Why You Can Trust CNET Triller wants anyone who illegally streamed Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren to pay up
"It is no different than walking into a store and stealing a video game off the shelf," said Triller's head of piracy Matt St. Claire.
Jake Paul defeated Ben Askren in one of the biggest combat sports events of the year.
Triller wants everyone who illegally streamed the Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren PPV to pay up.
In a statement posted on its fite.tv website, Triller stated it's giving folks who pirated the event the opportunity to backpay the company $49.99 -- the original cost of the event -- as a "a one-time settlement and release for their unlawful acts".
According to Triller, if those payments are not made, the company will pursue the full $150,000 fine for anyone they can prove streamed the content illegally.
"VPNs all have to comply and turn over the actual IP addresses of each person who stole the fight in discovery," Triller's head of piracy Matt St. Claire told Reuters.
"We will be able to identify each and every person, VPN or not, as each stream has a unique fingerprint embedded in the content."
The request is connected to a lawsuit filed by Triller against the owners of the H3Podcast website among others, who it accused of streaming the Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren event. Triller believe upwards of 2 million people watched the fight illegally. News regarding the suit was first broken by Kevin Iole. Triller believes it lost $100 million as a result of illegal streams.
"We are taking this position because it is outright theft," St. Claire said. "It is no different than walking into a store and stealing a video game off the shelf."
Regardless of the piracy, the Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren was huge success by most metrics. Analysts believe the event sold somewhere between 1.2 and 1.6 million PPVs, which is a massive number compared to most recent boxing or MMA live events. The fight itself, however, ended somewhat anti-climatically, after Jake Paul knocked out Ben Askren in the first round.
His brother, Logan Paul, is set to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in June this year.