YNOT – One Night in Paris, the infamous explicit video that gave rise to the celebrity sex tape phenomenon, is the Peter Pan of online pornography: It refuses to grow up.
Or go away.
Seven years after “famous because she’s famous” Paris Hilton first exposed her assets on videotape, affiliate program XPays Inc. has filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against 843 anonymous alleged file-sharers who insist on spreading the love via digital peer-to-peer networks…without paying for the privilege.
Just like that, Hilton and her bedroom antics are back in mainstream headlines, reviving interest in the video and probably gaining online rights owner XPays some new customers. Filing a lawsuit against a flock of “John Doe” users who probably can’t afford to pay even if the company is awarded damages is an expensive marketing gambit, but in this case XPays may see a return on its investment no matter in which direction the gavel falls.
Although lawsuits targeting illicit sharers of copyrighted porn are becoming as common as crabgrass lately, few have received the kind of media attention already lavished on the XPays suit since the news broke Monday. The defendant pool is on the small side compared to the thousands sued en masse by companies like Axel Braun Productions (more than 7,000 defendants), Lucas Entertainment, Titan Media, Third World Media and Larry Flynt’s porn empire. One Night in Paris, though, seemingly endowed with the same prima donna spirit as her namesake, has enjoyed a lengthy history of basking in the reflected glow of the legal system, profitably.
XPays secured the exclusive online streaming rights to One Night in 2004 from one-time Hilton boyfriend Rick Salomon, who appears in and claims to have filmed the footage. According to Salomon, the company he formed with his brother in order to market the video earned as much as $10 million during the first year after the footage was released by XPays and others on three continents. How much the licensees and Hilton earned is unknown.
The lawsuits started almost immediately. In 2005, Salomon sued LFP Broadcasting LLC over the latter’s plans to license the video for hotel pay-per-view viewing. During the same year, Red Light Video sued a DVD duplication service for counterfeiting and selling 1 Night in Paris DVDs, a market to which Red Light had obtained exclusive rights.
In 2006, XPays stunned the adult entertainment industry by suing other adult companies including ICG Entertainment (CelebrityCash), SK Intertainment (Mr. Skin), FlashCash and Adult Profit (FreeCelebrityMovieArchive.com), along with third-party payment processor Verotel, over alleged copyright and trademark violations associated with the companies’ allusions to the Hilton video in their marketing messages.
Although XPays never has revealed even a hint about how much it has earned from the Hilton video, the company continues an aggressive marketing campaign. In 2010, XPays partnered with both AEBN and Gamelink to distribute abridged versions of the original via online video-on-demand platforms. Evidently, interest in the material remains high enough to make sub-licensing deals worthwhile.
The buzz surrounding another legal battle probably won’t hurt. As playwright Oscar Wilde once noted, “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
