Excalibur Entertainment has accused VCX of reproducing without formal permission a large number of Web pages and images on which Excalibur claims the copyright, including pages tied to such adult stars as Ginger Lynn, Ashlyn Gere, Amber Lynn, Amber Hunt, Bambi Woods, Brigette Monet, and others.
In a letter from Excalibur to VCX, a copy of which was made available to AVNOnline.com, Excalibur is demanding VCX pull all such pages and images from its Websites, destroy all copies VCX may have of the pages and materials, provide Excalibur with identities of any and all sources of the materials, the exact URLs they used, the page view numbers and gross revenue generated by the pages, and any available names of those accessing the pages.
Excalibur is giving VCX until June 4 at 10 a.m. to provide that information or face legal action, according to the letter.
The materials in question include images and even biographic passages involving the aforesaid and other adult actors and actresses. Current Excalibur owner Jerry Steiner told AVNOnline.com the company discovered the alleged infringements when he looked at VCX's site, saw Amber Lynn, and noticed a review actually written by himself, which included information tied to an earlier film of hers he had produced – information only he could have known at the time, having actually seen the shooting of the film.
"We started comparing," Steiner said. "They have 75 biographies there and they copied 61 of ours."
VCX attorney Timothy Riley said the company had no comment at this writing on the Excalibur action. "Nothing's developed yet," Riley said, "but we will be developing it." An attempt by AVNOnline.com to visit the VCX pages in question showed several of those pages unavailable for viewing, an indication VCX may be taking the pages down for review at this writing.
The Excalibur move comes not too long after VCX accused Excalibur of infringement regarding 18 films, in a case still pending in central California. A settlement process is said to be ongoing, with the sides due for a formal session June 16. VCX says the two companies had an agreement to exchange materials, but that Excalibur backed off the agreement.
Excalibur has also been one of the adult Internet companies involved in the streaming media patent litigation battle with Acacia Research Corp., whose Digital Media Transmission group of streaming media patents is being challenged by several such companies, led by New Destiny/Homegrown Video and VS Media.
