Duco still chasing streamers

Duco Events boss Dean Lonergan vowed to bill them up to tens of thousands of dollars, labelling them "complete lowlife s***heads". Photo / Doug Sherring

Almost a month after vowing to hunt down the people who illegally streamed Joseph Parker's most recent boxing bout on the internet, event promoters have still to deliver a knock-out blow to those responsible.

The fight between Parker and Carlos Takam at Manukau on May 21 was viewed more than 100,000 times on Facebook as the action was live-streamed on social media and re-broadcast unlawfully by filming Sky TV's $49.99 coverage of the match.

In the aftermath, Duco Events boss Dean Lonergan vowed to bill them up to tens of thousands of dollars, labelling them "complete lowlife s***heads".

"We'll be chasing the people who did the re-streaming, they're not hard to identify with screenshots of everyone who [did] it, and some of them might be liable of up to $1 million if they had 21,000 streamers," he said.

"They're not the smartest people on the planet, it's a blatant breach of our copyright, we will be pursuing it."

Lonergan said yesterday the internet pirates are still being sought.

"We are working through things with Sky and our lawyers."

James Bryant posted a stream of the event on Facebook and told the Herald last month he wasn't worried by threats. He thought the per-view price was "ridiculous".

"I challenge Mr Lonergan to try to sue me."

Internet piracy law expert Rick Shera said people who live-streamed were easy legal targets.

"It's a pretty blatant, obvious copyright breach." Shera said the losses suffered would be the basis of any damages claim.