LAS VEGAS — While the lion's share of copyright infringement cases involving adult content might originate from films accessed on the vast number of tube sites or file-locker sites, studios also are going after the bottom feeders, including companies that rip off content to be used in banner advertising.
Take for example the case of BangBros.com, which recently found an animated GIF featuring adult stars Chastity Lynn and John E. Depth linking to a site that sells a sexual enhancement formula for men.
BangBros recently asked the Randazza Legal Group to probe the ad in question that allegedly showed up on XVideos.com.
The studio complained to the firm that the images of an animated GIF featuring Lynn and Depth had been poached to serve as a banner ad saying, "1 Secret for a BIG DICK" and "Watch the shocking video."
The ad, according to a subpoena filed by the Randazza firm, connects through a series of links from XVideos to TrafficFactory.biz, and finally ending up at MyWeirdSexTrick.com.
Now, BangBros' counsel is ordering TrafficFactory for contact numbers and billing information to identify who posted the animated GIF that allegedly was stolen from a BangBros scene and used to ramp up more sales of sexually enhancement formula that is designed as a "porn star trick." BangBros is attempting to identify the TrafficFactory client through a Digital Millennium Copyright Act subpoena.
XBIZ was unable to seek comment from operators of MyWeirdSexTrick.com.
Industry attorney Mark Randazza, principal of Randazza Legal Group, said the practice of scooping up adult images and appropriating them is a common practice that sometimes becomes a cat-and-mouse game with individuals hiding behind the DMCA.
"It's been commonplace — since about as long as there's been affiliate marketing — for bottom feeders to rip off content to use in banner ads," Randazza told XBIZ. "Most of the time, the affected content owner just demands removal of the banner and whoever is behind the ad just replaces the image with some other image, which in all likelihood is also stolen.
"It doesn't usually go any further because the cost of litigating the issue can be prohibitive, but at some point every content producer reaches a breaking point and decides that examples have to be made."