August 20, 2010 | The Biz

British couple fight charges of porn piracy

Steven and David Compton operate three YouTube style sites that allow users to upload videos of a sexual nature. The two are now facing the wrath of Channel One Releasing, Corbin Fisher and Titan Media in the form of a $29 million lawsuit.

On Tuesday the two men claimed they could not be found guilty by virtue of the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which limit a site owner's liability if users choose to upload copyrighted material. They also claim that because they are a UK-based company, a lawsuit in the US would be held in an "inconvenient forum" and therefore unfair.

"We are not surprised that the Comptons find it 'inconvenient' to be sued for millions of dollars," Corbin Fisher General Counsel Marc Randazza said. "I'd find that inconvenient too. But, the Comptons did not find it 'inconvenient' to steal from American companies, nor did they find it 'inconvenient' to cash the checks for the money they made off of this theft."

In the suit, the three companies allege that the two men encourage users to not only upload copyrighted material, but to "strip away any evidence that the content is a professional or copyright registered work by prohibiting any video that has the copyright owners’ titles, credits or watermarks. ... Defendants place their brand on plaintiff’s intellectual property as if it belonged to them."

In an interesting twist, the Comptons are also behind a software program that promises to protect adult studios from copyright infringement. Perhaps their tagline should be: Comptons Software, protecting you from us.

Porn Tube Site Operators Deny $29M Claim Waged by 3 Studios [XBiz]