Brazzers Parent Calls Infringement Suit ‘Fatally Defective’
By Rhett Pardon, XBIZ.com newswire
NEW YORK — Defending itself against a $6.75 million suit alleging it pirates adult content, Brazzers’ parent company responded to Pink Visual’s claims that it violated 45 copyrights on four of its tube sites, calling the suit "fatally defective."
Mansef Inc., which owns Brazzers, filed a motion to dismiss the case and told a judge that the suit should be dismissed because Pink Visual’s parent company, Ventura Content, hasn’t shown definitive ownership with respect to the copyright registrations, 22 of which are compilations.
Mansef attorneys argue that the 23 of the videos cited in the complaint aren’t registered to Ventura Content but to Pink Visual, which isn’t party to the suit. They also contend that the registered 22 compilation videos don’t satisfy the requirements of copyright law under civil-infringement actions.
Further, Mansef attorneys told a federal judge that the company has no control over the source of the content that users post on websites and that it complied with Ventura Content’s request to take down videos on eight separate occasions within 24 hours of receiving those notices.
"Defendants play no part whatsoever in this transaction of [user-generated content]," Mansef said in the motion to dismiss.
"[D]espite alleging that there exists ‘rampant infringement’ and ‘massive infringement’ on defendants’ websites, plaintiff has not identified even a single instance of such infringement with specificity as to the acts and the time defendants allegedly infringed plaintiff’s copyright."
The websites at issue in Ventura Content’s complaint include KeezMovies.com, PornHub.com, ExtremeTube.com and Tube8.com, all owned by Canadian companies Mansef Inc. and Interhub, whose officers operate both companies as well as one of the best-known adult companies, Brazzers.
In the 38-page motion, Mansef attorneys further contend that the company doesn’t transact business in New York, where the suit was filed, and aren’t subject to New York’s long-arm statute over jurisdiction.
They say even if the court determined jurisdiction over Mansef, the case should be dismissed because the forum is not convenient.
"[Ventura Content], an Aruban corporation with no apparent ties to New York, is not entitled to deference for its choice of New York as the forum," Mansef attorneys argue. "Quebec, Canada, is an adequate alternative forum. defendants are Canadian corporations amenable to process in Quebec."
Q Boyer, a spokesman for Ventura Content, told XBIZ that he couldn’t comment on Mansef’s motion to the court but, "our response in opposition to Mansef’s motion will be filed fairly soon, and we’ll let that response speak for itself."
Pink Visual’s complaint, filed at U.S. District Court in New York, alleges that the defendants are not only aware of infringing content being uploaded to their sites, but that they “actively engage in, promote and induce this infringement.”
“[T]he emergence of these tube sites operated by defendants and others threatens not just [Pink Visual], but the entire adult entertainment industry,” Ventura Content said in its original complaint.
Pink Visual is seeking statutory and actual damages, punitive damages, attorneys fees and injunctive relief.
XBIZ calls to Mansef and related companies went unreturned by post time.