Law360 Names Jonathan Phillips a Leading Defense Attorney in Pay-Per-View Piracy Litigation
I was recently featured in a national Law360 Pulse article spotlighting the small group of attorneys nationwide who specialize in defending bars, restaurants, and other commercial venues against pay-per-view piracy lawsuits filed by Joe Hand Promotions, J&J Promotions, and G&G Promotions. The July 6, 2026 piece, These Small Firm Attys Specialize In Pay-Per-View Fights, by Daniel Connolly, highlights me as one of only a handful of lawyers in the country who has built a genuine specialty fighting these cases.
A Nationally Recognized Niche Practice
Joe Hand Promotions has filed more than 5,700 federal lawsuits since 1990, including over 50 in this year alone, typically demanding six-figure settlements from small businesses accused of showing boxing and UFC pay-per-view broadcasts without a commercial license. As Law360 notes, the volume of litigation has created an entire legal niche, a small number of plaintiffs' firms that file these suits, and an even smaller number of defense attorneys equipped to fight them effectively.
Jon is one of those attorneys. Law360 reports that he has personally handled hundreds of Joe Hand Promotions settlements and litigated roughly a dozen cases, giving him a depth of experience that few defense lawyers anywhere can match.
Taking on, and Beating, Joe Hand Promotions
The article highlights two of Jon's standout results including a Dallas, Texas case where Jon proved that Joe Hand Promotions had sued the wrong person entirely. A defense so strong that when Joe Hand gave up on its case, the court awarded his client attorney fees.
Forged in the BitTorrent Wars
Law360 traces the roots of Jon's Joe Hand defense playbook back to an earlier, and even more notorious, chapter of his career: defending clients targeted by Prenda Law, the law firm whose leaders were later found by federal investigators to have run a criminal scheme entrapping people into supposedly downloading pornographic films via BitTorrent. Jon represented clients caught up in those mass copyright suits (and continued to do so against Malibu Media and now Strike 3 Holdings), and the article credits that experience with sharpening the strategic instincts he now brings to pay-per-view defense.
One lesson carried over directly: in the BitTorrent cases, Jon found that plaintiffs frequently couldn't actually prove infringement. As Jon put it to Law360, "They never downloaded a playable portion of the work from our client's IP address. So unless the files are sitting on our client's hard drive, the other side is not going to be able to prove their case." That same discipline — forcing the plaintiff to actually prove what it's alleging, rather than assuming liability, is the throughline connecting his BitTorrent work to how he now defends bars and restaurants against Joe Hand Promotions.
A Defense Playbook Built From Experience
What makes Jon's approach stand out, according to the article, is the strategic toolkit he's developed — informed directly by that earlier BitTorrent defense work. As Law360 explains, Jon's defense strategy is built around finding "the most cost-effective punch" (pun potentially intended) for clients who are ordinary business owners. Some common
Statute of limitations — borrowing the most analogous state-law deadline, since no federal statute of limitations governs signal piracy claims.
Failure to mitigate — Joe Hand Promotions rarely warns venues in advance; instead, it sends investigators and sues after the fact.
The "internet defense" — Jon argues that decades-old cable and satellite descrambling statutes were never written to cover modern internet streaming, a theory that has gained traction in certain courts.
Improper individual liability — challenging the practice of naming bar and restaurant owners personally, rather than just the business entity. This defense has strengthened, in my opinion, since the Sony v. Cox decision at the Supreme Court.
As Jon told Law360: "It's antiquated laws in a new digital world to extract a bunch of money from people who simply didn't know better. In my opinion, that's what's happening here. But there are defenses available."
Why This Matters for Business Owners
If your bar, restaurant, or venue has received a demand letter or lawsuit from Joe Hand Promotions, J&J Sports Productions, G&G Closed Circuit Events, or a similar pay-per-view distributor, you don't have to face it alone — and you don't have to accept the first number they demand. Jon's national recognition in this space reflects years of hands-on experience finding the defenses that matter and negotiating outcomes that make sense for small business owners.
Facing a pay-per-view piracy claim? Contact Jonathan today.
Source: Daniel Connolly, These Small Firm Attys Specialize In Pay-Per-View Fights, Law360 Pulse (July 6, 2026).