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Last July PornVisit.com and its operators, Mark Faragalla and Mina Faragalla of Beaumont, Calif., were sued for allegedly streaming 25 Private Media Group videos bearing the Private watermarks, on their tube site.
Private’s copyright infringement suit through its Fraserside IP division also named 100 John Does, as well as 100 John Doe companies, presumably PornVisit’s business partners or advertisers. It sought $150,000 for each alleged infringement, as well as an injunction among other forms of relief.
According to Private, PornVisit.com has more than 500,000 surfers per day.
All that being said, U.S. District Judge Mark W. Bennett this week awarded $4 million in damages against the Faragallas in a default judgment.
The ruling was made after the Faragallas failed to respond to the suit.
Bennett also ordered an injunction against the Faragallas and any employees from poaching and streaming Private’s content.
According to an XBiz story, Bennett said that Private had faced $2.85 million in damages not only on copyright claims but $1.1 million in damages on Lanham Act claims and $13,000 in attorneys fees, totaling $4 million.
Bennett called PornVisit.com a cash cow as a result of pirating other adult films. According to Bennett, the site generated $60,000 per month in advertising revenue alone, or $720,000 a year.”
Bennett also calculated PornVisit’s revenue based on the recruitment of new members, which he said generated $135,000.
Erring on the conservative side, Bennett concluded that Private had suffered $1.1 million in actual damages on Lanham Act claims.