LOS ANGELES — Japanese-language porn company Dreamroom Productions has settled its year-old suit against popular Japanese video-hosting site FC2.com over copyright infringement charges.
The suit, filed at federal court in Los Angeles, alleged infringement on more than 1,000 Dreamroom videos.
Los Angeles-based Dreamroom offers adult content on MuraMura.tv, PacoPacoMama.com, CarribeanCom.com and Heyzo.com, among others. Its signature content includes Asian women in bukkake, glamour, bikini and fetish scenes.
Dreamroom, according to the suit, said that FC2 had encouraged illegal uploading and downloading of its copyrighted works by compensating uploading members.
However, FC2, the sixth-most-popular website in Japan, denied it should be held liable for the infringement of its users who may have posted the alleged poached content. Named FC2 as an abbreviation of "Fantastic Kupi-Kupi," the company runs much of its operation from Las Vegas with some staff in Tokyo.
Dreamroom original suit claimed 925 instances of copyright infringement; later, in the midst of pretrial litigation, the adult company said that it found another 270 videos on FC2. The company was seeking statutory damages of $150,000 per infringement — amounting to $179 million — an injunction against FC2 and attorneys fees.
A jury trial at Los Angeles federal court to settle the suit was scheduled to start last month.
Terms of the settlement, which weren't revealed publicly, haven't yet been signed off by U.S. District Judge John Walter. Court transcripts that may have included settlement terms have been redacted and XBIZ was unable to obtain terms from either company's counsel.
In court, Walter told both sides that he was looking forward to trying the case. "It would have been a fascinating trial for a lot of reasons," the jurist said. "There are very interesting issues in the case .... "