TACOMA, Wash. — After a nearly four-year court battle, Japanese adult entertainment producer Will Co. has been awarded $4.5 million in damages and ownership of domains formerly belonging to the operator of now-shuttered MissAV.com and other high-traffic pirate sites.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on Jan. 7 found in favor of Will Co. in its copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit against Ka Yeung Lee, Youhaha Marketing and Promotion Ltd., and Does 1-20, doing business as ThisAV.com.
The $4.5 million award represents statutory damages of $15,000 for each of 300 unlawfully hosted videos. The court also ordered the defendants to pay Will Co. $76,959 to cover fees and costs, and required domain registrar Verisign to disable several websites and transfer their domain names to Will Co. The former content of those sites has now been replaced with an anti-piracy warning.
Jason Tucker of anti-piracy and intellectual property management company Battleship Stance, which served as a strategy consultant on the case, called the win a major victory in a “landmark legal battle.”
“We are pleased with this ruling, which not only delivers justice for Will Co. but also strengthens the position of creators in their fight against international piracy,” Tucker said in a statement. “By reshaping jurisdictional arguments and securing the order to seize domain assets — we’ve reinforced a precedent for protecting intellectual property globally. The transfer of these domains sends a clear message to pirate operators that they risk losing their assets when they steal content.”
In 2023, Tucker told XBIZ, “Our specialty is finding and communicating with pirate operators and, if needed, taking down or taking over their domains, regardless of where they exist or want to look like they are existing.” Last year, Tucker consulted on a copyright infringement case in California in which Aylo was awarded more than $2 million in a judgment against operators of a website that hosted full, streamable versions of the company’s content.
Spencer Freeman of Freeman Law Firm, who was lead counsel for the plaintiff, stated, “This case sets a precedent for stronger enforcement of U.S. copyright laws against foreign entities. It underscores the importance of pursuing legal action across borders to protect intellectual property rights globally.”