Illegally streaming UFC pay-per-views is theft no matter how you justify it.
UFC president Dana White has taken some heat recently for making such claims and going even further, saying he would persecute those who steal the UFC’s content, but that heat is undeserved.
White may not be able to “beat the Internet” and, in that sense, his initiative to curb the streaming of UFC PPVs could very likely fail.
However, that doesn’t make the thieves right.
Fans love to hate on White for his bold statements about Internet pirating, but their rationalizations for stealing from the UFC (and from the fighters they claim to love as a result) are just as foolish as they claim White’s statements to be.
One of the most popular arguments thieves use is that the UFC has no right to be charging “exorbitant” prices for their “watered down” cards. The streamers claim they have the right to steal the card because Zuffa is making them pay an unfair price.
The world doesn’t work that way.
Zuffa has the right to charge whatever they damn well feel like, as long as the market will bear it. Just because you don’t feel like paying for it or think it’s too expensive doesn’t mean you have the right to steal it.
Besides, the problem of the “too expensive” card is easily solved.
If it’s too expensive or you don’t like who’s fighting on the card, you have several options: Don’t watch the card, have some friends over and split the cost of the event or go to a local bar that’s showing it.
Those are simple solutions that fans overlook and the pathetic rationalizations they offer don’t hold up against those three actions. Sometimes, the fans just don’t want to spend ANY money on the pay-per-view and feel they can get away with stealing.
They might be right in the sense that it’s unlikely that Zuffa will get every person who steals but that doesn’t make it OK. If you can afford to go to a bar or split the cost, do it. If you don’t have the money (or friends) or if you don’t feel the card is worth paying for, don’t make yourself a criminal.
However, some streamers aren’t that easily persuaded. Some have wallets that refuse to be opened; closed shut by the weight of ideological baggage.
The ideologues fall into two main categories.
One group steals because they kept the UFC going during the infamous “Dark Ages” of the company. They believe that the UFC owes them for that, owes them in the form of letting them steal PPVs whenever they want.
The other group harbors a fanatical opposition to all things Zuffa (yet, for all their vitriol, they still follow the UFC and Strikeforce) and they refuse to line the pockets of the company they hate.
Where is the source of their hate? The reasons are far too numerous to cover in detail suffice to say that the typical issues are the “underpaying” of fighters (which is only made worse by stealing, ironically) or Zuffa’s purchase and subsequent execution of Pride.
Sadly, members of these two factions often can’t be reasoned with. So great is their fanaticism that facts and threatened legal action cannot stop it.
But no matter what reason these thieves give for stealing, watching UFC PPVs is not a God-given right. Like everything else in the world, if you don’t want to pay for it, you don’t deserve it—disliking the card, buying EVERY other prior UFC PPV, hating Zuffa or any other number of absurd rationales notwithstanding.
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