MetArt Sues XVideos for Infringement

LAS VEGAS — Another infringement suit has been waged by the MetArt Network against a well-known online adult brand. 

This time around the target is adult tube site XVideos.com and two related web properties, XVideosDaily.com and XVideosToday.net, along with defendant owners Stephane and Malorie Pacaud of France and a number of John Does.

XVideos is one of the largest draws on the Internet. According to legal record, the adult tube site receives about 4.4 billion page views per month, three times the number of views received by numerous other world-famous websites, including CNN.com and ESPN.com.

MetArt contends in its copyright and trademark suit filed at Las Vegas federal court last month that XVideos’ operators fail to honor take-down notices and that they fail to implement a reasonable repeat infringer policy over videos placed on the site.

The studio’s suit also said that XVideos’ operators index the poached MetArt films, and that consumers end up sharing the films on social media sites, making it impossible to know how many times and where an unlicensed copyrighted video gets streamed.

In the complaint, MetArt said it found 44 of its copyright-registered works over 65 separate and distinct URLs this past January on XVideos, and when it asked for take downs, compliance was short of what it had asked. The studio said that XVideos still had 40 of its films still up on the site.

Further, MetArt complains of their trademarks used in the defendants’ meta tags and meta descriptions, complaining that it is likely to cause confusion to consumers, “especially initial interest confusion.” 

“As an example, a recent search on Google.com for ‘Free SexArt’ and ‘MetArt Films’ listed XVideos.com in the No. 1 position in each instance; for ‘SexArt Movies’ it listed XVideos.com in the No. 5 position; and ‘MetArt’ places XVideos.com in the No. 3 position,” MetArt’s suit said. “A recent search on Google.com for ‘SexArt Movies’ on XVideos.com showed 1290 results; and for ‘Free SexArt Movies’ showed 2120 results. The same search done for ‘MetArt Movies’ on XVideos.com returns 525 results; and ‘Free MetArt movies’ returned 669 results. A simple search for ‘SexArt’ on XVideos.com showed 3,140 results; and for ‘MetArt’ 1,980 results.”

The take-down notices delivered to the XVideos.com DMCA agent included notice of the trademark infringements and demanded that such action cease, MetArt said.

“The demand to cease the use of plaintiff’s trademarks was ignored in totality,” MetArt said. “In fact, for the limited videos that were disabled on XVideos.com pursuant to the take-down notices, the meta data for these videos remained and remains active.”

MetArt said that XVideos and its operators have become “willfully blind to the rampant infringement” and that “the infringement is clear and obvious even to the most naïve observer.”

The lawsuit, filed by industry attorneys Clyde DeWitt and Spencer Freeman, seeks a restraining order, damages, attorneys fees and the cost of corrective advertising.

Industry attorney Marc Randazza, who represents XVideos and the other defendants, told XBIZ today that he doubts the case has legs.

“While I respect MetArt and its counsel, I think that the filing has some significant deficiencies, and the theories of the case are flawed,” he said.

But Freeman, who represents MetArt,said that the legal argument is clear in this case.

Freeman told XBIZ: “XVideos traded on MetArt trade names and failed to take down their copyrighted content when asked. It’s not theory, it's fact.”

In addition to the lawsuit against XVideos and related websites, MetArt has filed numerous other infringement claims against the operators of Sex.com, AdultPornVideoxx.com, 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.

MetArt lawsuits have been filed at federal courts in Miami, Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles and now Las Vegas. 

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.