In a matter of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit sided with a third-party sporting events distributor, finding it has standing to sue a Tennessee bar under the Copyright Act for livestreaming a 2017 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor without the proper licensing.
There’s no dispute that CJ’s Bar & Grill used a $99 personal Showtime license—rather than pay thousands of dollars for a commercial license—to stream the much-anticipated match between Mayweather, the famous boxer, and McGregor, a popular mixed martial arts fighter, on Aug. 26, 2017. The bar’s owner and staff advertised the event and had a $6 coverage charge.
