Suits filed in interception of fight broadcast

STAFF REPORT

A California-based production company said three area bars illegally intercepted its fight broadcast, according to the U.S. District Court.

J&J Sports Productions Inc., broadcast licensee of the Oct. 18, 2008, Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins fight, is suing Callahan’s Irish Pub in Warren, Dash Inn in Youngstown and Chippers Sports Bar and Grill in Austintown.

The company filed three federal lawsuits on grounds that the bars showed the fight unlawfully, therefore violating the Federal Communications Act for commercial or private financial gain.

Each bar is being sued for $170,000.

The production company is unable to determine the exact method the bars used to get the fight.

However, using an illegal satellite receiver, misrepresenting the bars as a residence or taking a receiver from a home to the business establishment to intercept the broadcast are three ways the bars could have intercepted the broadcast, according to the suits.

The complaints were filed March 31 and the cases will be dealt with in the Ohio Northern District Court.