Jules Jordan, who was part of the Evil Angel lawsuit, was awarded slightly more than $5 million, bringing the total amount of the judgment against the defendants to $17.5 million. Jordan, under his real name, also sued for violation of his right to publicity for which the jury awarded him $1 million.
The jury determined that the defendants illegally pirated 31 Evil Angel movies and 13 movies from Jules Jordan, when he was a member of the Evil Angel directing roster. The maximum penalty for copyright infringement is $150,000 per title.
“It’s more than just the money,” Evil Angel publicist Karen Stagliano told XBIZ. “I’m happy I can finally say that the defendants pirated our videos and violated our copyrights.”
Evil Angel and Jules Jordan uncovered the piracy ring in late-2004/early-2005 after East Coast distributors reported knocked off copies of Evil Angel DVDs. At first, the company didn’t take much stock in the allegations, reasoning that they were started by a distributor looking to get a better price from the company. Evil Angel did some research and discovered the rumors were legitimate. Evil Angel General Manager Chris Norman said that Kaytel never purchased DVDs directly from Evil Angel and alleges Kaytel purchased legitimate DVDs from a wholesaler and made glass masters from the copies, which they then sent to be replicated illegally.
The directors whose movies were most heavily exploited are Jules Jordan, Rocco Siffredi, John Stagliano, John Leslie and Joey Silvera. The rest of Evil Angel’s directing roster was not involved in this case.
“I’m really proud of John [Stagliano, Evil Angel’s owner] and Jules because we didn’t settle,” Karen Stagliano said. “We were so confident that the evidence would see us through and I think it sends an important message to other adult studios and would-be piraters and copyright infringers that they can’t get away with ripping us off.”
Stagliano also pointed out that Jordan deserves a lot of the credit for helping to uncover the piracy ring. She said that he took the initial trips to New York to investigate on behalf of himself and the company. “He deserves all the accolades he can get,” Stagliano said.