PHOENIX — The MetArt Network, which earlier this month fingered 10 companies for stealing and streaming its content on 17 adult tube sites, has future litigation plans.
“More infringement suits,” said a spokesman affiliated with the company.
In fact, the network of erotic sites, which all offer nude and explicit sex through fine-art videography, is planning to target operators of 50 additional websites that are “blatantly stealing content,” the spokesman said.
Each of the adult tube sites hide behind the DMCA while profiting from the illegal videos that they host, he said.
“We’re taking a potentially groundbreaking approach to our litigation strategy,” he said. “These companies, which dilute the MetArt name by infringement, won’t be able to contend that it was their users who posted the content.
“The mathematics will prove them wrong in many of the cases,” he said, referring to one actual user who posted 27,000 movies in one month to one site. “That person’s either an employee of the site, an affiliate to the site, or the world’s biggest porn fan.”
The spokesman noted that one of the 50 sites next to be targeted for infringement is one of the most well-known of all adult sites.
The lawsuits targeting 17 adult tube sites in the past month were filed at federal courts in Phoenix and Seattle, with each claiming that the operators’ websites were streaming MetArt content without permission.
The accused 17 websites included KPorno.com, Pornias.com, LikePorno.com, SpankBang.com, Porn69.biz, Porn69.org, PornHub88.com, Sex88.org, PornoWow.com, Tubenn.com, Wixvi.so, Wixvi.com, HDPorn1080.com, HDPorn1080.net, SexTVx.com, SexSeeVideo.net and PornVideoXO.com.
Each of the site owners are accused of various copyright and trademark violations, as well as unfair competition.
MetArt hopes to recoup damages that can run into the millions of dollars in the 10 cases.
It is seeking $150,000 for each of its movies that have been infringed upon. Some of the movies allegedly infringed on include “Kamasutra,” “Spanglish,” “Wild Girl II,” and “Cybersex.”
MetArt, based in Cyprus, also is asking the court to transfer the sites’ domain names to stop future infringements.
So far, MetArt has served a number of subpoenas to obtain the identities of the operators.
In many infringement cases involving adult tube sites, plaintiffs have a difficult time ascertaining the identities because the operators sometimes hide behind private Whois registrations.
The spokesman said that one of the sites — SpankBang.com — has been adversely affected by MetArt’s legal sword.
“It is no longer in operation, despite that it had a high Alexa rating — ranking No. 2,200,” he said. “But just because it no longer operates, it doesn’t mean we won’t be going after them for damages.”