Private to Restate Damages in XonDemand Case

LOS ANGELES — Private Media Group must go back and restate damages it incurred after XonDemand.com was found liable for infringing on 30 of its movies.

While U.S. Judge John Kronstadt recently gave the green light for Private's attorneys fees, he said he didn't believe that Private submitted "admissible evidence" to the court to determine statutory damages and has asked for more data.

Private, which is seeking an award of up to $4.5 million against XonDemand, will continue with their request for damages in the case in Kronstadt's courtroom on Feb. 13.

Private counsel plans to reveal three licensing agreements, including an explanation of their terms, to the court in their request for the multimillion-dollar award.

“The judge recently signed an order granting Private’s request to file documents under seal," Private spokesman Jason Tucker told XBIZ. "With this order in place, Private is now comfortable submitting agreements and financials. 

"Without that order, anyone would have been able to review them. We won the case; this is about getting to an amount. I think that the judge is just being thorough.”

The case against XonDemand began in August 2010 when Barcelona-based Private  said it discovered  that XonDemand was "committing over 30 separate instances of copyright infringement and over 1,000 separate and distinct instances of trademark infringement" by continuing to rent Private videos by the minute or flat rate after a 50 percent revenue-sharing deal between the two companies was terminated.

XonDemand contended it never received a termination letter, all the while paying commissions to Private, and that it removed content "immediately after someone at XonDemand learned of this lawsuit."

Later, industry attorney Clyde DeWitt told the court that he had difficulties with his client, XonDemand, because the company has only paid a fraction of its attorneys fees and that he'd been having difficulty communicating with the company.

At one point, a settlement deal was in the works to transfer XonDemand.com to Private.

But XonDemand has been without representation in recent courtroom proceedings against the company, including the last hearing in Kronstadt's courtroom.