NEW YORK CITY—With so much press out there about copyright trolls filing lawsuits in an apparent effort to blackmail porn downloaders into paying a "settlement" so they won't be dragged into court on what appear to be bogus charges, it's refreshing when an unquestionably legitimate and prolific adult producer decides to protect his own output by suing BitTorrent downloaders of his product—and that's what Strike 3 Holdings' co-owner Greg Lansky (Blacked.com, Tushy.com, Vixen.com) has done in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The lawsuits—23 in number, 13 of which were filed in late September and 10 more in mid-November—are of the same type AVN wrote about in its November 16 article about Strike 3's filings in Michigan: All name various "John Does" as defendants, and each is identified by an individual IP (internet protocol) address which IPP International U.G., Strike 3's investigators, uncovered, and which investigative firm Maxmind's geolocation technology puts in New York City and environs.
Each of the lawsuits also details (one might say boasts about) Lansky's status in and contributions to the adult industry.
"Strike 3’s subscription based websites proudly boast a paid subscriber base that is one of the highest of any adult-content sites in the world. Strike 3 also licenses its motion pictures to popular broadcasters and Strike 3’s motion pictures are the number one selling adult DVDs in the United States," each lawsuit reads, in part.
"Strike 3’s motion pictures and websites have won numerous awards, such as 'best cinematography,' 'best new studio,' and 'adult site of the year.' One of Strike 3’s owners, two-time director of the year Greg Lansky, has been dubbed the adult film industry’s 'answer to Steven Spielberg,'" the suits continue. "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."
There's no doubt that the adult industry in general has suffered greatly from online piracy. Ever since the "Great Recession," when more and more people sought out free (usually pirated) porn on the internet when spending money became tight, revenues to most adult studios fell by nearly one-half, and while now, nearly ten years later, they've regained some of that loss, as Strike 3's lawsuit notes, performer pay and content quality in some cases continues to suffer.
While each lawsuit basically seeks to have the pirated material deleted from each defendant's computer, and seeks an award for both the copyright infringement and attorney fees, each is also accompanied by a request that the court order each defendant's ISP to divulge his/her real identity, street address, email address(es) and telephone number(s). In the lawsuits filed in September, the court agreed to order the ISP to provide the defendant's real name and address(es), but drew the line at email addresses and phone numbers, "in light of the risk of false positive identifications that could result in 'annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense.'" Such orders have not yet been filed in the lawsuits which were filed in November.
There's no doubt that the popularity of Lansky's product has made it some of the most pirated material on the internet, so it's likely that more such lawsuits will be filed in the near future.
