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UFC officials stepping up antipiracy efforts

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By Dann Stupp, Contributing Writer 12:48 AM Monday, July 26, 2010

Although nearly every major sport suffers from online piracy, none arguably has as much to lose as the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s largest pay-per-view content provider.

That’s why officials from the MMA organization, who banked a remarkable $350 million in 2009 PPV revenue, have amped up their antipiracy campaign.

In its latest move, the organization announced this past that it has subpoenaed the owners of Justin.tv and Ustream. Although the sites allow “user-generated content,” the live video streams also include a fair amount of copyrighted material. And UFC officials want the identities of those users who provided live UFC events (ones that traditionally cost $45) for free.

The campaign has split fans into various factions, including a vocal one that’s actually criticized the UFC as greedy and wasting money to fight a losing battle.

UFC president Dana White, though, remains unfazed.

“When people start going to jail, people will stop doing it,” he said. “This is a fight we will not lose.”

Granted, being an MMA fan — specifically a UFC fan — can be expensive. With more than a dozen annual PPVs, a fan would have to dish out $600-$700 for them all. But few fans actually take that route. Many put together watch parties and split the costs. Additionally, sports bars, including many of the Dayton area’s Hooters and Buffalo Wild Wing locations, offer them for free or for a small cover charge.

“Are there always going to be people that are going to steal? Yeah,” said UFC general legal counsel Lawrence Epstein. “There are going to be people that rob convenience stores and banks, too. I think this is about stopping the good majority of law-abiding citizens who, without education, might not understand that what they’re doing is (wrong).”

Jake Shields officially joins the UFC

As expected, middleweight champion Jake Shields has jumped ship, left Strikeforce and signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC.

Shields, had been one of the top two or three fighters not under contract to the promotion. But once his contract expired and he was seen cageside at a UFC event, Strikeforce officials bowed out and refused to enter into a bidding war.

Shields (25-4-1) now brings a staggering 14-fight win streak to an October UFC 121 fight with Martin Kampmann. While organizations such as Strikeforce and Bellator have made their marks in the sport, the Shields signing underscores the general consensus that the best fighters still remain in the UFC.

“Jake has fought a lot of the top guys, and now he’ll fight the best of the them,” his father/manager, Jack Shields, said.

Dann Stupp is editor-in-chief of MMAjunkie.com, voted best media outlet in the 2008 and 2009 World MMA Awards. For the latest mixed-martial-arts news, go to www.MMAjunkie.com.

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