NEW YORK — Burning Angel has jumped on to the litigation bandwagon with its first porn BitTorrent suit against users who allegedly have pirated its movies.
Burning Angel's porn BitTorrent suit at federal court in Chicago was one of seven filed nationwide on Wednesday. Both Hard Drive Productions and Corbin Fisher filed two suits a piece, with MCGIP and First Time Videos each filing single claims against scores of pirates.
So far, adult entertainment companies in the past year have waged hundreds of suits against thousands of defendants. Many claims have been paid out, attorneys say.
Burning Angel, according to its suit against 22 individuals for allegedly pirating "L.A. Pink," is considered a premier name within the alt-porn niche.
In fact, Joanna Angel, the website’s namesake model, was named in 2011 by CNBC as one of the 12 most popular stars in porn.
But substantially all of the works ever produced by Angel and her company can be pirated via the BitTorrent protocol, the suit says.
Angel told XBIZ on Thursday that her company has faced the scourge of piracy in a big way because she considers Burning Angel as still a small business.
"Piracy has affected our entire industry," she says, "but in our case we are a small company, and we would have been a bigger company if piracy weren't so rampant. We've plateaued but are still trudging through."
Angel says the only way the adult entertainment industry can succeed with free porn a click away is if the industry truly coalesces against piracy.
"Piracy can't be battled by just one person, it should be done as a whole," she says.
All seven suits seek court approval to identify John Doe defendants via subpoenas through their Internet service providers.
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