Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed, but the accord was reached in late January at an arbitration hearing before retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lawrence Crispo.
At the hearing, both parties agreed on a settlement, and last Friday both cases were dismissed at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Adult industry attorney Michael Fattorosi, who represents Blue, told XBIZ that the settlement was amicable.
"The matter was resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties," he said.
News of the settlement coincided with the release Friday of Mercenary Pictures' "Lexington Loves Vanessa Blue," a collection of the performers' "best scenes." In addition to Blue, the title also stars Cynthia Pendragon, Mya Lovely, Candace Von, Trina Michaels and Mika Tan.
Steele and Blue filed federal suits last year against each other over the ownership of numerous videos that first appeared under the Mercenary Pictures banner, where Steele acts as the company’s president and also is a performer.
Steele’s complaint alleged that Blue, whose real name is Tanya Faulkner, appropriated copyrights illegally for various volumes of such Mercenary titles as “Black Reign,” “Superwhores,” “Ebony” and “Climax TV.”
Steele, whose real name is Clifton Britt Jr., claimed that Blue was a salaried performer and, at time of employment, “never objected or asserted rights to the copyrighted registrations solely owned by Mercenary Pictures.”
Blue also goes by the name of Domina X.
Steele alleged that Blue, along with her production company VBX, provided scenes from the videos he owns on VanessaBlue.com and earned membership fees over the video-on-demand clips.
Blue’s separate complaint alleged copyright infringement and breach of an implied contract, among other charges, against Steele, Mercenary and Canada-based HVL Cyberweb Solutions Inc., which allegedly entered into a web distribution deal with Mercenary through its Braincash division.
Blue, in the complaint, said that it was Steele who fraudulently filed for certificates of registration over the titles and that Steele’s company agreed to pay her 75 percent of the gross revenue generated from LexSteele.com.
That promise, Blue contended at the time, was made if she relocated her residence from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, which she eventually did.
In her suit, Steele and his company made at least one payment but breached its contract starting in June 2006, Blue claimed.
Attorney Robert Esensten, who represents Steele, was unavailable for comment at post time.
