GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—Strike 3 Holdings LLC, the parent company to such popular, award-winning websites as Blacked.com, Vixen.com and Tushy.com, has filed suit in federal court in the Western District of Michigan, suing seven people whom the company has identified as having downloaded its movies through BitTorrent websites and seeking their physical addresses.
According to the complaint filed by Plaintiffs' attorney Joel Bernier on November 14, "Plaintiff used IP address geolocation technology by Maxmind Inc. (“Maxmind”), an industry-leading provider of IP address intelligence and online fraud detection tools, to determine that Defendant’s IP address traced toa physical address in this District. Over 5,000 companies, along with United States federal and state law enforcement, use Maxmind’s GeoIP data to locate Internet visitors, perform analytics, enforce digital rights, and efficiently route Internet traffic."
While the defendants are all "John Does" and described further only by their IP addresses, the Plaintiff has identified several movies downloaded illegally by each address. For example, "John Doe subscriber assigned IP address 172.15.113.94" is alleged to have downloaded 23 movies or web scenes from all three websites. The other six defendants are similarly described, and to each complaint is attached a list of the allegedly illegally downloaded movies. However, in order to serve the complaint on each John Doe—a requirement for the lawsuit to continue—Bernier is seeking to find out the physically address of each defendant from his or her internet service provider.
According to Michigan news site mlive.com, "Three of the 'John Doe' defendants live in Grand Rapids. Others are in Bellevue, Big Rapids, Kalamazoo and Rapid City in Kalkaska County."
The complaint also contains some flowery language to describe the material on the three websites, as well as "two-time director of the year" (and Strike 3 co-owner) Greg Lansky, who has allegedly been dubbed "the adult film industry's 'answer to Steven Spielberg.'"
"Strike 3’s motion pictures and websites have won numerous awards, such as 'best cinematography,' 'best new studio,' and 'adult site of the year'," each complaint reads. "Strike 3’s motion pictures have had positive global impact, leading more adult studios to invest in better content, higher pay for performers, and to treat each performer with respect and like an artist."
The cause of action itself is simple enough: "Plaintiff is the owner of the Works, which is an original work of authorship. Defendant copied and distributed the constituent elements of Plaintiff’s Works using the BitTorrent protocol. At no point in time did Plaintiff authorize, permit or consent to Defendant’s distribution of its Works, expressly or otherwise."
The complaint asks the court to stop the defendants from further infringing on Strike 3's copyrighted works, to delete the works already downloaded, and to pay a fine and attorney fees and litigation costs.
Strike 3 is seeking a jury trial on the charges, but that can't happen until the defendants are more specifically identified and served, so there is no projected trial date yet.
The complaint against "John Doe subscriber assigned IP address 172.15.113.94," which is nearly identical to the other six lawsuits filed, can be found here.
