit names “John Doe 1 d/b/a boxinghd.net… John Doe 2 d/b/a sportship.org” and seven other anonymous defendants as advertising “an unauthorised live internet stream of the coverage in California and elsewhere,” according to the Hollywood Reporter news website.
“In sum, the only content on defendants’ websites promotes and/or monetises their intention to infringe plaintiffs’ rights by streaming the coverage without authorisation,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiffs are informed and believe that defendants are on actual notice of plaintiffs’ rights but nevertheless intend to proceed with their unauthorised and infringing live stream of the coverage.”
Showtime and HBO have not only asked for a restraining order against those directly involved in “anticipated” copyright infringement, but they have also asked the judge to consider other service providers, “including all registrars, hosts, name servers, site acceleration providers, providers of video delivery resources, and providers of computer and network resources through which video transits.”