Cecil Howard hasn't made a new XXX film in almost ten years, but two things are still true of almost all of his titles: They still sell extremely well... and they still get pirated just as frequently as more recent features. \n That last sad truth was brought home to Howard in late June, when a distributor friend of his sent him a catalog from a video company in the midwest which contained four of Howard's films. Problem was, Howard had never sold a single tape to this company. Curious, Howard ordered three of his titles from the list, and one VCA title he recognized. All came recorded at LP or EP speed on unlabeled 45-minute cassettes, and all had lousy image quality. It was time to take action. Howard sent out 20 letters to various video manufacturers whose titles appeared in the pirate's catalog, and waited for the response. \n Only three people bothered to call me, which is kind of disturbing, Howard stated. It's sad, because if one gets ripped off, we all get ripped off. We're in this game together; we all want to protect our copyrights. VCA's Russ Hampshire was one of the first to respond, and he and Howard have since worked together to contact other manufacturers, trying to find enough plaintiffs to make a lawsuit financially feasible. Among the companies whose tapes are being sold apparently illegally through this catalog are Vivid, Caballero, Leisure Time, Coast to Coast, Gourmet, Legend, Ona Zee Productions, AVICA, Falcon, Catalina, Bizarre and at least a dozen more straight, gay and specialty producers. \n We do what we can to stop [the pirates], Hampshire explained. It's a matter of digging them up, getting the goods on them and trying to do something, but it becomes very expensive, which is the basic problem. According to Hampshire, the decision whether to sue or try to bring a criminal action against pirates is contingent on two factors: the size of the company doing the pirating, and the number of manufacturers willing to share the expense, often over $10,000, of bringing a lawsuit. Howard's case is being handled by New York attorney Dennis Cavanaugh, a 10-year veteran of copyright and trademark protection litigation. \n We're exploring two avenues, Cavanaugh told AVN. One would be a possible criminal action if there are appropriate state statutes that would cover some unfair practice or trademark infringement or counterfeiting, because any type of piracy will generally have a counterfeit of the trademark of the company either on the box or in the opening credits. Or we'll pursue a civil action in federal court under either copyright or trademark law or both, and seek an order of the court allowing us to go in with federal marshals and seize the infringing copies and possibly also impound any copying equipment. From my experience, he continued, having litigated some cases for this industry, the courts are receptive to treating them no differently than the mainstream industries, and giving the same protection, which is encouraging. First Amendment attorney Paul Cambria is also quite familiar with copyright and trademark protection, and continues to be amused at some of the twists such protection can take. \n I've had a number of clients send me photocopies of covers or magazine covers or Websites where their movies or their Website are being ripped off, said Cambria, either by specific name or the setting, and it has caused us to have to send out probably a dozen cease-and-desist orders for infringement. And at this point in time, everyone has ceased and desisted, though there is one pending; and if they do not cease and desist, we intend to file against them in court. But one of Cambria's most interesting recent cases involved something his client, Video Team owner Christian Mann, felt had crossed the line between protected parody and impermissible plagiarism. The controversy involved Legend Video's then-impending release of the first volume in a new series, My She-Male Got Back, from She-Male-Centric Productions ‹ but the box cover and type styles were a near-exact duplicate of Video Team's My Baby Got Back! 15, part of their long-running, trademarked Afro-Centric series. \n In fairness to them, they thought what they were doing was a parody, and they thought that I would be amused, Mann recognized. What they didn't see was that they so exactly knocked off every aspect of My Baby Got Back! 15 that I felt it really diluted the value of that title specifically and the series in general. The fact is, this is my most valuable commodity, the series, and so I can't afford to lose my trademark on it. In fact, it's why I have it trademarked. Afro-Centric Productions is trademarked; My Baby Got Back! is trademarked, and I'm not going to mess with that. But I want to reiterate, I don't view them [Legend] as pirates. I think they were trying to be comical. Video Team and Legend managed to resolve their dispute amicably, and Legend will change both the title and the box before the tape is finally released, but to Mann, this points to a larger problem in the XXX industry. \n I guess I'm really flattered, he explained. This is the first time anyone's chosen to really parody/plagiarize one of my shows, but if you look around, people do it to Evil Angel all the time. People have taken that look, which I think of as being a John Stagliano look, and have just turned it into a generic look, the Œgonzo look,' and people are getting more and more blatant in how much they borrow from each other. It's a sad commentary on the lack of originality in our industry. There are five or six innovators and 50 or 60 copiers. What Legend did is not piracy; it's not a black market item, but I would certainly say it's a gray market item, and there's lots of it going on out there.
All models were at least 18 years old at the time of their performance. 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement.
