Thursday, Dec 10, 2009    Text size: 

The lawsuit follows a Corbin Fisher investigation, where company officials ordered DVDs on eBay using PayPal and personal checks.

Corbin Fisher said in the suit that defendants illegally manufactured hundreds, if not thousands, of counterfeit DVDs of no less than 136 Corbin Fisher videos altogether.

"We got a tip about our content being sold on eBay and engaged in some good old-fashioned detective work to track down the culprits," Marc Randazza, Corbin Fisher’s general counsel, told XBIZ. "Once we had enough evidence on them, we filed our lawsuit.

"We've heard from one defendant already, who seemed pretty distraught."

The suit seeks $10 million each from primary defendants David Trice of Dallas and Eric Brown of Pittsburgh. The complaint also lists John Doe defendants who may have purchased the pirated goods.

Corbin Fisher brought 66 counts against Trice and 70 counts against Brown.

The suit said that Brown used Trice’s bootleg DVDs as master copies to manufacture and sell his own bootleg “Corbin Fisher DVDs.”

Corbin Fisher noted in the suit that some of the eBay ads were so brazen that they directed potential customers to the CorbinFisher.com website.

According to the complaint, filed at U.S. District Court in San Diego, one of the eBay ad listings said:

“Goto (sic) CorbinFisher.com for a free preview of the website and episode guide for full description & photos of each episode. Also for free, explore photos of the guys on their Model Pages. The episode names I use match the ones on the website…. I’m burning a set to sell. The DVDs will be plain and ship in a clear plastic case.”

Brian Dunlap, COO of Corbin Fisher, said he was surprised of the alleged counterfeiting and peddling over eBay because most property thieves operate online these days. "This is old school counterfeit DVD production," he said.

"We are going after each and every person who even bought a DVD from one of these guys. We are certain that as the case goes on, we will identify each and every one of them."