UFC (legally) beats down accused pirate

Ultimate Fighting Championship recently sent a message to anyone thinking about pirating its fight show content: We will hunt you down.

That wasn’t a threat of violence, just a statement that trademark pirates will be sued in court with all the zeal that UFC superstar Ronda Rousey shows when applying her trademark armbar move in the Octagon.

The company how has a 1-0 record in this arena.

UFC, the Las Vegas-based MMA fight promotion and media company, announced Friday that a New York man who was accused of stealing UFC content on the Internet has settled and apologized.

Zuffa, LLC, UFC’s parent, said that under the settlement, Steven Messina was penalized by UFC for an undisclosed amount of money, forced to surrender his computer hardware and software to UFC representatives, to turn over all records and information pertaining to piracy of UFC content and even information linked to other potential pirates.

“He must also cooperate with the UFC organization and law enforcement authorities in an effort to prevent others from stealing intellectual property,” UFC said in a statement.

Messina said he was sorry.

“I apologize to the UFC for any damages incurred as a result of my actions in illegally distributing copyrighted UFC broadcasts. As a result of my confession for piracy of UFC’s protected content, I fully accept the terms of the settlement with the UFC,” Messina said in a statement.

“It is my hope that I can use this difficult period as a learning experience as I move on with my life. I would also like to tell anyone pirating UFC broadcasts, either through illegal downloading or non-authorized streaming, that it is illegal and not worth the risk,” he said in the statement.

As part of the settlement, Messina will provide details of his techniques that led to the unauthorized distribution of an estimated 200 hours of UFC content.

UFC spends tens of thousands of dollars annually on legal help and staff time to sniff out pirates who stream UFC fight shows and show content obtained illegally.

Kirk Hendrick, UFC chief legal officer, said, “The UFC organization is pleased with the outcome of this case and Messina’s willingness to assist the UFC’s efforts in protecting our intellectual property and broadcasts. With Messina’s apology and understanding, the UFC organization will learn more to help us continue uncovering illegal distribution of our content.”

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @BicycleManSnel on Twitter.