DeluxePass allegedly lifted watermarked DVD cover art and reviews without permission from the Adult DVD Empire site and was served with a cease-and-desist letter.
Many companies actively pursue litigation against suspected pirates and diligently watch for falsely-appropriated properties whether in stores or on the web. Evil Angel General Manager Chris Norman recently tore pirated Electronic Arts discs from the shelves of several New York City video stores.
Other companies, frustrated with evolving or easily-hacked Digital Rights Management protocols, write off piracy as an occupational hazard.
But DeluxePass, which houses more than 111 terabytes of content on its site, removed the suspect text and images without admitting liability following the letter from Adult DVD Empire, which said it has “aggressively enforced its intellectual property rights numerous times.”
“We go after anyone that steals our content, period,” said Operations Director Mike Barry. “We put a lot of time and money updating our site with the most current info, and we’re not going to sit by and let people rip it off.”
