Joe Hand Sues 2 Phoenix Sports Bars for Pirating 2022 Boxing Match

Program distributor Joe Hand Productions filed separate Communications Act piracy lawsuits Thursday (dockets 2:23-cv-01922 and 2:23-cv-01924) in U.S. District Court for Arizona, alleging two Phoenix-area sports bars showed their paying customers the September 2022 broadcast of the Canelo Álvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin boxing match without a license. The broadcast originated via satellite uplink and was retransmitted interstate to cable and satellite systems via satellite signal, said both complaints. Joe Hand entered into agreements with various commercial establishments in Arizona that, in exchange for a fee, allowed them to exhibit the program to their customers, they said. “In consideration of the aforementioned agreements,” Joe Hand spent “substantial monies” to market, advertise, promote, administer and transmit the program to those establishments, they said. All the defendants could have contracted with Joe Hand and purchased authorization to exhibit the program in their establishments for a fee, but instead they chose to willfully "intercept" the program via “unauthorized satellite transmission” or by “unauthorized receipt over a cable system,” said the complaints. Both complaints seek statutory damages of up $110,000 per each willful violation.