Megaupload Targeted In Multi Million Dollar Lawsuit By Perfect 10

[Aussie Rebel]

Interesting for some I guess

Megaupload Targeted In Multi Million Dollar Lawsuit

Adult media company Perfect 10 has come out all guns blazing in yet another lawsuit adventure. This time it has targeted cyberlocker Megaupload, with claims that the file-hosting giant infringed its copyrights, infringed and damaged its trademarks, and engaged in unfair competition. Perfect 10 demands a jury trial and damages and costs running to millions of dollars.

Another month, another copyright lawsuit from adult media outfit Perfect 10. This time the company is chasing file-hosting service Megaupload and its owner Kim Schmitz, associated companies such as megarotic.com, megaporn.com, megavideo.com, and megaclick.com, and other businesses and affiliates.

Does 1 to 100 in the lawsuit, which was filed 31st January in the California Southern District Court, are described as businesses owned, controlled by, or affiliated with Megaupload ?which either directly or indirectly profit from and/or directly or indirectly infringe or facilitate the infringement of Perfect 10 intellectual property.?

The complaint states that Schmitz created MegaUpload for the specific purpose of storing, displaying and distributing intellectual property owned by others including ?billions of dollars of pirated full-length movies, songs, software, and images.? It adds that Megaupload is not registered to do business in the United States and pays no US taxes.

Through its rewards program, which Perfect 10 claims offers $10,000 USD for 5,000,000 reward points, Megaupload ?induces its customers to post content that is likely to be massively downloaded, such as high quality infringing nude images and popular full length movies and songs.?

Furthermore, Perfect 10 believe that Megaupload does not deserve ?safe-harbor? under the DMCA.

?Pirate websites such as megaupload.com, which obviously infringe massive quantities of movies, songs, images, and other extremely valuable copyrighted works, and directly profit from the infringing activity over which they have complete control, were never meant to be eligible to receive a DMCA safe harbor,? states the lawsuit.

?Furthermore, none of the five Megaupload websites listed above, including megaupload.com, identify the name, address, or phone number of their respective DMCA agents as required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(2).?

Nevertheless, Perfect 10 says it sent Megaupload 22 notices in July and August 2010 informing the file-hoster ?that it was infringing a vast collection of third party copyright works, Perfect 10 rights of publicity, and Perfect 10 copyrighted works.? Perfect 10 states that ?as far as it can determine? most of the works have not been removed.

This has led the company to sue Megaupload for direct, contributory and vicarious infringement of ?tens of thousands? of its images. Among other claims, Perfect 10 states that Megaupload also infringed and damaged its trademarks and became a source of unfair competition.

Perfect 10 is demanding that all defendants cease the unlawful copying, distribution and displaying of its copyright works and the same be deleted along with any links to such material between the defendants? websites and their affiliates.

Damages of at least $5 million are claimed, plus punitive damages, attorney?s fees and full costs.

In 2009, Perfect 10 filed a lawsuit against the leading file-hosting service, RapidShare. Among other claims, Perfect 10?s complaint stated that RapidShare was guilty of infringing the copyrights of many of its images. In May 2010, the District Court of California ruled that RapidShare was not guilty of copyright infringement. RapidShare went on to countersue Perfect 10 ?for being a copyright troll.?

source: http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-m...awsuit-110202/

[Barefootsies]

What's this now? Norm's 20th bite at the apple?

I guess he gave up on chasing Rapidshare and Google after those were thrown out.

[Emil]

Luckily I just use FIleserve and Oron! J/k ;)

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[Odin]

lol this guy keeps trying and failing.

[Vjo]

listen to the tide slowly turning



from the ashes we can build another day

[Quentin]

Bump for update on this case... and no doubt to the surprise of many who have followed Perfect 10's past litigation efforts, it involves good news for Norm. ;-)

The court has declined Megaupload's motion to dismiss for the most part, dismissing (without prejudice) P10's vicarious infringement, trademark infringement and right of publicity claims, but allowing the case to proceed with respect to P10's claims of direct infringement, contributory infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition claims.

This doesn't mean, of course, that Megaupload will eventually be held liable on the claims that were not dismissed, but there are portions of this ruling that suggest the court is perhaps not too impressed with some of Megaupload's arguments, in light of its business model and its conduct related to that business model.

Like this bit, for instance:

Tellingly, in its motion to dismiss, Megaupload does not dispute Perfect 10's allegations that it induces, causes, or materially contributes to infringing conduct. Nor could it, given the allegations that Megaupload encourages, and in some cases, pays its users to upload vast amounts of popular media through its Rewards Programs, disseminates URLs that provide access to such media, and has provided payouts to affiliates who catalogue the URLs for all available media. Under the circumstances of this case, if Megaupload lacks knowledge of infringing activity, Plaintiff's allegations suggest such lack of knowledge is willful.

It will be interesting to see how the case finally plays out, that's for sure.

[Hentaikid]

Wait Rapidshare won the previous one? Damn. Is it still being fought on appeal?

[mountainmiester]

What's this now? Norm's 20th bite at the apple?

I guess he gave up on chasing Rapidshare and Google after those were thrown out.

And let's not forget the CCBill case where they lost there too.

[V_RocKs]

When he wins one, the proceeds go towards 10 more of the like, plus one token car he can drive to remind him that he is a winner.

Sounds like a wonderful side-business to me!

[PornMD]

Congrats to the winners. (lawyers)

[BlackCrayon]

he was doing this over 10 years ago too.

[iamtam]

anyone notice that gideon isn't in here crowing about this? megaupload is very likely to get a serious ass fucking in this case.

[Quentin]

And let's not forget the CCBill case where they lost there too.

In fairness to P10, let's also not forget that in at least one case (P10 v. VISA), they were effectively cut off at the knees by the court and not permitted to take the case to trial, despite seeming to have a fairly strong case.

A district court dismissed that case, at which point it was kicked up to the 9th circuit court of appeals. A panel of judges upheld that decision in a 2-1 vote.

According to the dissenting judge on the appellate panel (Alex Kozinski, who is also the chief judge of the 9th), the other two members of the panel engaged in some pretty questionable interpretative gymnastics in order to avoid reversing the district court's dismissal of the case.

Here's how Kozinski summed up his dissent:

This is an easy case, squarely controlled by our precedent in all material respects. Fairly applying our cases to the facts alleged by Perfect 10, we should reverse the district court and give plaintiff an opportunity to prove its case through discovery and trial. In straining to escape the strictures of our caselaw, the majority draws a series of ephemeral distinctions that are neither required nor permitted; the opinion will prove to be no end of trouble.

Anybody who is interested in hearing more can read the opinion and come to their own conclusions. For what it is worth (which, admittedly, ain't much) I find Kozinski's analysis the more persuasive of the two.

This isn't to say that P10 necessarily would have prevailed in its case against VISA and the other defendants involved; just that I agree with Kozinski that P10 had established a case that was sufficiently strong to proceed, and the court should have granted P10 the opportunity to take it to trial.

In other words, at least one of Norm's previous "bites at the apple" might have been improperly interrupted before he actually had the chance to sink his teeth in. ;-)

[Nautilus]

Rapidshare got off the hook mainly because they dropped their rewards program (which resulted in a massive drop in traffic). Megaupload's rewards program is still running, and their chances of getting assfucked in the courtroom are much higher.

[halfpint]

dident even know Megaupload was still around lol

[johnny o]

while norm and P10 may be a bit over zealous with their lawsuits, it saddens me that they don't appear to be making much progress in their lawsuits. kinda depressing as a shooter