YNOT – Gay adult studio Corbin Fisher on Monday received a $1.44 million default judgment against the operator of a network of adult websites that distributed unauthorized copies of the studio’s movies.
Corey Debarros, accused of willfully pirating movies from Corbin Fisher and other gay adult studios, allegedly informed as many as 1,000 John Doe clients about the availability of new titles on file-sharing networks by posting images and links on a complicated and ever-shifting network of websites and blogs anchored by Pornilove.net, Pornilove.org and a Facebook page.
Corbin Fisher parent company Liberty Media Holdings LLC filed suit against Debarros in August 2010, claiming unauthorized distribution of 48 Corbin Fisher titles. The defendant failed to respond at any point in the process, so U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino found in favor of Liberty Media and granted two of the three remedies the company requested, denying only compensation for attorney fees. Liberty Media counsel Marc Randazza may re-file the request for attorney fees within 21 days, as long as he provides documentation of the charges, the court ruled.
As to the other counts of the suit, Debarros was permanently enjoined from further infringement of Corbin Fisher’s property. In addition, he was ordered to pay $1.44 million in statutory damages, far less than could have been assessed under U.S. copyright law. The awarded amount was all Liberty Media requested, however.
Randazza said he and Liberty Media are pleased with the court’s ruling. They do not believe they’ve heard the last of Debarros, though. At last check, Debarros had moved from Miami to Massachusetts, possibly in an effort to avoid the lawsuit. Ignoring the court didn’t work well for him.
“We don’t expect that he will ever have $1.4 million,” Randazza said. “However, these judgments last for at least 20 years. We have been watching Mr. Debarros, and this case has not even slowed his piracy efforts down, let alone stopped them. He stopped stealing from Corbin Fisher, but pretty much everyone else in the business is on his list.
“Corbin Fisher believes that if we all band together and go after people like this, we can make a dent in content theft,” Randazza said. “So, for the sake of our friends in the adult entertainment community, we will make sure that we continue to pursue Mr. Debarros.”
