Adult film company suing people who download porn
 

A California-based adult film company has filed a lawsuit against several people in West Michigan for illegally downloading videos.

An adult film company called Malibu Media has IP addresses for thousands of people and is now targeting them for copyright infringement.

Just last week, a Muskegon man was ordered to pay attorney's fees and $40,000 to Malibu Media. The case names Lonnie Sagala, as the plaintiff. He was not home when WZZM 13 News went to his house Tuesday for comment.

Sagala is accused of illegally downloading several adult videos via the internet sharing site BitTorrent. When Sagala failed to respond to the lawsuit, a default judgement was entered.

Chicago attorney Jeff Antonelli is representing some of the other plaintiffs in the lawsuits. "All cases are essentially the same. There may be some technical differences, but they all allege that the subscriber to the internet account has downloaded or uploaded, one or more of the companies copyrighted works. Usually, it's a group of 10 or more."

Antonelli says in some cases, the plaintiff settles for an undisclosed amount of money, while others fight the allegations.

So far, Malibu Media has filed over 1,000 lawsuits in several states. The most recent ones in West Michigan, were filed a few days ago in U.S. District Court.



http://www.wzzm13.com/story/news/loc...-film/6579919/

Malibu Media = Guys who run X-Art.com.

What shoddy reporting and editing. All defendants in the article are incorrectly identified as plaintiffs.

That's what I was thinking, too..

Just say "My internet doesn't have a password, damn kids" or the fact that IPs aren't 100% accurate.

I'm pulling all links and promos from x-cash.com, fuck those people. Yes, pirating is a problem, but "solving" it this way is just being greedy motherfuckers with no solution except a paycheck for their lawyers... :Oh crap

I only wish every adult company was half as smart as X-Art.

you didn't catch what happened to the last group that tried to pull this stunt?

Who, LFP?

Pull the stunt of going after people who willfully stole their federally copyrighted films? :error

If you are alluding to the music industry there is some correlation but it cant be compared because the record labels are not the Artists and they failed because A: they needed the support of public opinion to keep their clients, and B: there was a legal alternative do getting the music (itunes) for very reasonable.

The adult industry doesn't not need public support to sell porn, and X-art is the artist and creator. X-art is not going to lose any sales to potential customers because of any fallout that they went after thieves of their property. If I were X-art I would do the same. :2 cents:

I think Richard's referring to Prenda Law and similar companies, who were sanctioned and revealed to be involved in all sorts of conflicts of interest and other crap including outright fraud, aside from the copyright trolling. It was pretty shady.

I have to think X-Art will go about this in "the right way" though.

thank you, yes.

I hope so, because the first 'plaintiff' had this paper show up at his house

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...wnloaders.html

http://acsbore.wordpress.com/

Golden Eye (Ben Dover Productions) did this in the UK.

http://www.xbiz.com/news/news_piece....l&q=Golden+Eye

Dec 27, 2012 it was reported Golden Eye was going to LA to get clients.

I wonder (suspect) this may be a result of this.

So how are they getting the IP addresses?

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh indeed.

This is how they did it in the uk:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...wnloaders.html

Gotcha! I will have a look at these links :thumbsup

When Sagala failed to respond to the lawsuit, a default judgement was entered.:2 cents:

So they will sue torrent users that illegally download but advertise with tube sites that illegally upload? Brilliant.

Going after the end users is basically putting the smallest bandaid possible on the problem

I agree suing is for wimps. Instead of paying a lawyer pay a couple of Hell's Angels to break the pirate's fingers.

oh yeah, this is really the problem, the people who download ... most of those guys dont even know there is something called paysite! what about to grow some balls and go against those people who hack, download, share and make money on advertisement? fucking with end user will solve absolutelly nothing, just shows how some of you are fucked up in brains ... :Oh crap oh man ... :helpme for penny everything ... assholes ... :2 cents:

Technically it isn't the downloading they sue for. It's the uploading. That's where the copyright infringement is at. Downloading is mere petty theft.

X-Art should spend its' time and money on making profits for their affiliates instead of this nonsense. Conversions are absolute shit for X-Art. Work on that and worry about suing assholes later.

Honest to fuck - you people are batshit insane sometimes. Company X gets stuff stolen from them... the webmaster community goes nuts about stopping piracy.. company X goes after end users who facilitates and encourages the theft.. they get links pulled.

No - word travels fast, is lawsuits over it become mainstay,, doncha think people will soon stop downloading?

They just got a 40k dollar judgement. If they file enough lawsuits those judgements add up.

But.. Don't advertise your shit on torrent sites then go around suing people downloading it illegally for 5 figures.. Why the fuck would anyone click a paysite ad on a torrent site and pay for a membership, anyways? They know exactly what the fuck they're doing..

