LOS ANGELES—Vivid Entertainment has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Phoenix-based Internet Commerce Group (ICG), alleging a minimum of ten violations and seeking damages of $150,000 per incident in addition to an injunction against further infringement. The 20-page complaint was filed Sept. 10 in Los Angeles federal court by Vivid’s attorney Paul Cambria.
In it, Vivid claims that the unlicensed videos were exploited for profit by ICG on three of its websites, FemaleStars.com, www.icelebonline.com and CelebrityHardcore.com, and possibly others. In a statement issued Tuesday, Vivid co-chairman Steven Hirsch said this will not be the last lawsuit filed by Vivid to protect its intellectual property.
"This is the first of many lawsuits we are prepared to file and we expect to prevail in all of them,” said Hirsch. “We spend millions of dollars to promote our content and we're not going to let illegal users profit at our expense.”
Specifically, the complaint alleges that in 2009 ICG made two of its movies—The Jimi Hendrix Sex Tape and Kim Kardashian Superstar—“available for downloading and viewing by Defendant ICG’s customers on ICG’s websites.”
In 2010, the suit continues, ICG sites unlawfully displayed other copyrighted pictures, including Faithless, Karrine Steffans Superhead, and Vince Neil and Janine—Hardcore and Uncensored, as well as the above Kardashian title. The company further claims that numerous copyrighted video clips and individual images from motion pictures were unlawfully displayed by ICG on its websites.
Statutory damages of not less than $1,200,000 are being sought.
On Aug. 30, Falcon Foto also filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against ICG and Domain Management Services in Los Angeles federal court. The Falcon complaint alleges “over 100 unique instances” of infringement of its works. Specifically, the copyrighted works that are the subject of the Falcon Foto lawsuit are all associated with the sex tape made by actor Tom Sizemore in 2005.
The Vivid complaint can be read here.
The Falcon Foto complaint can be read here.
