It was announced Wednesday that the IO Group, Inc., parent company of popular gay adult studio Titan Media, filed suit against Larry Flynt Publications, Inc. (LFP) for copyright infringement and common law Right of Publicity violations. The suit comes after several of Titan’s photographs were found on LFP-owned pay site StudClub.com, served from LFPcontent.com.
“We were stunned to find 220 of our images being sold as content on LFP’s StudClub.com Web site,” said IO’s vice president of marketing Keith Webb. “The images were being used as content in photo galleries with no associated review or commentary.” Webb added that, “even more shocking,” the images in question contained Titan copyright marks (either the Titan name or the name of a particular film). “LFP clearly knew the origins and the owners of the photos, yet they went ahead and published and sold them as content on their paid membership site anyway,” Webb continued.
According to Titan, IO Group is asking for willful statutory damages for each of the 220 images, as well as common law Right of Publicity awards. If the court sides with the plaintiff, IO could receive up to $30 million, which would include damages of up to $150,000 per image.
“As one of the world’s largest producers and copyright holders of adult materials in the world, LFP knew—or should have known—that the content was not theirs to publish and re-sell,” said Titan lawyer Gill Sperlien, who added that the case will show “that LFP’s actions were willful infringements of Titan Media’s copyright protected properties and we will seek compensation for maximum damages.”
LFP could not be reached for comment.
