The porn industry would like you to know that they’re people too. People who need to make money, that is.
In an effort to prove this point, porn movie production companies have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against 300 BitTorrent users.
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division by Millennium TGA, Lightspeed Media Corporation and Hard Drive Productions. Lightspeed Media is accusing 100 file-sharers of illegally downloading Jordan Capri and Tawnee Stone web content. Meanwhile, Hard Drive Productions is accusing others of illegally downloading their “Amateur Allure” web content, while Millenniums claims that another 100 Bit-Torent users pirated their movies Shemale Yum, Shemales From Hell, and Shemale Pornstar.
As Evan Brown, a technology and intellectual property attorney in Chicago, writes on his law & technology blog regarding the case, “This kind of action resembles the much-criticized mass litigation undertaken by the U.S. Copyright Group against hordes of unknown accused Bittorrent users trading movies like Hurt Locker."
The next step to watch in this recent litigation is whether or not ISPs will comply in the efforts to prosecute individuals. In the Hurt Locker cases, ISPs have refused to cooperate, citing workload and jurisdiction issues. Even if the ISPs do cooperate, it may be difficult to prosecute individuals based upon the information if they choose to fight the charges.
Considering the amount of illegally-shared porn that graces the servers of BitTorrent, it’s easy to see why the porn industry would want to try to take back some of their creative control in an effort to reap more profit. If we examine the precedent that’s been set by the RIAA against illegal music downloaders, however, it’s more likely that they’ll end up spending a lot on legal fees for very little return.
It would probably be more effective to try to guilt people into paying for their porn by doing more public service announcements, like the ones posted earlier this year by the Adult Entertainment Trade Association (AETA).
At any rate, this case showcases the fact that the porn industry has the same issues as the major Hollywood movie houses as well as major record labels. They have “artists” and production employees who need to be paid, just like these other industries. Maybe drawing some attention to that fact is all they’re really trying to accomplish with these lawsuits.