Plus this forum is called GFY.. :upsidedow

Let me tell you a secret you most probably already know....

That being it would be a big surprise if there are actually 10 people that post regularly here earning more than $2k a month.

Most of the people posting in this forum are just punters that have found a way to make a few pennis (at best) for masturbating. And just like so many other punters today, they pirate every chance they get. This is the reason they complain... Because they might one day get caught and have to pay up.

My advice is accept the situation for what it is. And read everyone's comments so as to get an idea of who might be a potential thief (and who you can reasonably trust.)

no end user = no product = no revenue

:1orglaugh

I call your secret as being a made up 'fact' :pimp

Most people on this board are dumb as rocks. X-art should go after anyone who steals from them no matter how small. So should every good adult company. This is a no-brainer. The public needs to be educated that it is not OK to steal porn. Anyone who disagrees with this is a fucking idiot. X-art shoots cost about $8000 each to produce. And they produce them themselves.

These lawsuits are getting press which (news flash) is good. All you tube site commentators show me where X-art themselves puts up entire scenes for free. :1orglaugh

All you whiners that are saying they should give the money to affiliates. They pay their affiliates just fine. Lots of people making coin. If you are not doing well with X-art you are simply sending the wrong traffic obviously.

BTW Sites like ALS Scans have been suing thieves for a decade and have made hundreds of thousands doing it.

Theo should make it a rule on GFY that ANYONE who sides with piracy be banned permanently from GFY :2 cents:

yes, great, then its no-brainer to go after big guys, because without those who really steals and make money on it, you will have no small horny guys to sue. and if its that great business and als scans made tons of money on it, why to go after real thieves ... great thinking you have here ... :2 cents: cant wait to see xart shutdown some big piracy forum or torrent tracker ... :1orglaugh :Oh crap

dumb as rocks, indeed.

You just played your card asshat. You say you think people who steal porn are not "real thieves" Well guess what YOU DUMB FUCK they are. Anyone who steals is a thief! By your logic Best Buy should not go after people who steal flat screens and go after "real thieves" like corporations or politicians. You obviously are a porn surfer who steals content and not a producer who spends thousands creating it only to have scum steal it. BTW piracy is a very complex problem. I never said going after the torrents was a solution to piracy :321GFY

just wait until the 'it might have been a little old lady with her IP spoofed' brigade chime in.

Newsflash, just like the old bill go on presented evidence, which is also not the be all and end all of evidence, uploaders are 'charged' as such, and have their chance to go and be proved guilty.

And please god no pedantic cunts (I have enough of that shit living with myself) explaining the actual differences with police procedure.

Evidence gathered > ball rolls > opportunity to make them prove it in court

Or does everyone so against this really think it *is* all little old ladies and entirely innocent people 'tricked' into coughing up?

calm down mr producer. i dont know if you are talking with people about porn paysites, but most of the time i am, people are surprised there is something like paysite, and they are asking me where are videos with watermark on them going from. i am saying that it is easier to target those horny surfers, than those who made public meaning about porn like about something that is free. most of those people thinks the porn is for free! my english i bad, but you are pissed as hell. calm down ... :1orglaugh and have a nice weekend everyone :)

Really want JayAllen to debate this with DamianJ

Lawsuits are public info in the US. If I were x-Art I would hire some Santa Monica publicists, IF x-ARt is sure the defendants are to blame.

Anger is good and for what this is worth.... I am 100% on your side.

I continue to maintain that problem in today's porn industry is that someone forgot that the only thing a punter should be holding is his cock and NOT a camera. And that the only blow job a punter should be getting is from the faggot sitting in the seat next to him and NOT from a porn actress for his POV series.

The problems will only clear up when baseball bats are once again part of day to day business.
There are some beautiful women in Poland but be real... There is not any kind of true film production going on in your country. So you probably have no idea of how insulting and frustrating it is for a producer to have to take shit from a pirate. Because you have no concept of what producing a film entails.

What the film industry (both mainstream and porn) needs to do is go back to film and focus soley on theaters. They need to dump DVDs, streaming, etc and put an airport style metal detector at the entrance and confiscate all film equipment.

Then get their over production and subsequent saturation of the market place under control. Make less films with better talent and dust off the star making machine. It is time to put acteurs back under exclusive studio contracts.

Most people have no idea just how complex of a problem it truly is.

Of course the do or they do not believe the act is theft. Many of us have heard their rationalizations/excuses so much that we can recite them in our sleep.

You make good points but unfortunately while good they would never be implemented.

Well maybe the bats but it is hard to hit someone in India on a laptop with a bat from the USA.

Just like the problem being complex the attempts at a real solution will also be be very complex. We all know the current systems of protection are worthless today and will be going forward. Conventional methods are too slow and often unsatisfying to say the least.

Virtual bats of sorts may have some effect in the virtual word we live in now though.