Titan Media Wins $1.2 Million in Piracy Case

[Titanmen]

http://www.xbiz.com/news/92386

$1.275 million judgment against online piracy ring for infringement of 17 Titan titles

SAN FRANCISCO — Titan Media has won $1.275 million in damages in a copyright infringement suit against Gilbert Michael Gonzales and 21 additional defendants in a judgment that was handed down yesterday.
“This is yet another victory for not only Titan, but the entire adult industry. The ruling is a huge blow to online piracy blogs,” Titan Media Vice President Keith Webb said.

“You can run and hide but in the end, everything you do online can be traced back to you,” Webb added. “We were able to subpoena ISPs and track the IP address and individual identity of each person on the pirate blog [who was] posting and distributing our films. Once again, the message is clear — if you steal and pirate Titan films, you will be caught and you will be prosecuted.”

The case was filed at the end of September in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. It named Gilbert Michael Gonzales and 21 John Doe defendants who were involved in an online piracy ring that utilized free hosting websites, including Blogspot.com, Ning.com and RapidShare.com to infringe on more than 45 of Titan’s movie titles.

At the time, Titan estimated that the ring might be responsible for more than 100,000 illegal downloads of Titan material, including full-length videos, as well as video extras and behind-the scenes footage.

The base statutory damages awarded by U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel amounted to $25,000 per title for 17 titles. However, the judge tripled the amount of damages per title to $75,000, because she found that the infringement was “willful.”

“We are realistic, and we know the chances of collection on this default judgment are slim,” Titan attorney Gill Sperlein told XBIZ. “The judgment is nonetheless important, and its significance should not be understated. Clearly, federal judges are willing to evaluate damages in cases involving adult content the same as they would any other case. This is an important message to adult content owners and pirates alike.”

[mickey]

i love the fact that you won and that you go after copyright infringements like this..

but, sorry had to come, could someone please explain to me how this works ? you have a court settlement for $XXXX but how would you go about collecting ? what about the person that the settlement is against, they are in debt for the rest of their life correct ?

not feeling sorry for them or anything but just want to understand some things better..

[Alex_Manifest_M]

I have admiration for the pride that Titan takes in their work. To not toss up one's hands and say that "people are going to steal from us and there is nothing we can do about it" shows that they really value their work.

Congratulations on your victory and thank you for the inspiration this provides.

[xondemand]

I have admiration for the pride that Titan takes in their work. To not toss up one's hands and say that "people are going to steal from us and there is nothing we can do about it" shows that they really value their work.

Congratulations on your victory and thank you for the inspiration this provides.

agreeed

congrats

[jIgG]

nice nice congrats to Titan
all those blogpost-ers should be feeling at least a little bit nervous

[derekt]

:broccoli: Go Get 'em Titan!!!! Shut these "thieves" down! (That's putting it nicely).

[703_Angel]

Yeah Titan repeatedly shows that they are NOT to be messed with. Good for them.

[derekt]

We are also somewhat following their footsteps. We are now actually copyrighting our DVDs. In fact we just shipped 50 DVDs to the Copyright office to file for copyrights. Whenever we find our content... we harass the holy heck out of the violators, host, processor (if any), we do not leave them alone.