Monday, Aug 29, 2011    Text size: 

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Private Media Group on Monday filed copyright suits against a pair of tube sites.

SunPorno.com, which has an Alexa ranking of 923, and TubeRip.com, which ranks lower at 4,095, were each hit with federal copyright suits, seeking millions in damages.

TubeRip, Private contends, has poached and streamed 51 of its videos, while SunPorno has streamed 39 Private videos, according to the complaints, both filed at U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

According to court filings, SunPorno is operated by Sergej Letayagin of Gibraltar and TubeRip is owned by Joe Olivero of Toronto. The sites each use Moniker privacy shield services.

Both suits follow Private's boilerplate template when suing adult tube sites, claiming that surfers "initially lead to believe that defendant’s website is a completely free viewing site," and then are "presented with paid options to enhance the viewing experience of unauthorized works owned by plaintiff."

Each of the suits name 100 John Doe companies, presumably the tube sites' advertising business partners, as well 100 John Does.

Private, through its Fraserside IP division, now has sued 12 porn tube sites in the past year.