CHICAGO—Gay adult production company FlavaWorks Entertainment last week sued the parent company of a Bulgarian-based torrenting tracker called Gay-torrents.org in federal district court.
The lawsuit cites allegations against Gay-torrents.org of violating the federal Copyright Act, including claims of unjust enrichment, civil conspiracy and fraudulent concealment.
One of the largest legal campaigns the company has undertaken to date, the suit names hundreds of defendants, including 325 users identified as "John Does" and a class of users who are believed to be the administrators of the website and its various forums. Also named is a shell company called Byzona Ltd., reportedly based in the city of Kazanluk.
According to the legal complaint filed on FlavaWorks's behalf by Chicago-based attorney Corinthia Hicks, Gay-torrents.org has garnered more than 146,000 registered users since its launch in 2009. Around 20,671 remain active, engaged in alleged copyright infringement and intellectual property theft.
"Plaintiff brings this action to stop Defendants from infringing, promoting, encouraging, enabling, and facilitating the infringement of copyrights," the complaint reads. FlavaWorks is led by CEO and owner Phillip Bleicher.
FlavaWorks requests damages including $150,000 per infringed work for willful infringement. Ernesto Van der Sar, a journalist for Torrent Freak, reported that the exact number of infringed works could be in the hundreds, as the scope of the studio's catalog across all of its owned platforms is large. Potential damages could run in the millions of dollars.
FlavaWorks previously sued 47 John Does in the same district court, seeking $1.5 million in damages plus attorney's fees and court costs.
