The parent company of affiliate program Porn Kings, Noble Developments Inc., has agreed to pay Falcon Foto LLC nearly $3.2 million to reconcile copyright-infringement claims involving over 3,000 images.
In the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, papers were filed in September. The civil lawsuit alleged Porn Kings and its various owners and operators "willful[ly], intentional[ly], and purposeful[ly], in reckless disregard of and with indifference to the rights of plaintiffs," appropriated over 400 images copyrighted by Falcon Foto after negotiations to license the images bottomed out. Although an unspecified amount in damages were sought, with all attorney's fees and court costs, federal copyright law allows reimbursement and punitive damages of as much as $150,000 for each image (or more than $60 million in this case) when willful infringement is decided in a court of law.
In a Judgment of consent filed Tuesday, Noble Developments President Lucas Bradfield stated, "I hereby authorize the entry of a judgment against Nobel Developments Inc. in the amount of $3,173,650 in favor of Plaintiffs Falcon Enterprises Inc. and Falcon Foto LLC. This dollar amount is calculated as follows: $1,000 in damages for each of 3,133 infringed images and $42,650 in attorneys' fees."
Falcon Foto attorney Robert Apgood said the terms of the judgment "have been satisfied." He also stated it his wish that the lawsuit's outcome will serve as a warning to other copyright infringers to Falcon, who is determined to safeguard its intellectual property rights.
"We're serious about enforcing our copyrights," Apgood told AVNOnline.com. "When people go down the path with us long enough, they realize what their liability is.
"By the time we file suit, there's no question they're liable," Apgood continued. "The only question is how much they're liable for."
Obtained from Falcon by Porn Kings in 2003 as examples of products under consideration for licensing, the copyright-infringed images began appearing in December 2003 in thumbnail gallery postings on websites owned by Porn Kings and continued appearing in TGPs at least through Aug. 17, 2006, according to the lawsuit. According to Apgood, the offending images were removed from Porn Kings' websites in August 2006 after Porn Kings received a cease-and-desist and damages-demand letter, but the company refused to compensate Falcon for its use of the images during the previous 19 months.
Falcon Foto Is not quite finished with court. In January the company filed a separate copyright-infringement suit against Guerilla Traffic. This suit alleges statutory damages of more than $100 million.
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