Gay adult entertainment giant Titan Media, home of TitanMen.com, has emerged the victor in a precedent-setting copyright infringement case against Bareback.com and several subsidiaries.
According to Titan Media counsel Gill Sperlein, several Titan-owned images were discovered on Bareback.com’s website during a routine review of sites for illegal use of the company’s photographs and movies. Titan contacted the site’s webmaster in January of 2004, shortly after the images were discovered. “Those photographs were later removed,” Sperlein tells AVNOnline.com, “but later more of our photographs were discovered on the site.” Titan again contacted the webmaster, but the situation was not resolved to their satisfaction.
“We attempted to reach a settlement but were unable to do so,” Sperlein says. “We filed the lawsuit on July 13, 2004.”
Titan’s lawsuit initially led to a default judgment against Bareback.com in an undisclosed amount, but they were unable to collect, so other measures were taken. As Sperlein says, “We argued to the district judge that we should be allowed to seize their domain name registrations in much the same manner one would seize tangible assets like furniture or jewelry.” Titan won the argument, and Bareback.com and its subsidiaries (including Barebackvideo.com, Boysfetish.com, Houseboy.com, Militarymen.com, and several others) were seized and a public auction of the domains was announced for Nov. 1. That sale was avoided when Titan and A Workshop, the company that owns Bareback.com, reached a settlement in which A Workshop will be responsible for paying a percentage of the judgment.
“We can’t speak for Bareback.com, but we believe both sides are satisfied [with the outcome],” says Sperlein. “Settlement is generally more attractive than the burden of litigation. If emotions had been allowed into the decision on either side, it would have resulted in further litigation, but the parties made a business decision. The attorneys on both sides deserve a great deal of credit.”
For their part, A Workshop concedes that they are satisfied with the results of the dispute. They maintain, however, that they were not given proper notification by Titan. A Workshop attorney John Dozier says his client was not given proper notification of the judgment. “When we got involved, the payment processor was within hours of terminating the account and refunding all users,” Dozier says. The settlement, he adds, was just a matter of convenience. “Considering the situation, we were either going to attack the judgment or settle this out immediately,” he says. “Our client is obviously pleased that the settlement was finalized and the issue resolved so quickly, and felt that its position was vindicated as evidenced by the settlement amount as opposed to the judgment amount.
“This settlement was driven by a number of considerations, and imputed license fees for the images were a consideration, but not a major factor,” Dozier continues. “Nuisance value would be the major factor contributing to the resolution.” Bareback.com and the other sites seized by Titan are now all back up and running.
Dozier calls Titan’s actions “highly questionable,” and denies any wrongdoing on the part of A Workshop. “My client did not take any images,” he states. “They were posted on the site by third parties in the dating portion of his site.”
Titan claims that the images were found in the gold membership area of the site's galleries, and remains steadfast in its claim that the proper channels were followed in their pursuit of the judgement. “There is some debate as to whether Bareback.com knew of the lawsuit and whether or not they were properly served,” Sperlein contends. “We believe they were, but they argue they were not. In any event, we obtained a default judgment [against them].”
Sperlein believes their case sets a very important precedent for such disputes. “Under the oversight of the U.S. Marshal, we ceased the domain name registration and were prepared to sell it at public auction. This is the first time this procedure has been used in the Northern District of California and perhaps anywhere,” he notes. “We believe the courts will continue to recognize domain name registrations for the valuable asset that they are.”
Titan, which has been very vocal about their anti-barebacking stance in porn, says that, after legal expenses, all proceeds from the settlement will be donated to various HIV and AIDS charities. In addition, Sperlein notes, Titan requested that two of Bareback.com’s inactive sites, Bareback.org and BarebackSex.org, be given to Titan. The company says they are donating the sites to the San Francisco department of public health for their use in HIV/AIDS awareness programs.
