Oriental Dream Pictures, a leading adult manufacturer of Asian product, has obtained a $180,000 cash settlement in a copyright infringement suit against a local retailer.
According to Oriental Dream's attorney, Clyde DeWitt, the evidence suggested that the defendants may have sold counterfeit DVDs of as many as 50 Oriental Dream titles, both over the Internet and at retail stores in Hawaii.
"What was interesting about this case," DeWitt explained, "is that the defendants apparently were shipping legitimate copies of the DVDs to the Mainland, but may have been selling counterfeits both over the Internet to customers in other parts of the world and at their retail outlets in Hawaii to Asian tourists."
Having been alerted as to what was taking place here, an Oriental Dream functionary posing as an Asian tourist made undercover retail purchases in Hawaii and arranged for Internet orders from both the United States and overseas. The DVDs shipped to the U.S. were not counterfeit, but the others all may have been.
An Oriental Dream spokesman added, "Although the defendants did business in California, we were required to go to Honolulu to pursue this action, and did not hesitate to do so. We will do whatever is needed to contain piracy of our titles."
