YNOT – Gay adult studio Flava Works is taking a new tack in its battle to rein in copyright infringement. On Wednesday, the ethnic content producer filed a federal lawsuit alleging 13 members of Flava Works-owned websites engaged in unauthorized file sharing.
Filed in the Illinois Northern Court in Chicago, the suit accuses the website members of violating Flava Works’ terms and conditions of use by downloading copyrighted product and then uploading the material to BitTorrent networks.
“As a result of defendants’ conduct, third parties were able to download the copyrighted videos without permission of Flava Works,” court documents note.
The members — 12 U.S. residents and one resident of Italy — paid to belong to one or more sites including CocoDorm.com, Thugboy.com, PapiCock.com, MixItUpBoy.com and RawRods.com. Documents filed with the court indicate Flava Works uncovered the alleged illicit conduct by tracking users’ behavior.
Named as defendants are Anton Bonic of Fiorenzuola, Italy; Cormelian Brown of Newark, Del.; Frank Ejikeme of Atlanta; Kywan Fisher of Hampton, Va.; Lloyd Johnson of West Hartford, Conn.; Raymond Levy of Byram, Miss.; Steven Lopez of Bronx, N.Y.; Gregory Nance of Atlanta; Anwar Ogiste of Upper Marlboro, Md.; Andrew Clavio of Ashburn, Va.; Latavius Robinson of Quinc, Fla.; Frank Rossi of New York and Raymond Smith of Dallas.
The lawsuit requests a jury trial and seeks damages and attorneys fees in addition to an injunction barring the defendants from pirating Flava Works content in the future.
