LAS VEGAS — Counsel for file-locker site Oron.com are opposing Corbin Fisher's motion to place two documents under seal.
Those documents include communication between attorney Marc Randazza, Corbin Fisher's general counsel, and Oron attorney Stevan Lieberman, over potential settlement terms after the gay porn studio sued the file-locker site in a $34.8 million copyright infringement claim.
U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro on Friday approved Randazza's request to redact earlier versions of the documents "that allowed third parties to strip away the redaction."
On Friday, Randazza told XBIZ that the documents were "leaked" — "either someone figured out how to remove the redaction, or someone cut and pasted the PACER stuff on the non-redacted version." (PACER provides online access to U.S. appellate, district and bankruptcy court records and documents.)
Now, another Oron attorney, David Kahn, has filed an opposition to the sealing of the settlement documents.
"The information that plaintiff wishes to place under seal has already been made public, apparently by plaintiff's counsel," Oron's opposition, filed yesterday, states. "Specifically, the 'term letter' at issue here — which plaintiff incorrectly characterizes as a 'settlement agreement' — has already been published throughout the Internet and, as a result, anyone who has access to the Internet has already been informed of the settlement terms that were being discussed by the parties."
XBIZ reported on Friday that there was much more than $500,000 on the table to settle Corbin Fisher's claims.
There would have been an agreement for Oron to turn over the IP addresses, banking details and email addresses of users alleged to have infringed Corbin Fisher's copyrights.
In addition, Oron said that should an agreement be reached it could become particularly helpful towards Corbin Fisher.
Oron said it could indeed take “both strong and bold measures to keep [Corbin Fisher] content off of its servers” by giving it “unfettered” deletion access to its systems.
Then, in order to generate revenue, removed copyright-infringing content could be substituted for links pointing to locations where people could buy official product from Corbin Fisher instead.
“Oron will receive no income from such links until Liberty has recouped gross income of $400,000 after which [Corbin Fisher] shall pay to Oron 50 percent of its profits from said links,” Oron suggested.
Oron also offered to “permanently ban, by email address, PayPal account, IP address or any other reasonable and robust metric, any user who is the subject of even a single [Corbin Fisher] takedown notice.”
Any user flagged as infringing Corbin Fisher's copyrights would also have their payments frozen by Oron.
"Oron will assist [Corbin Fisher] in identification and civil prosecution of any parties who have been using Oron to distribute [Corbin Fisher's] copyrighted material, including but not be limited to, full disclosure of IP addresses, banking information, emails and any other information that may assist in [Corbin Fisher] in such prosecution," according to the settlement offer's language.
The deal also would have provided “some public relations help for Oron in order to minimize the chance of other lawsuits being brought against it” by stating that Oron does deserve safe harbor under the DMCA, after all.
Oron ultimately rejected the $500,000 demand to make things go away but later offered $50,000.
Randazza said on Friday that the correspondence over possible settlement terms were simply an exchange of letters "trying to work out the dispute."
"The discussions reflect an attempt to compromise before we started brawling," Randazza said. "I find it unfortunate that they were leaked, as they should have been confidential. Nevertheless, I think that them being out there shows how reasonable we were willing to be before filing suit."
But in the opposition to Corbin Fisher's motion to seal the documents, Oron attorneys said that the lawsuit "has always been about money and anything else" and that "someone in plaintiff's or its attorney organization has already posted online many of the proposed settlement terms being discussed by the parties."
"Because [Corbin Fisher] has apparently allowed the settlement terms to be disclosed to — and discussed by — the Internet community, plaintiff has destroyed any chance of Oron continuing as a going concern," Oron's opposition statement read. "All that is left to litigate is whether plaintiff is allowed to walk away with a large purse in exchange for destroying a thriving business."
Last month, Corbin Fisher sued operators of Oron.com, alleging they had knowledge of and induced the trading of 232 instances of pirated Corbin Fisher material.
PayPal, AlertPay and CCBill were ordered in the TRO to freeze Oron accounts; VeriSign also was ordered to freeze the Oron.com domain name from any transfers. In addition, Navarro ordered Oron to preserve and restore financial documents key to the case.
Corbin Fisher also served Oron with an injunction prohibiting disposal of assets in Hong Kong. In the Hong Kong order, Oron operators were enjoined from disposing or diminishing in value of its assets up to $3 million.
The file-locker site continues to operate at post time.
