LOS ANGELES — A $2.4 million suit, targeting the operators of AdultDVDTalk.com over eight celebrity images posted in its online forum, has been dropped.
On Thursday, the plaintiff in the suit, Pacific Coast News, voluntarily dismissed all claims against AdultDVDTalk.
The lawsuit, which first targeted the operator of BushDVD.com but also was laster dropped, claimed that AdultDVDTalk infringed on copyright-registered photographs taken by Pacific Coast News of celebrities Amanda Seyfried, Sarah Highland and Selena Gomez.
Drew Black, who with his wife runs AdultDVDTalk, told XBIZ on Monday he wasn’t exactly sure why Pacific Coast News dropped the case against 17-year-old company.
“Our lawyers have a few guesses and theories as to why the plaintiffs may have dropped the suit,” he told XBIZ. “[But] I doubt we'll ever know the true reasons.”
Last month, Black said that Pacific Coast News was using an "opportunistic lawsuit" that threatened the future of his company. Pacific Coast News has filed 126 similar copyright claims against defendants in the past four years
The suit against AdultDVDTalk said that the site wasn’t “safe harbored” by the DMCA because its forum had moderators that have “specific forum-related powers beyond that of a typical user” and that it should be liable for the postings of the eight celebrity images.
Today, Black had a message for online operators who allow users to generate and post content.
“The most important message to get out there is that websites that accept user-generated content must register a designated agent with the U.S. Copyright Office to avoid these kinds of lawsuits,” he said.
