LOS ANGELES — Following up on a vow of a litigation blitz against alleged commercial infringers, the MetArt Network has filed another multimillion-dollar claim against an adult tube site property.
Yesterday, Cyprus-based MetArt Network filed a claim against AdultPornVideoxx.com and its operators for allegedly poaching and streaming 29 of its copyrighted works over 36 hyperlinks.
“The infringement is clear and obvious even to the most naïve observer,” the suit filed at Los Angeles federal court said. “Plaintiff’s films are indexed, displayed and distributed on defendants’ website through defendant and the Doe defendants acting in concert.
“Plaintiff’s and other major producers’ trademarks are used to index infringing material along with obfuscation of watermarks and other identifiers which is evidence of knowledge and intent.”
AdultPornVideoxx.com, the suit said, fails to fulfill the requisite conditions precedent to qualify for the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA and is a “pirate website” because it contains copyrighted content without authorization or license.
It is seeking $150,000 for each of its movies that have been infringed upon and also is asking the court to transfer the site’s domain name to stop future infringements.
In late March, the MetArt Network, whose network of erotic sites all offer nude and explicit sex through fine-art videography, said that it would target operators of websites that are “blatantly stealing content.”
Each of the targeted adult tube sites hide behind the DMCA while profiting from the illegal videos that they host, a company spokesman said at the time.
“We’re taking a potentially groundbreaking approach to our litigation strategy,” the spokesman said at the time. “These companies, which dilute the MetArt name by infringement, won’t be able to contend that it was their users who posted the content.
In addition to yesterday’s AdultPornVideoxx.com infringement lawsuit, MetArt this year has sued the operators of JoJoBaa.net, Motherless.com, 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.
The lawsuits have been filed at federal courts in Phoenix, Seattle and Los Angeles. Each of the site owners are accused of various copyright and trademark violations, as well as unfair competition.
MetArt’s membership websites include MetArt. com, SexArt.com, Errotica-Archives.com, EroticBeauty.com, TheLifeErotic.com, RylskyArt.com, MichealNinn.com, ALSScan.com, VivThomas.com, EternalDesire.com, Stunning18.com, HollyRandall.com, Domai.com, GoddessNudes.com, MagikSex.com and BBFilms.com.
A MetArt spokesman declined comment on the case to XBIZ; operators of AdultPornVideoxx.com were unable to be reached.