LOS ANGELES — Adult entertainment brand Perfect 10 has filed a federal lawsuit against French hosting company OVH.com, alleging that it hosts pirated copies of its copyrighted images for 17 websites.
Perfect 10 said in the suit filed Wednesday that it has identified at least 12,000 images it owns on the 17 sites and is suing for $150,000 per infringement.
The suit, naming OVH and 100 John Does, is similar to another claim that it settled earlier this year with hosting firm LeaseWeb.
In that suit, Perfect 10 said it sent DMCA notices over at least 12,220 infringing images hosted on the servers of the LeaseWeb defendants. Terms of that settlement were never revealed.
In the current suit, the adult brand also accuses OVH and 100 John Does named to the suit of allowing infringing traffic to pass through the Internet backbone.
Perfect 10 argues that OVH is directly responsible for copyright infringements committed by 17 clients — operators of Celeb.to, CelebForum.to, Daily-Ladies.com, Gallery-Dump.com, Erooups.com, GoPhoto.us, HatunCenter.net, ImageChunk.com, Sualize.us, IMGMaster.net, ImageRise.com, OhFree.net, PixHost.eu, RedBlow.com, TuxBoard.com, VisualiZeus.com and WallpaperPanda.com.
Perfect 10 said it sent DMCA notices to OVH since 2011 ans said it believes the hosting provider should have taken the URLs in question offline.
“Defendants host and provide Internet connectivity and other essential services to websites, including infringing websites operated in California that have infringed tens of thousands of Perfect 10 copyrighted works,” the suit said.
“Defendants could have and should have ended the infringement by processing Perfect 10’s DMCA notices and removing the infringing images or by refusing to host the identified allegedly infringing websites, among other things."
Perfect 10 seeks maximum statutory damages of $150,000 with respect to each work infringed and a restraining order over alleged infringement against OVH and its Canadian subsidiary, Hebergement OVH Inc., as well as the Does.
Norm Zada, operator of Perfect 10, told XBIZ that he's got a particular opinion on what to do with adjudicating infringers.
"I strongly believe that there needs to be some sort of Internet police so that copyright holders do not need to spend all their time and resources in court, rather than developing their businesses," Zada said. "Also, federal courts are in desperate need of more support from Congress and the president. There are not nearly enough judges, and they are overworked and underpaid."