HOUSTON — An elderly couple from the Deer Park suburb of Houston is one of the 41 defendants named in a BitTorrent lawsuit that alleges they illegally downloaded the K-Beech teen-gonzo feature “Virgins 4.”
The couple, in their late 60s, was put on notice by their Internet provider AT&T last month when the company received a subpoena requiring that they disclose the couple’s name, street address and all other IP-related information .
The couple, who chose to remain anonymous, told Houston-based KHOU 11 News that the ordeal has been very “disturbing” and that they “don’t know how this happened.” The network’s legal analyst, Prof. Gerald Treece of the South Texas College of Law, described K-Beech’s ongoing lawsuits as “the pornographic version of Napster.”
K-Beech, a noted distributor and production house celebrating its 25th anniversary, has aggressively filed copyright infringement lawsuits against John Doe defendants in Maryland, Ohio, New York, Virginia and North Carolina. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered two alleged defendants in Arizona to pay the company $750 in damages, the lowest statutory amount, according to federal guidelines.
Despite being criticized for using the courts to intimidate alleged copyright infringers, K-Beech has stated in court documents that the illegal downloading of its intellectual property has caused the company to suffer “actual damages, including lost sales, price erosion and a diminution of the value of its copyright.”
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