The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a lower court decision and allowed a proposed class action lawsuit over user-uploaded content to move forward against WebGroup Czech Republic (WGCZ), the parent company of tube sites XVideos and XNXX as well as other adult brands.
WGCZ, the parent company of tube site XVideos and several other international adult companies, has reportedly hired a prestigious international law firm, as well as a powerful communications and marketing conglomerate, to lobby government regulators to limit the scope of proposed sweeping regulations on adult content.
Facebook asked the full Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday to review last month’s split-panel decision allowing a complex intellectual property and “right of publicity” lawsuit — which challenges Section 230 protections over third-party content and also mentions adult conglomerate WGCZ as co-defendant — to move forward.
Anti-porn group NCOSE — formerly known as Morality in Media — is co-sponsoring another lawsuit alleging a wide-ranging number of “human trafficking” violations, this time against companies associated with MindGeek’s Europe-based competitor WGCZ, the parent company of tube site XVideos.
European adult content conglomerate Private Media Group has been purchased by Prague-based WGCZ, parent company of XVideos, several sources have confirmed to XBIZ.
