PORTLAND, Ore. — Private Media Group filed suit last week against the operators of BoneProne.com, TubeKings.com and SocalMovies.com in a $19 million copyright and trademark infringement claim.
The suit, filed at U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., alleges 126 known instances of infringement of Private's content, including such movies as "Matador 2," "Anal Lolitas" and "Tropical Twins," and involves defendants using a laundry list of alleged aliases.
Defendants named in the Private suit include William Michael Jones aka Michael aka Mike Bone aka BoneProne and Mindy Jones aka Mindy Jacobs aka Queen BoneProne aka “Porn Mafia Family."
Also named in the suit are Marvin Greencarrier, registered owner of SocalMovies and BoneProne; La Vista of the Philippines, registered operator of TubeKings; and registrar Chin Holdings China of Panama. The suit also names 100 John Does as well as 100 John Doe companies.
The 60-page complaint says that "[D]efendant’s business model of using unauthorized works without compensation to the works’ legitimate owners has significantly contributed to the ability of defendant to become one of the most visited websites in the world. Defendant offers unauthorized content for free that legitimate competitors must pay for, with extraordinary results. Defendant directs paying customers to competitors with more extraordinary results. An illegitimate business model where the cost of goods sold is zero will be able to drive out legitimate competitors."
Private alleges that "TubeKings.com obtains videos, among other methods, by 'scraping/spidering of other tube sites." Later, "defendants intentionally delete, blur or obscure plaintiff’s watermarks and logos from plaintiff’s videos displayed on defendants’ website, causing consumers to be confused as to the origin of the audio-video content."
The suit seeks an injunction, damages related to trademark infringement, attorneys fees, all of the defendants’ domain names, an award for corrective advertising and and award for direct infringement of $150,000 for each alleged act of infringement.
Fraserside IP spokesman Jason Tucker said that the company had tried to work out some type of negotiation with the defendants; however they never responded to any dialogue. Fraserside IP is a division of Private.
"I have tried to discuss this situation with Mr. Jones but met silence," Tucker told XBIZ. "He left us no choice in the matter.”
