Big sports outfit sues small pub over 'pirated' TV boxing match

The owner of a small Panacea sports bar who let a customer stream one of the biggest boxing matches in pay-per-view history is facing a federal piracy lawsuit from the company that distributed the fight.

Joe Hand Productions of Feasterville, Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee accusing Mariner’s Neighborhood Pub of showing a pirated broadcast of the August 2017 clash between boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. and mixed martial arts champ Conor McGregor.

The distributor accused the pub of showing the match to make money and bring in customers. But the pub’s owner, Mary Nabors, said she had no idea she didn’t have permission to show the fight and never would have done so had she known. She said one of her regulars came in just before the fight and asked to stream it on one of her TVs using his Roku because he couldn’t get it to work at his house.

“So I said sure,” Nabors told the Tallahassee Democrat. “I didn’t have any idea that it was a problem. I didn’t think nothing more about it until I got the lawsuit paperwork. I’m finding that no good deed goes unpunished in this business.”

The fight, aired in the U.S. by Showtime, was the second-biggest pay-per-view event in history, with 4.3 million buys, according to news reports. TV viewers could stream it for up to $99.99 as long as it wasn’t for commercial use. However, various businesses pirated the cable or satellite signal to cash in on the match, according to the lawsuit.

“Defendants intentionally pirated the program for the sole purpose of their own economic gain,” the complaint says. “Defendants exhibited the program for the commercial purpose of attracting paying customers, patrons, members and guests, thereby wrongfully benefiting financially by infringing (the promoter’s) rights in the high-profile event.”

Joe Hand Productions is seeking up to $320,000 in statutory damages, along with attorneys fees and costs, according to the complaint. The company, which distributes and licenses premier sporting events, has filed numerous similar lawsuits over the years.

Nabors, a disabled veteran, said she never planned to show the fight that night and certainly didn’t try to profit off it. After she was served with legal documents she wrote the company to explain what happened.

She told the company her pub is in a shopping center that’s fallen into foreclosure and she might not be in business much longer. She said her place has two pool tables, seats only 30 people and averages a few hundred bucks a day in receipts.

“I told them take your best shot,” she said. “I said, 'I’d be happy to send you my receipts, but you can’t get blood out of a turnip.'”