Distributor Seeks $170,000 From San Jose Tavern for Pirating October Soccer Broadcast

La Cima Grill Sports Bar in San Jose and its owner, Karen Julieth Castellanos Fierro, pirated the closed-circuit broadcast of the Oct. 17 Ecuador vs. Colombia soccer match without authorization from rights holder Integrated Sports Media, alleged Integrated’s Communications Act complaint Wednesday (docket 5:24-cv-02756) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose. Fierro unlawfully intercepted and displayed the program to her paying customers, resulting in increased profits for her tavern, which sold food and beverages to its patrons as they watched the unlawful feed, said the complaint. Integrated entered into sublicensing agreements with various commercial entities throughout North America, granting the rights to publicly exhibit the soccer match within their establishments, it said. As a commercial distributor and licensor of sporting events, Integrated spent “substantial” sums marketing, advertising, promoting, administering and transmitting the soccer match to its commercial customers, it said. The match originated via satellite uplink and was subsequently retransmitted to cable systems and satellite companies via satellite signal to Integrated’s lawful sublicensees, said the complaint. The complaint alleges Fierro and her establishment committed willful violations of the Communications Act and the Cable and Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act, and did so “for purposes of direct and/or indirect commercial advantage and/or private financial gain,” it said. The four-count complaint seeks $170,000 in statutory damages on the first and second counts, compensatory, exemplary and punitive damages on the third count and restitution from Fierro and her establishment on the fourth count for their “ill-gotten gains,” it said.