Trial to Start in Caballero Copyright Lawsuit

Attorneys for Rodax Distributors, which operates as Caballero Home Video, say they plan to prevail in a lawsuit filed against Sunshine Films over alleged copyright infringement.

“Sunshine basically sold movies to which they had no right,” said Stanley Stone, an attorney representing Rodax.

“They’re still selling them today… But we believe we’ll be successful at trial.”

The case is scheduled to go before Judge Dean D. Pregerson in U.S. District Court Tuesday in Los Angeles.

At issue are whether Sunshine had the rights to distribute Caballero’s Swedish Erotica line in videocassette and DVD formats. Caballero contends that it has licensing rights from Caballero Control Corporation Ltd., a separate entity, for distribution of its content.

Sunshine, along with fellow defendants Odyssey Video Group and Sunshine Operations Manager Joseph Shemesh and Rita Shemesh Duak, an officer with the company, said in documents that Rodax had rights that covered only one-hour videocassettes and film and not DVD, since that format was not outlined in its 1993 contract with Caballero Control.

The DVD format did not exist at the time.

According to its response to the lawsuit, Sunshine and Odyssey claim they had reached a licensing agreement with Caballero in 1992 or about a year before Rodax signed its distribution deal with Caballero to distribute its Swedish Erotica Hard titles.

Eugene M. Salute, an attorney representing Sunshine, Odyssey and others, said in documents that the fact that Rodax took more than 12 years to file a lawsuit against his client makes it difficult to provide important evidence due to the death of some witnesses such as the late Robert Tremont, who died in 2002. Tremont helped negotiate the contract between Odyssey and Caballero.

Sunshine subsequently acquired the rights to the titles during a bankruptcy sale from Odyssey.

Rodax is seeking undetermined compensatory and punitive damages in addition to recovering attorney's fees and court-related costs.