LOS ANGELES — In the past seven days, seven adult entertainment companies have filed 21 copyright infringement suits targeting hundreds of John Does who allegedly have poached and traded their videos through BitTorrent networks.
One adult company, Malibu Media LLC, filed 11 suits against about 150 unnamed Does, contending that the Does stole not just one film — but entire libraries — from a company-owned site.
The 11 suits, filed in California, Colorado and Washington, D.C., allege the defendants were involved in a so-called "site rip" that included 57 titles, including softcore videos "Kat Translucense," "Megan Morning Bath," "Carlie Beautiful Blowjob" and "Kristen Girl Next Door."
"Each of the defendants copied and distributed most of a website containing 57 movies," a Malibu Media suit alleges. "The file containing the subject website is so large that the defendants' computers must have worked collaboratively with each other through the process ... for numerous weeks or months to effectuate a complete download and redistribution of the subject website."
Meanwhile, gay distributor Raw Films Ltd. filed three suits against single litigants in California and Washington; Hard Drive Productions had two suits against two Does in California; Elegant Angel had two suits in California (one fingering 139, the other 11); Third Degree Films filed one in New York against 82; Zero Tolerance sued 45 in New York; and Pacific Century International had one in Illinois targeting 37.
Each of the suits ask federal judges to order ISPs to disclose user identities of Doe defendants and claim infringement damages of up to the statutory maximum of $150,000 per Doe.
XBIZ publishes a weekly report each Thursday on porn BitTorrent filings around the country.