ATLANTA — Pink Visual and the operators of PornBanana.com and Shufuni.com have entered into a confidential settlement agreement over copyright claims.
Last year, Pink Visual's parent company, Ventura Content, sued Cyprus-based UGC Internet Ventures Ltd., which operates the two tube sites, claiming both streamed its content.
Pink Visual pointed to 112 videos found on the sites that likely weren't placed there by individual tube site users. Many of the "videos contained on the sites are not user-generated, but rather comprised of professionally made, copyrighted content," the suit said.
The suit, filed at federal court in Atlanta, could have resulted in damages upwards to $16.8 million against the operators of PornBanana.com and Shufuni.com.
But midway through pretrial motions this past summer, U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten ordered the case dismissed, agreeing with UGC Internet Ventures attorneys that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over the online adult company.
Batten, in his order, said that Cyprus would be a more appropriate forum for litigation because UGC Internet Ventures is based there. Batten also noted that UGC's attorneys stipulated that they would submit to service of process in Cyprus.
As a result, Pink Visual appealed the case this summer to the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals, claiming the order over jurisdiction was incorrect.
But on Tuesday, Pink Visual attorneys told the 11th Circuit that the adult studio has dropped its appeal because the two parties have signed off on a confidential settlement agreement.
Officials at both companies were unable to be reached for XBIZ comment late Friday.