Rights-holders of footage of the recent Mayweather v Pacquiao boxing match have forced Periscope to remove clips of the fight uploaded by its users. HBO and Showtime had been charging boxing fans as much as $99.50 to watch the match in high definition, but some users managed to watch the action live for free via the app.
The fight – between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao – was dubbed the “fight of the century”. The broadcasters are yet to comment on the misuse of Twitter-owned Periscope. HBO has expressed its anger over the app being used to rebroadcast the first episode of Game of Thrones season five.
Periscope only launched on 26th March but already has more than one million users. Users have been able to “pirate” copyrighted footage by filming the output of their television screens with smartphones and tablets. Whilst the footage is usually of dubious quality, users can usually understand what is happening on their screens. Unlike other services like YouTube, it doesn’t give content owners the tools to remove content in near-real time. Twitter boss Dick Costolo came under fire after tweeting: “And the winner is… @periscopeco” on the night of the fight, though HBO itself had been using the app to stream footage from Pacquiao’s dressing room earlier that evening.