LOS ANGELES – PornoTube, a web site where individuals and companies upload pornographic materials for free public viewing, has been sued by Vivid Video for copyright infringement.
Vivid attorney Paul Cambria is seeking no less than $4.5 million.
Mirroring a March, 2007 suit filed by Viacom against YouTube, Vivid’s suit against Pornotube.com, whose parent company is North Carolina’s adult Internet content provider and portal AEBN, alleges that PornoTube’s “business plan depends on the uploading, posting, display and performance of copyrighted audio-visual works belonging to Vivid and others.”
The suit also seeks damages for seemingly opposing factors: infringing the privacy of Vivid performers who did not give permission for their images to be broadcast on PornoTube, and not providing access to 2257 documentation that would reveal those performers’ real names and birthdates.
While the privacy invasion charge seems like a high-minded facade on the more down and dirty reality of copyright infringement, the suit can be distilled into a single line of dialogue: “We paid for it; you shouldn’t be making money from it.”
Vivid’s suit might have a chilling effect on services like PornoTube, whose site claims that it takes copyright infringement “very seriously”:
“We provide legal copyright owners with the ability to self-publish on the internet by uploading, storing and displaying various media utilizing our services. We do not monitor, screen or otherwise review the media which is uploaded to our servers by users of the service.”
Indeed, PornoTube often removes videos posted by non-copyright holders. It even offers a form for plaintiffs to use if they spot copyright infringement. Clearly Vivid did not find the form helpful.
Other adult companies, like Wicked and Red Light District, have content on PornoTube that entices viewers to purchase the full-length movies, or higher-resolution scenes. But Vivid has no such deal with AEBN, and Cambria said that Vivid’s material has been on PornoTube regardless.
“Vivid has already found dozens of violations of its copyrights, and AEBN needs to know that it cannot continue pilfering Vivid’s products no matter how they might reformat or reshape (them).” 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.”
AEBN has not yet responded to the lawsuit, filed this morning in the Los Angeles/Western Division of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Previously: Legal or Easy? ; Law would make jailbird photos off limits
See also: Vivid, PornoTube
I prefer YouPorn for all my online jerk-off needs. Millions of real people having real orgasms and plenty of pirated studio stuff, too, if you’re into fakery. And if you listen closely, you can hear the Adult Industry’s death rattle as all the profit potential gets sucked out of it by horny 19-year olds with cameras and DSL.
This is the best coverage I have seen of this matter. Looks like Vivid has the lock on the other press coverage.