Tip: Don’t brag about stealing something… especially to the person you stole it from.
An Instagram user decided to publicly troll Triller owner Ryan Kavanaugh on Instagram recently with the message, “I watched the Jake Paul fight for free.” After a different user questioned why he would admit to this, the original poster wrote, “idc. He can’t sue me.”
If that user was laughing then, he might not be now.
According to TorrentFreak an individual from West Portsmouth, Ohio—whose name matches that of the Instagram user in question—has been sued by Triller.
“This is a civil action seeking damages for violation of the Federal Communications Act, 47 U.S.C. § 605, et seq., and for violation of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101, et seq,” reads the lawsuit that was filed last Friday.
The lawsuit cites the individual’s original Instagram post as evidence that piracy had been committed. The lawsuit claims that individual “admitted knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully receiving, viewing, and illegally accessing the Broadcast without paying Plaintiff the appropriate pay-per-view fees.”
For these allegations Triller is seeking over $150,000 in damages.
TorrentFreak has highlighted a number of factors that make this case quite unusual:
That Triller is prepared to file a lawsuit based on a few lines of text posted to an Instagram account raises questions in itself. People post all kinds of nonsense online every single day so whether Swords actually watched the fight illegally is something that will need to be proven to the court’s satisfaction.
TorrentFreak’s commentary also states that, though it is common for content creators to file lawsuits against those who have illegally reproduced their streams or captured their content and provided it for others to download, it is rare and rather odd to see a company target an individual who may have simply watched an illegal stream.
That outlet added that it is also “notoriously difficult to prove” that someone simply viewed pirated content. TorrentFreak concludes that Triller might be angling for some kind of settlement with this individual, so that they might use him as a “head on a pike” to dissuade others from watching illegal streams of Triller content.
Triller had already launched a $100 million lawsuit targeting individuals and entities who distributed the Paul vs. Askren fight on platforms like YouTube. However, that suit didn’t hold up under scrutiny. That forced them to pivot and launch a number of separate smaller lawsuits.
Triller has also launched an amnesty program asking people who illegally watched the fight to pay $49.99 to avoid being sued.