Noble Developments Inc., the parent company of affiliate program Porn Kings, has agreed to pay Falcon Foto LLC nearly $3.2 million to settle copyright-infringement claims involving 3,133 images.
Filed in September in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, a civil lawsuit alleged Porn Kings and its various owners and operators "willful[ly], intentional[ly], and purposeful[ly], in reckless disregard of and with indifference to the rights of plaintiffs," appropriated more than 400 images copyrighted by Falcon Foto after negotiations to license the images fell through. Although the suit sought an unspecified amount in damages plus court costs and attorneys' fees, federal copyright law allows compensation and punitive damages of as much as $150,000 per image (or more than $60 million in this case) for willful infringement.
In a Consent to Judgment filed Tuesday, Noble Developments President Lucas Bradfield stated, "I hereby authorize the entry of a judgment against Noble Developments Inc. in the amount of $3,173,650 in favor of Plaintiffs Falcon Enterprises Inc. and Falcon Foto LLC. This dollar amount is calculated as follows: $1,000 in damages for each of 3,133 infringed images and $42,650 in attorneys' fees."
Falcon Foto attorney Robert Apgood said the terms of the judgment "have been satisfied." He also said he hopes the lawsuit's outcome will convince other copyright infringers Falcon is determined to safeguard its intellectual property rights.
"We're serious about enforcing our copyrights," he told AVNOnline.com. "When people go down the path with us long enough, they realize what their liability is.
"By the time we file suit, there's no question they're liable," Apgood continued. "The only question is how much they're liable for."
The copyright-infringed images, obtained from Falcon by Porn Kings in 2003 as examples of products under consideration for licensing, began appearing in December 2003 in thumbnail gallery postings on websites owned by Porn Kings and continued appearing in TGPs at least through Aug. 17, 2006, according to the lawsuit. According to Apgood, the offending images were removed from Porn Kings' websites in August 2006 after Porn Kings received a cease-and-desist and damages-demand letter, but the company refused to compensate Falcon for its use of the images during the previous 19 months.
Falcon Foto filed a separate copyright-infringement suit against Guerilla Traffic in January. That suit, which alleges statutory damages of more than $100 million, remains unresolved.
