Porn Company Vivid Sues Its Own Customer Over Copyright
Written by enigmax on December 11, 2007Vivid, the world’s leading adult film company is sueing PornoTube, a YouTube-like site offering XXX content. Vivid claims that its content is available on PornoTube without permission or compliance with age verification rules. Interestingly, PornoTube’s owner, AEBN, is actually a Vivid customer already.
One of the world’s largest adult film creators, Vivid Entertainment Group, has had enough of free porn site, PornoTube.com and is taking legal action against it. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the lawsuit against PornoTube’s parent companies ‘Data Conversions Inc’ and ‘AEBN’ states that the defendants “copied, published, distributed and publicly displayed Vivid’s copyright works through the website PornoTube.com”
The lawsuit states that the “defendant’s business plan depends on the uploading, posting, display and performance of copyrighted audio-visual works belonging to Vivid and others” and that the defendants “knowingly built a library of infringing works to draw Internet traffic” to its website.
Listing dozens of Vivid movies available to view on PornoTube (PT), the lawsuit claims that these were uploaded by PT’s users after being encouraged to do so by PT. Under US copyright law, each offense could carry damages of $150,000 per infringement. In addition to an injunction to halt any further potential infringements, the lawsuit seeks damages of $4.5 million.
Additionally, it’s claimed that PornoTube fails to comply with the federal Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act. Although the Act covers those who produce sexually explicit material (PornoTube do not), there is another category of producer known as a ’secondary producer’ - which is anyone who publishes and reproduces content - a category under which PornoTube seems to fall. Vivid’s attorney, Paul Cambria said: “Once they put up any material on their site and fit it into their format, they are no longer just a ‘pass through’ medium—they have become producers or distributors under the law.”
According to the suit, PornoTube fails to take steps to validate the age of the actors in the videos it carries, explained here by Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid: “PornoTube and AEBN have exactly the same responsibility as any other adult content distributor or producer to obey U.S. copyright laws and 2257 regulations”
Vivid also believe that due to PornoTube avoiding the costs associated with conforming with the ‘2257′ regulations, they have an unfair competitive edge: “Vivid spends enormous sums to copyright its content and to comply with the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act age verification process. PornoTube and AEBN have been getting away with a practice that unlawfully earns it millions of dollars at our expense.”
Apparently, Vivid’s attorney, Paul Cambria, is happy to use the DMCA against PornoTube but is unhappy at the way it operates in other areas, particularly take-down requests: “Vivid should not have to take responsibility for policing PornoTube on a minute by minute basis to protect its rights,” he said.
Interestingly, AEBN - owner of PornoTube, who describes itself on its site as the “Global Leader in Pay-Per-View”, is actually already a big customer of Vivid Entertainment, as can be seen from this section on their site, where they are listing 971 Vivid movies available for paid download.
The RIAA and MPAA have been sueing their own customers for years, so the porn industry is playing catch-up here. However, this action against PornoTube is just the tip of the iceberg. The porn industry is about to start targeting file-sharers using the same tactics as the RIAA and MPAA - infringement notices will be appearing in mail boxes shortly.
Stay tuned for that report very soon.
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73 Responses
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i personally like being on PornoTube. the more people who tug their wangs watching me the better!
well, they are putting “buy” options on the site. so, whats the problem? the porn people found out about the kind of money you can get from sueing people
well hate to break it to them but no one really cares enough to buy porn and those that do are idiots. it’s not worth the $$
Pornotube sucks anyway. It is mostly ads, gay pr0n, and vids of some rand guy jacking off in front of a web cam. Gross…
If i need porn i make porn ;)
but yea shows how mutch copyright is messing with creative and innovating developments..
yeah who cares why buy porn it is all over the web for free
Hey now.. porn is the biggest freaking market on the internet. I make thousands every month selling smut. Remember that not everyone on the internet are computer savvy and know how to get porn for free. ;) On top of that a lot of those who do know, are scared to download things for free. Or they just want everything on one site at its best quality.
Amateur > Pro.
I think youporn is way better.
I think porno tube is screwed.
its gonna be damn embarrassing to get called into court for downloading pr0n. Oh, and I agree #8.
i launched a bittorrent pr0n site 1 year ago and it has almost died from lack of interest, see muffluv.com
same happened to demonorgy. remember?
there is no market for pr0n, nobody is interested. it is a myth that 80% of all internet searches are for sex
at best it is a niche market, and what demand there is from schoolboys and fat guys is fulfilled very quickly, 3 mins at most which is far less than the average time on site
Crap now the porn guys go crazy with (C) :-/
You’re doing a TITLE search, not a studio search.
There are 971 movies from the Vivid Studio
http://straight.theater.aebn.net/dispatcher/studioDetail?studioId=19172&theaterId=822
He he he … what they going to do? Claim the copyright of the content!! Ha ha ha!! What a circus!
see, that’s just pointless.
http://paidandpopular.blogspot.com
Wow… just wow…
Do these fucks actually think that this will do a damn thing other thsn show they are willing to sue their customers? “If I need porn I make porn” is my modo, as well.
If however, I did need some, I think I’d rather just use catlist or something. It’s all free and has whatever I want.
[quote comment="236927"]You’re doing a TITLE search, not a studio search.
There are 971 movies from the Vivid Studio
http://straight.theater.aebn.net/dispatcher/studioDetail?studioId=19172&theaterId=822/quote
thanks, i’ll edit that in
[quote comment="236876"]Amateur > Pro.[/quote]
Thats the main reason they do it, cause the pro’s are customers are more heading to amateur.
Almost no silicones and more the-girl/milf-next-door is what the customers are demanding now.
So, compaired to music, make it free and make your money with gigs, Vivid :-)
Correction … “pro’s are customers” must be “customers”
I worked in a sexshop in NL for 3 years and people are likely to spent money for the amateur DVD’s.
Again, compared to music, that means independent labels sells more. The USA-companies, again, are sufferiong from good produced low cost and cheap movies.
It just the same, big companies complain cause the do not compile with the market.
Conclusion : SEX = MUSIC = FREE
@#11 - no interest in porn? Are you trippin’?
Porn and generally sex is one of the biggest (if not _the_ biggest) market online.
It’s not a “myth” that most of the searches is for porn, and that most webpages are porn-pages, or at least contain some form of porn-material, or similar.
There are plenty of adult-only trackers out there, and lots and lots of paid-access websites making lots of money pushing porn (I know, I’ve maintained some).
The stupid thing about Vivid is the type of action they’re taking - why not strike a deal with PT, and take a cut of the profit instead? Vivid haven’t lost anything, but have a perfect opportunity for free marketing - which they obviously fail to see.
Most industries, it seems, completely fails to grasp the mentality of the online community, and how to use this mentality to its advantage. Hopefully, this will change when new generations get to the top of the food chain as directors and executives in companies all over the world.
porn leads to impotence. moral of story, get some morals.
watching* porn
“Vivid’s attorney, Paul Cambria, is happy to use the DMCA against PornoTube but is unhappy at the way it operates in other areas, particularly take-down requests: “Vivid should not have to take responsibility for policing PornoTube on a minute by minute basis to protect its rights,” he said.”
Er, hello? In a CIVIL case it absolutely is your responsibility to police infringements of your work. In a CRIMINAL case it is the government’s responsibility.
I’m surprised that Vivid’s attorney seems not to understand the distinction between civil litigation and criminal prosecution.
“Under US copyright law, each offense could carry damages of $150,000 per infringement.”
Correction: it should be “up to $150,000 per work”, not per infringement. (Although the award can double if the court decides that the infringement is willful.)
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