TMZ entangled in boxing copyright brawl
Celebrity gossip website TMZ has found itself entangled in a copyright claim centring on video footage of an interview with US boxer Elliot Seymour.
The owner of Hotwire sports blog, Darnell Perez, filed the lawsuit at the US District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division, on Thursday, December 15.
According to the suit, the Hotwire interview, which took place in December 2014, includes footage of Seymour discussing his involvement in a boxing match against actor Mickey Rourke in Moscow in November that year.
In the December, Liz McKernan, a producer for TMZ (which publishes videos on its site), allegedly requested that Perez send the footage to the gossip website for viewing and negotiate a payment.
Perez allegedly delivered the footage using Dropbox, and another TMZ producer, Dax Holt, requested Perez sign a contract allowing TMZ to purchase the video from him for $50.
He allegedly refused to sign the contract and posted the footage on his blog, but TMZ then published the footage, said the suit.
Although Perez sent a written notice to take the video down, TMZ “continued to disseminate the footage and still is disseminating the footage”.
Perez is seeking a jury trial, damages, an award of profits, injunctive relief and the impounding of all infringing copies of the footage.
