A major victory for international adult company Private Media Group came down Thursday at the Federal Magistrates Court in Sydney, which found retailer Venus Adult Shops Pty. Ltd. liable for breaching copyright with films produced by Fraserside Holdings Ltd, a sector of Private.
Private titles are reproduced and distributed in Australia under exclusive licence by Calvista Australia Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of listed public company Adultshop.com Ltd. The court determined that Venus had breached Australia’s Copyright Act by knowingly making and selling counterfeit copies of Private DVDs and selling parallel imported Private DVDs.
The court awarded damages of $150,000 plus interest and costs which are likely to exceed $100,000. An injunction was levied against Venus preventing the company from manufacturing, selling or advertising any unauthorized copies of Private titles.
Despite their claims of lack of knowledge that they had breached copyright, the court described the conduct of the defendants as "flagrant" and found that "they had deliberately set aside batches of DVDs to use as a library for the purposes of copying and keeping their stock fresh."
Venus operates eight adult retail outlets throughout Australia. Fraserside and Calvista are members of the Adult Industry Copyright Organization (AICO), a non-profit, membership-based organization that was established to prevent and discourage piracy in the Australian adult industry.
AICO executive officer Graeme Dunne commented, "AICO members will continue to exercise their full legal rights to combat the piracy of their films. Importantly, in this case, Venus was found to have breached copyright, not only via counterfeiting but by selling parallel imported Private DVDs. Film pirates need to seriously consider the substantial damages awarded by courts for copyright infringement. This case commenced with evidence of six infringing film titles. However, the orders ultimately made by the court will require the [defendants] to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and costs and to abide by permanent injunctions."
A damages decision is pending in a separate piracy matter against Kaosshop Pty. Ltd., Platinum Interactive Pty. Ltd. and Mr Theo Armenis (who have each admitted liability) on the part of AICO members Wicked Pictures, Adultshop.com Ltd. and Calvista.
For further information contact Graeme Dunne at [email protected].
