NEW YORK — Pink Visual has entered into a consent judgment and permanent injunction against a British Virgin Islands company that operates seven adult-content tube sites.
The sites at the center of litigation — FreePorn.com, BadJoJo.com, BoysFood.com, FreeViewMovies.com, StileProject.com, PornRabbit.com and PornYo.com — are owned by Two Point Oh Ltd. and were alleged to have allowed "millions of users unfettered and unlimited access to view, copy and redistribute" 92 of Pink Visual's movies.
Two Point Oh is registered to do business in New York, where the federal suit was filed, and has no relation to marketing firm Three Point Ohh!, which is owned by adult veteran Chris Lebrun.
The suit was seeking damages of up to $13.8 million, but according to court papers filed yesterday the judgment is non-monetary.
The judgment, however, says that the defendants have agreed to use their "best efforts to implement digital fingerprint filtering as a reasonable technical measure to prevent copyright infringement."
Pink Visual President Allison Vivas, reached Saturday, told XBIZ that with the judgment Two Point Oh agreed that the use of digital fingerprint filtering technology on adult tube sites is a necessary and reasonable technology that fulfills section 512(i) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Section 512(i) requires the use of reasonable technologies on user-generated content sites to prevent infringement in order for UGC site operators to qualify for DMCA safe harbor.
“We were pleased to reach an early agreement with Two Point Oh and we recognize the steps that they have been making, and are willing to make, in order to reasonably prevent infringement on our content, as well as content from other studios who digitally fingerprint their content,” Vivas said.
Jessica Pena, general counsel for Pink Visual, told XBIZ the company will continue to enforce its intellectual property rights through legal action, and continue to apply pressure to user generated content sites to utilize the policies and technologies required under the DMCA.
“Digital fingerprint filtering technology is a reasonable technical measure being used by adult content owners to identify their works and prevent online copyright infringement,” Pena said. “There are now more than 25 major adult tube and aggregator sites utilizing this technology.
"Those facts, combined with the affordability of the technology and the fact that implementation is open, fair, voluntary and in use in other business sectors leads me to believe that it’s virtually impossible now for any adult user-generated site to claim DMCA safe harbor without the implementation of digital fingerprint-filtering technology.”