MIAMI—Flava Works has filed the first two in what the gay adult studio says will be a series of lawsuits targeting social-networking sites that facilitate unauthorized sharing of copyrighted content.
The lawsuits, both filed in February in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, seek jury trials for StackWorld.info and its owners and DGSource.com and its owners plus five of the site’s more than 9,000 “John Doe” users. Both operations are accused of repeatedly violating Flava Works’ copyrights and trademarks by maintaining online venues in which users are encouraged to share Flava Works’ content. According to court documents, both operations derive advertising revenue from the promotion of pirated content.
Although the two operations purportedly are owned by different individuals or groups in different part of the U.S., their websites have cross-linked each other, according to the StackWorld suit. In addition, Rod Hughes, the apparent owner of StackWorld, began taunting Flava Works via Twitter, Facebook and his blog after Flava Works submitted a DMCA takedown notice to his website host.
Both Hughes and TaRon Wyche, the registered owner of DGSource.com, have provided several false identities to their respective domain registrars in attempts to hide their identities, the lawsuits allege.
Flava Works seeks actual and/or statutory damages, court costs, attorney fees and injunctive relief to prevent future infringement. Both suits were filed by Flava Works’ new in-house corporate counsel, Chicago-based attorney Jesse Lanshe.
“For too long, tube, torrent and one-click hosting sites, along with the miscreants that run and use them, have been pilfering the coffers of hardworking adult entertainment companies, and the time has come to draw a line in the sand,” Flava Works spokesman Warren Bullock said. “Until recently, only a handful of adult content producers have bothered to take serious legal action against these blatant infringers. Today, Flava Works has declared that it will be joining the ranks of these brave and committed few, while encouraging others to follow suit, so that we may hopefully all join forces soon to shut these pirates down for good.”
Flava Works Chief Executive Officer Phillip Bleicher said he is confident that once lawsuits “take down” the current defendants, others will fall like dominos.
“We spend countless hours producing our high quality products,” he said. “We’re not in the business of having pirates reap the benefits of what we have sown. We’re getting tired of being taken advantage of, and this blatant disregard for the law has to stop.
“We’ve just opened the door to a fight that’s not going to go away anytime soon. We’re in it for the long haul, and we’re not going to stop until we get back what’s rightfully ours: our content.”
For more about the Miami-based studio that specializes in ethnic gay adult content, visit FlavaWorks.com.
