Ustream Hands Over PPV Broadcast Pirates’ IP Adresses to UFC; Company Vows to Go After Illegal Viewers Next

(Argh!. That Free stream you watched a few months back might end up costing you a hell of a lot more than $39.95.)

Apparently Zuffa isn’t f-ing around when it comes to enforcing its copyrights.

According to a report by newteevee.com Ustream.com has complied with a request by UFC parent company Zuffa LLC to hand over the Internet protocol addresses of members who broadcasted the promotion’s events via the popular Internet streaming site.

Last week, Zuffa subpoenaed both Ustream and Justin.tv, demanding that both sites provide them with the IP addresses of individuals whom it says, quite simply, are infringing on its intellectual property rights.

Here’s a statement Ustream (who not coincidentally recently updated its copyright protection security tools to cover its ass from further prosecution ensure this never happens again) gave newteevee today:

“Ustream was subpoenaed by UFC via Zuffa earlier this year to provide identifiable information on certain broadcasters, which Ustream fully complied with in a timely manner. Ustream continues to work cohesively with our premium content partners to prevent piracy, including UFC to legally stream officially-sanctioned UFC events.”

Earlier this year in a presentation the UFC CEO gave to the House Judiciary Committee, Lorenzo Fertitta pointed to figures that indicated that over 78,000 non-paying users watched UFC 111 via a live streaming site. The promotion has identified the party that broadcast the event and has linked him to another feed he supplied 36,000 people with a few months earlier.

Although it seems they are just going after the suppliers at this point, Zuffa has stated that it intends to go after the end users with individual lawsuits in the coming months.

Translation: If you’ve watched an illegal Internet feed of a UFC broadcast in the past year, quit your job, sell your house and move to Tijuana.

Seriously, buddy, you’re screwed.

On the bright side, they do have Internet in Mexico and Tequila is as cheap as bottled water.