Titan Wins Copyright Case
Gay adult film company wins copyright case
Tom Musbach, PlanetOut Network
SUMMARY: Titan Media, a major producer of gay adult films, won a copyright suit against a Web producer who was accused of stealing and posting hundreds of Titan's images on his sites.
Titan Media, a San Francisco-based producer of gay adult films, won a copyright infringement case on Friday against a Web producer who was accused of stealing and posting on his sites hundreds of Titan's images.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White awarded $418,500 in damages to the company. According to a Titan Media press release, the award amounts to $1,500 for each of the 279 photographs that were illegally published.
The defendant named in the case is Timothy J. Ward, who used the stolen images on the sites www.sobe-cfg.com and www.sobear.com, according to Titan Media.
"We are extremely pleased with this large award by the courts," said Keith Webb, vice president of Titan Media. "But we are even more pleased that this judgment continues to amplify our warning to online thieves: If you steal from Titan, you will get caught and you will pay the price."
He added that Titan Media still has other lawsuits pending, with more on the way.
Like the U.S. recording industry, Titan Media has been fighting the illegal downloading and sharing of electronic files for the past few years. The company says that electronic versions of its adult photos and videos are proprietary in the same way that digital versions of hit songs are for record companies and musical artists.
Peer-2-Peer (P2P) networks, such as Kazaa, eDonkey and Grokster, are a main source of the problem for most entertainment companies, Webb said.
"We actively monitor and track down users stealing and trading our video files in the P2P networks," Webb told the PlanetOut Network. "In the past year we have caught over 475,000 people stealing our content worldwide in the P2P networks. We aggressively go after them, and have had a 90 percent compliance rating for the removal of our content from illegal trading online."
