Paige VanZant asked a court for the identities of individuals she claimed shared her copyrighted images and videos.
Former UFC fighter Paige VanZant has developed a profitable income stream through selling exclusive content via her personal website and other platforms. That content includes NSFW images and videos.
TorrentFreak reports that VanZant’s content, which she keeps behind a paywall, has been copied and distributed for free over the popular chat platform Discord. That outlet also reports that VanZant is stepping up efforts to stop these activities and punish those responsible.
On October 15 Jason Fischer, an attorney for VanZant, wrote to Discord informing the company that unknown individuals had used their platform to circulate dozens of VanZant’s copyrighted images without her consent.
“This copyrighted material was captured from Ms. Vanzant’s fan site (https://www.paigefanzant.com/) without permission and has similarly been reproduced and published on Discord without permission,” wrote Fischer. “Accordingly, we respectfully request that you remove the above-described copyrighted materials from your site/servers.”
VanZant has also filed an application in a California district court to access the identities of the Discord users who she says shared her copyrighted content. The information VanZant is requesting includes the suspected pirates’ real names, physical addresses, telephone/email addresses and billing information.
In her application VanZant listed more than 60 links to images and videos which she claimed had been illegally shared on Discord.
Since leaving the UFC in 2020, Paige VanZant has appeared for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships. She is currently 0-2 in bare knuckle boxing, with losses to Britain Hart and fellow former UFC fighter Rachael Ostovich.
Recently VanZant said she would be interested in appearing in Bellator MMA, the promotion that her husband—Austin Vanderford—currently fights for.