Zuffa Files Infringement Lawsuit Against Justin.tv

Owner of The Ultimate Fighting Championship, Zuffa announced Friday via press release that the company has filed a lawsuit against website Justin.tv for copyright and trademark infringement.

The company, owned mostly by Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, filed its suit in United States District Court for the District of Nevada based on the website’s “repeated and ongoing failure to meaningfully address the rampant and illegal uploading of video of live pay-per-view UFC events by members and users of the Justin.tv website.”

Justin.tv is a website through which Internet users may broadcast live, streaming video to an unlimited audience. The broadcast of copyrighted materials -- as well as pornography, slanderous material and the like -- is prohibited by the website as listed in its terms of service, which states that the site “does not permit copyright infringing activities on the Justin.tv Service, and will terminate access to the Justin.tv Service, and remove all Lifecaster Content or other content submitted by any Users who are found to be repeat infringers.”

According to Friday's press release, however, Zuffa believes not only that Justin.tv has ignored the illegal uploads, but has actually encouraged the behavior of the site's users.

“Zuffa has attempted to work on numerous occasions with Justin.tv over nearly a two-year period to encourage it to prevent or limit its infringing activities,” Zuffa’s Las Vegas attorney, Donald J. Campbell said in the release. “Regrettably, Justin.tv has not only turned a blind eye to the massive online piracy occurring on its website, we believe it has actually induced its users to commit copyright infringement thus leaving Zuffa no alternative but to take this fight to the courts.”

Zuffa also alleges in the release that more than 50,000 Justin.tv users viewed October's UFC 121 pay-per-view event illegally on the site. The release also states that Zuffa hired third-party contractors to remove more than 200 infringing live streams.