Texas Cafe Owner Pirated Boxing Broadcast for ‘His Own Economic Gain’: Complaint

A restaurant owner in Texas City, Texas, willfully engaged in wrongful acts when he intercepted the June 2021 closed-circuit broadcast of the Gervonta Davis vs. Mario Barrios boxing match for free while legitimate establishments paid substantially more for the proper commercial sublicense to show the broadcast to their patrons, alleged Joe Hand Promotions’ Communications Act complaint Sunday (docket 3:24-cv-00141) in U.S. District Court for Southern Texas in Galveston. Phillip Palmer knew or should have known that the interception and exhibition of the June 26, 2021, broadcast at his Big Phil’s Soul & Creole Cafe wasn’t “properly authorized,” said the complaint. The broadcast wasn’t for private viewing, nor was it for residential, noncommercial purposes, it said. Palmer’s establishment sold food and drinks during the broadcast, and the public display of the program was to entice patrons to the establishment to spend money while viewing it, it said. Palmer intentionally pirated the program “for the purpose of his own economic gain,” it said. The complaint seeks maximum damages of $100,000 for the willful violation of Section 605 of the Communications Act, or alternatively the maximum of $50,000 for the willful violation of Section 553.