LOS ANGELES — Vivid Entertainment apparently has agreed to settle a copyright infringement suit against the operators of CelebrityCash, who were accused of cashing in on poached content on three of its sites.
Both parties on Friday asked U.S. Judge James Otero to dismiss the case, XBIZ has learned.
At post time, terms of the settlement hadn't been revealed but Vivid originally was asking $1.2 million in the complaint.
The sites named in Vivid's original complaint made in September include FemaleStars.com, ICelebOnline.com and CelebrityHardcore.com, and centered on material from the Vivid videos "Kim Kardashian Superstar," "Faithless" "Karrine Steffans Superhead," "Vince Neil & Janine — Hardcore" and "The Jimi Hendrix Sex Tape."
Vivid said that CelebrityCash had been infringing on the copyrighted videos, as well as copyright-pending videos "Jessica Sierra Superstar," "Kendra Exposed" and "Montana Fishbourne."
In the original complaint, Vivid contended that CelebrityCash operators had been making the material available to the three membership sites for downloading and viewing.
Lawyers for both sides, Jonathan Brown and Mark Hoffman for Vivid and David Gingras for ICG, did not immediately respond for XBIZ comment or disclosure of the terms of the settlement.
After the CelebrityCash suit was filed in September, Vivid Entertainment co-chairman Steven Hirsch told XBIZ that he was determined to take legal action against pirated content
"This is the first of many lawsuits we are prepared to file and we expect to prevail in all of them," he said. "We spend millions of dollars to promote our content and we're not going to let illegal users profit at our expense."
On Friday, both parties asked to dismiss the case, but federal judge Otero must sign off on the agreement.
