LOS ANGELES - Porn entrepreneur Kevin Cammarata, founder of TeenRevenue, is suing RedTube $40 million for streaming clips without permission and damaging his business.
Represented by attorney Jay Spillane of Spillane Weingarten LLP in Los Angeles, Cammarata's lawsuit, filed in March, accuses the tube site of offering free movies in a move to undermine competition.
Spillane was traveling by plane Friday and unavailable for comment, but his office confirmed that the antitrust complaint asks that RedTube be closed and seeks monetary damages.
The Superior Court filing of March 26 said because "consumers have the ability to watch high-quality adult videos for free on RedTube.com, fewer are making the choice to pay other adult website proprietors for the same or similar content."
Cammarata claims loss of customers and revenue, forcing the sale of his company below its true value.
The lawsuit charges RedTube with below-cost competition and unfair competition and accuses the site of loss leader tactics. The filing seeks $10 million in actual damages and $30 million in treble damages, which permits a court to triple the amount of actual/compensatory damages to be awarded to a prevailing plaintiff in order to punish the losing party for willful conduct.
According to Spillane's office, Red Tube is owned by a Hong Kong company, Bright Imperial Limited, located at Centre, 28 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, an address confirmed by TotalCredit.com
Also named in the lawsuit are RedTube hosting company Choopa, in Sayreville, N.J. as well the tube site's advertisers, which include such well known industry companies such as Bangbros.com, Brazzers, Fling.com, FriendFinder and Stallion.com, as well as RedLightCenter owner Utherverse, Videosz.com owner Generation Financial and cam site LiveJasmin owner Lalib Limitada.
RedTube could not be reached Friday for comment. According to traffic tracker Alexa, the site consistently ranks in the Top 100 and ranked Friday at 53 with more than 3,300 sites linking in.
RedTube has been a lightning rod among hotly-debated tube sites offering free content. While some in adult entertainment argue those sites function as a promotional tool, others counter that such free offerings severely hurt the industry. Several industry insiders wishing to remain anonymous told AVN Online they wouldn't be surprised if the current lawsuit paved the way for future court actions against RedTube.
