Ky. Burger Restaurant Pirated April 13 PPV Broadcast, Alleges UFC Owner

A Columbia, Kentucky, burger restaurant pirated the April 13 pay-per-view broadcast of the Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill Ultimate Fighting Championship bout, alleged UFC owner Zuffa in a Communications Act complaint Friday (docket 1:24-cv-00081) in U.S. District Court for Western Kentucky in Bowling Green. Thrasher advertised the broadcast for at least three days on the establishment’s Facebook page, together with offers of discounted beers and food, said the complaint. Owner Jason Thrasher and Hooligan Burger, “jointly and severally, received a commercial benefit by commercially promoting a fight night without having commercial exhibition rights and without paying the commercial licensing fee,” it said. For anyone to obtain the broadcast through a website intended for private, noncommercial viewing, “an individual purchaser would be provided with terms of service which specifically provide for non-commercial, personal use only,” it said. With full knowledge that the broadcast wasn’t to be received and exhibited by entities unauthorized to do so, Thrasher and Hooligan Burger unlawfully intercepted, received and descrambled the UFC encrypted signal and exhibited the broadcast at the establishment, it said. They did so “for purposes of direct or indirect commercial advantage or private financial gain,” it said.