Does the UFC understand how online pirating works?

The UFC issued a press release yesterday, declaring that they had issued subpoenas against popular streaming websites justin.tv and ustream.tv, both of which allow users to share television feeds. Although the move isn’t the first for the largest MMA organization (they have issued subpoenas against other sites in the past), it’s really nothing more than just a public show of force. Both justin.tv and ustream.tv have been active in shutting down the many UFC streams that appear throughout the night of a pay-per-view event, but if you look hard enough, another stream will be sure to appear just seconds later.

The article talks about the loss of 36,000 viewers from UFC 108 due to one user who uploaded multiple streams. That same user went on to “steal” 78,000 viewers from UFC 110. The UFC might have a difficult time proving that those 100,000+ viewers were intending to purchase the pay-per-view in the first place, but I’m betting that a judge will see through their side of the case. There’s more interesting facts in the article regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and some thinly veiled threats around sharing UFC events online.  The best part of the article, however, is this quote from the president of the UFC himself.

I can’t wait to go after the thieves that are stealing our content,” said UFC President Dana White. “This is a fight we will not lose.

I’m sure I’m not the first to say this, but it is definitely a fight you will lose, Dana White. Just check the record of the RIAA, who spent $58M to recoup a whopping $1.4M from users and sites who have been found guilty of sharing music. When one music sharing site goes down, another one pops up. Most are set up and run in countries where the regulation of illegally sharing copyrighted materials on the internet is lax.

Online streaming and torrent web sites have always been a step ahead of the pay per view, movie, and music industry, and directly attacking web sites and users will only result in users moving to other sites or going further underground to pay-for-access groups. Unfortunately, some people just don’t feel they need to pay $44.95 for three hours of fighting. Those who are unable to watch the fights via pay-per-view, and rely on free online streams, may be hit the hardest when these popular streaming sites like justin.tv and ustream.tv do more to police their users.

The UFC is doing what it can to protect its legal interests, but I hope they don’t use up fighter salary money to pay for more lawyers in a against online users who will always be a step ahead. And if I wanted to, I can still use another very organized and free online streaming site to watch television and movies – and UFC pay-per-view events.