Friday, May 30, 2008    Text size: 

The settlement was reached after a meeting with representatives from Evil Angel and Kaytel owner Alain Elmaleh, which took place in December.

The terms and amount of the settlement have not been disclosed.

“In the end, it became only a matter of sitting down face to face with Mr. Elmaleh, with no mediators or attorneys,” a statement from Evil Angel founder John Stagliano said.

“During our meeting, which lasted close to four hours, we discussed everything, from the reasons and dynamics that brought us to this long and costly two year legal battle, to the ramifications of a potentially long and costly appeal process from both sides,” Stagliano said.

“At the end of our meeting that same day, we both agreed that a fair settlement to definitely resolve both the U.S. and Canadian actions was a much better alternative than continuing this expensive process.”

The suit was originally filed against Kaytel, as well as four other companies and three individuals [including Elmaleh], for distribution of illegally replicated copies of Evil Angel titles.

The case was intertwined also with a suit filed by adult producer Jules Jordan, for illegal replication and distribution of DVD titles that Jordan had produced while he was a director at Evil Angel.

In August, a federal jury awarded Evil Angel $11.2 million, while Jordan was awarded $5.3 million, bring the total judgment against Kaytel to $17.5 million.

According to Evil Angel’s Karen Stagliano, the settlement that has been reached between Evil Angel and Kaytel is separate from any further legal actions on Jordan’s part.

“We feel confident that any issue with him has been resolved,” Karen Stagliano told XBIZ. “This is final and an end to this case. But you can add that we will continue to go after any company that we feel are improperly distributing our content or have illegal copies of our material.

“It cost us a lot of money to do this, but it also cost the other company a lot of money,” Karen added. “If we have concrete evidence that anyone was doing something like this, we will go after them and it will cost them a lot of money. I think by sending this message that it would discourage other companies from doing things improperly.”

“We haven’t been scared off by any means, in protecting our intellectual copyrights,” Karen said.

In the formal statement from John Stagliano, the director/producer’s tone was reconciliatory.

“It’s been now two months since our settlement agreement was fine-tuned and made official by our respective attorneys,” he said. “Mr. Elemalah has been fair in this process and is in complete compliance with the terms of the agreement.

“I wish him and his company good luck in the future. And I consider him to be a fair person with whom to do business.”

An email to Kaytel representatives was not answered at press time.