CHICAGO — Flava Works has been awarded another $1.5 million judgment over copyright infringement claims that a former paying website member downloaded rightful copies of porn but disseminated them later on BitTorrent networks.
In the latest case, defendant Anwar Ogiste of Upper Marlboro, Md., did not answer Flava Work's complaint that he was liable for uploading seven videos, which the gay porn studio says have been shared more than 6,000 times on BitTorrent networks.
As a result, U.S. District Judge George Lindberg green lighted a default judgment against Ogiste.
In the past six weeks, Flava Works has been awarded three $1.5 million awards from three former customers, who all have been accused of violating Flava Works terms and conditions as paid members of either CocoDorm.com, Thugboy.com, PapiCock.com, MixItUpBoy.com or RawRods.com, and all were fingered apparently using tracking technology pinpointing their alleged involvement.
The three defendants are linked to a case filed in 2011 against 13 defendants. The case against the 13, however, was severed into separate ones after one of them asked a judge to break it apart.
Only five defendants remain — Frank Rossi, Lloyd Johnson, Gregory Nance, Latavius Robinson and Andrew Clavio — according to CEO Phillip Bleicher.
"This is a huge win for us content producers who take piracy and theft very seriously and we intend to pursue any one who illegally distributes our content,” Bleicher told XBIZ.
Separately, Bleicher announced today that Flava Works has filed a lawsuit against another former website customer, Nathan Rowader of San Francisco, for allegedly posting videos on BitTorrent sites.