Suit Alleges Bar Owner Pirated Licensed Exhibition of PPV Content

Plaintiff Joe Hand Promotions held the exclusive commercial distribution rights for a dozen pay-per-view boxing or Ultimate Fighting Championship matches in 2018 in 2019, and is going after Carter’s Sports Bar in Birmingham, Alabama, for pirating the licensed exhibition of the events, in violation of the Telecommunications Act. The bar and its owner, Cordell Carter, using an unauthorized satellite transmission or unauthorized receipt of a cable signal stem, “willfully intercepted” the programs, then unlawfully transmitted to patrons, said the Nov. 21 complaint (docket 2:22-cv-01471) in U.S. District Court for Northern Alabama in Birmingham. Carter could have contracted with Joe Hand and purchased authorization to exhibit each of the programs in his establishment for a fee, it said.