CHICAGO — Flava Works today received the green light to amend its $1.2 million piracy lawsuit against well-known mainstream TV exec Marc Juris for allegedly distributing its gay black and Latino online content on file-sharing sites.
Today, U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve sided with Flava Works and allowed the gay studio and distributor to amend it complaint while at the same time refusing Juris’ motion to dismiss the case.
Flava Works, in a suit filed this past summer at Chicago federal court, said that Juris joined its membership site, copied content and later posted it on sites using peer-to-peer file-sharing technology.
Juris — the openly gay network president and general manager of WE tv, the AMC Network-owned digital cable and satellite TV channel — was issued a cease-and-desist over the alleged file-sharing and urged to settle the infringement case out of court.
But Juris refused, according to Phil Bleicher, Flava Works founder and CEO.
Bleicher told XBIZ today that the amended complaint will include a list of DVD and movie titles that Juris is alleged to have shared online.
He also said that copyrights and Juris’ membership information will be added to the amended suit, which St. Eve ordered due in court by next Thursday.
Bleicher this past summer said that Flava Works has enough evidence to prove Juris’ culpability in the piracy case — “from matching emails, IP, logs and usernames; and he continued to share our copyrighted works,” he said.
Flava Works operates FlavaMen.com, MixItUpBoy.com, ThugBoy.com, RawRods.com, PapiCock. com and CocoDorm.com, among other gay ethnic porn sites.
Juris’ attorney, Ben Meiselas of Geragos & Geragos, did not immediately respond for comment by XBIZ post time.