NEW YORK—Gay adult studio Pitbull Productions has filed a federal lawsuit against mainstream blog and virtual community ThugStatus.com claiming the latter encourages, enables and profits from the theft of Pitbull’s intellectual property.
According to the seven-cause lawsuit, filed Dec. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ThugStatus.com has “developed and controls a website…largely dedicated to the repeated and exploitative unauthorized distribution and reproduction of Pitbull Productions Inc. works. ThugStatus.com provides their users with a fully integrated infrastructure that connects them to infringing digital files. The website even encourages users to infringe through a point system that gives users more access according to the number of movies they upload.
“Defendants are building a business based on the daily massive infringement that they enable and encourage. ThugStatus.com’s conduct has caused and continues to cause Pitbull Productions Inc. grave and irreparable harm.”
On or about Nov. 15, a Pitbull representative became aware of at least 14 complete Pitbull videos posted in the ThugStatus.com forums. The content, including images, trademarks and videos, is intended for users to download for free while defendants profit from advertisers, the court filing claims.
“Pitbull Productions has always been in the forefront in the gay adult entertainment industry of enforcing all rights for its intellectual properties,” Pitbull spokesman Bruce Flemming said. “We have filed more than 13 lawsuits in federal courts all across the United States in the past five years, enforcing our rights, suing for damages and ensuring that nobody gets away with stealing our content.”
In fact, according to Vice President of Marketing Pat Reshen, Pitbull has become more than aggressive about the content-theft issue. The company’s products have been hijacked so often and with such impunity, Pitbull no longer attempts to reason with suspected pirates before going for the jugular.
“We did not send a [Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown] notice to ThugStatus.com,” she told AVN.com. “It is no longer our policy to police and chase after these types of sites who knowingly infringe on—steal—our intellectual property. At this point in time we go straight to federal court, and we sue them. We only send DMCA notices to companies or websites when we feel they have unknowingly infringed on either our copyright or trademark.”
Such was the case with the DMCA notices the studio sent to one internet service provider and three file-sharing websites last week, Flemming said.
“Pitbull will pursue justice at all cost and in each instance where we are infringed upon,” he added. “It is not only our goal to receive statutory and punitive monetary damage awards, but in all instances to have the domain name of the infringer ordered turned over to us by the federal courts. This is the price webmasters who steal and cheat, lie and defraud, will have to pay when it comes to infringing on Pitbull.”
He cited as an example Pitbull’s lawsuit against WhatsTea.com in 2008. In that case, Flemming noted, the court awarded to Pitbull a seven-figure judgment and ownership of the domain name.
In the current suit, Pitbull seeks unspecified “enhanced compensatory and punitive damages,” attorney fees and the ThugStatus.com website in addition to a court order prohibiting the defendants from continuing infringement.
ThugStatus.com's registered owner did not respond to AVN's request for comment.
