LOS ANGELES — Pink Visual has filed a $4.5 million lawsuit against the operator of ClipHunter.com, charging that the tube site has streamed 30 of its titles in a coordinated scheme to generate mass web traffic and then monetize it.
The suit targets operator Justin Eleazer, as well as several companies he controls — Green Park Holdings and Gotys Productions — over the Pink Visual videos that allegedly ended up on the ClipHunter.com. Eleazer also is said to control PicHunter.com and PicHunterBlog.com.
Pink Visual maintains in the suit that ClipHunter, which reaches about 600,000 to 1 million surfers in the U.S. per day, enables users to upload and obtain copies of a vast library of infringing adult video content for free and that it first noticed copies appearing on its site in April.
"Defendants appear to maintain the fiction that they offer a forum for users to upload and share their own original 'user-generated' adult video content; however, in reality, they function as repositories for large collections of copyrighted, professionally made adult videos ...," the suit said.
The goal, Pink Visual counsel says, is to capitalize on the mass web traffic it creates.
"Defendants ... have driven massive traffic to their website in part due to the presence of the sought after and searched-for high quality and professionally made adult videos, particularly those featuring recognizable actors and actresses," the suit said.
"All of this traffic translates into significant advertising revenue. As such, content websites may effectively monetize the content on their websites by securing eyeballs on the sites which translates to ad revenue."
Pink Visual President Allison Vivas said that her company takes a firm stand on piracy.
"This lawsuit is part of Pink Visual's ongoing effort to reduce copyright infringement and protect our intellectual property rights," Vivas told XBIZ.
Just recently, Pink Visual announced the launch of a new intellectual property rights enforcement service, DMCA Force, for rights-holders to conduct effective anti-piracy campaigns.
And the Arizona-based company has filed scores of suits through the years over alleged piracy, including most recently a $13.35 million suit against the operators of HiSlut.com, MyHotBook.com, TheHotLoop.com, Slutload.com, HardSexTube.com and YouJizz.com
Eleazer couldn't be reached by XBIZ for comment.