Dr. Phil’s production company is finally trying to put the popular sports blog Deadspin in the spotlight. Peteski Productions Inc. (Peteski), the production company behind “The Dr. Phil Show,” asked a Texas federal court Tuesday June 4, 2013 to enter default judgment for a copyright infringement suit against Deadspin. Peteski filed the suit on May 6, 2013 alleging that Deadpsin infringed on the TV show’s copyrights by publishing video excerpts of an interview between Dr. Phil and Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
Tuiasosopo is the man (or woman) behind the “mask” of Notre Dame Linebacker Manti Te’o’s fictional girlfriend Lennay Kekua. Te’o believed Kekua was his girlfriend even though they only spoke over the phone. The Dr. Phil Show held a two-part interview with Tuiasosopo, who came out and confessed that “Lennay Kekua” was an elaborate hoax. Peteski alleges that Deadspin got hold of an east coast broadcast of the two-part special on February 1, 2013. Thereafter, Deadspin published a 28 second video of Tuiasosopo performing Kekua’s voice before 98 % of viewers had a chance to view it during part two of Dr. Phil’s program.
Peteski alleges that the leaked video caused viewership to drop between the first and second parts of the interview. The Complaint alleges that “Gawker deliberately set out to get ‘the jump’ on the rest of the country and ‘scoop’ Dr. Phil with his own content… They did not earn that right, they stole it. They did not conduct the interview, they stole it. They did not ask permission, they blatantly and knowingly infringed the copyright of the content owner and did so in a way that furthered their interest to the maximum and undercut the rightful owner of the protected material.”
Deadspin’s owner, Gawker Media LLC, has not responded to Peteski’s Complaint. The only response came from an attorney for Gawker on Monday, June 3, 2013 asking Peteski attorney’s which party they served the complaint on.
Peteski Productions is asking the court to force Deadspin to remove the video from the website. In addition, Peteski seeks profits Deadspin obtained from publishing the video, statutory damages for willful copyright infringement, pre and post judgment interest, and reasonable attorney’s fees.