December 11, 2007 | The Biz

Studio sues AEBN for $4.5 million

On December 6, Vivid Entertainment Group filed a lawsuit against the owners of Video On Demand (VOD) giant AEBN. Vivid argued that AEBN was illegally posting, and permitting users to post, copyrighted material online through a free video sharing site. The suit contends that “among other things, defendants copied, published, distributed, and publicly displayed Vivid’s copyrighted works by and through the website PornoTube.com.” Vivid is seeking $4.5 million in damages, or $150,000 for each of the 30 works listed in their submission to the court.

Vivid also claims that it is bearing an unfair burden of overhead costs, to the benefit of AEBN and PornoTube. "Vivid spends enormous sums to copyright its content and to comply with the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act age verification process," said Steven Hirsch, Vivid co-chairman. "PornoTube and AEBN have been getting away with a practice that unlawfully earns it millions of dollars at our expense.”

"We've decided to take a stand and say 'no more,' " Hirsch told the Los Angeles Times. "We will go after all the free sites." 

It was only a matter of time ...