Sports lovers in this country should thank their lucky stars – SuperSport shows more live sport than any other broadcaster in the world and we never have to deal with a little something called ‘Pay-Per-View’.

Yes, one does have to fork over a fair whack to enjoy DSTV but boxing fans in the US had to pay $100 just for the pleasure of watching two men prance, dance and jab. This angered many, of course, and led to some creative ways of getting around paying that ransom. This from Mashable:

…Periscope users pointed their phones at TVs showing pricey Pay-per-view boxing broadcasts. At one point…10,000 people were simultaneously watching a random stream of the match on the app — in Spanish.

The number of tweets with links to Periscope videos shot up to its second highest level of all-time on the day of the fight, nearly doubling the number of Meerkat posts tweeted,

Now Periscope and Meerkat are currently engaged in a contest that has provided more excitement than Sunday’s match, with competition for domination in the live-streaming service heating up. Twitter acquired Periscope for a reported $100 million so it’s no surprise that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo was quick to sing its praises.

Good work Dick. The problem Periscope now faces is a legal battle, and where there is money to be made people will come out swinging:

Periscope and Twitter are now front and center for what could be a complicated legal debate over piracy, reminiscent of the growing pains— and lawsuits — that YouTube experienced.

Like YouTube, Periscope makes it unbelievably simple for millions of users to share and view copyrighted content. Unlike YouTube now, Periscope does not yet have great tools for reporting copyright violations.

I don’t care who comes out on top, I just want to see some blood and someone hit the turf. Is that too much to ask?

[source:mashable]