Porn producer wages war in Honolulu against alleged copyright pirates

An adult film company known as the 'copyright troll' and the 'Steven Spielberg of porn' is campaigning in Honolulu to stop alleged piracy of its distributed 'high-end, artistic and inspirational films' on sites with names like “Tushy,” “MILFY,” and “Vixen.”

Strike 3 Holdings LLC of Delaware has filed 132 lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Honolulu since 2022, according to court records. While the lawsuits claim they aim to protect cinema that has “made a positive impact on a global scale,” others, including lawyers and judges, have a different view of Strike 3.

They claim the producer is forcing people to settle lawsuits quickly, for fear of being publicly outed for watching the lewd fare of Strike 3, which people allegedly downloaded and shared through a peer-to-peer file-sharing program called BitTorrent.

Civil Beat looked at a number of Strike 3 cases and found a typical pattern. After filing suit against an anonymous John Doe defendant using only the Internet Protocol address, according to court records, Strike 3's attorney typically asks the court's permission to subpoena John Doe's Internet service provider. John Doe to get the name John Doe. The court usually grants the request, and shortly afterward, Strike 3's attorney files a motion to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice — a sign that the case is settled or that Strike 3 has decided to move on .

All but about 20 of the Hawaii cases are closed, according to court records, suggesting they have likely been settled.

Not all cases play out exactly this way. In one case filed in December, a court order says, the defendants sent the judge letters saying they objected to the release of their names. U.S. Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter interpreted the letters as requests to quash the subpoenas. Porter declined to do so, but said the letter's authors could proceed anonymously, based on the fact that other federal judges allow defendants to do so in similar cases.

Porter noted that courts have recognized that “an allegation that an individual illegally downloaded adult entertainment may relate to matters of a sensitive and highly personal nature, including their sexuality.”

The porn purveyor is bringing these lawsuits nationwide, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California wrote last month in an order in a Strike 3 lawsuit filed in San Jose. Davila granted Strike 3's subpoena request, but was highly critical of the company.

“Strike 3 has filed thousands of similar lawsuits and subpoena requests with ISPs seeking subscriber information,” Davila wrote. “At least one federal judge has also openly called Strike 3 a “copyright troll” that uses its “lawyer swarms (to) hunt down people who would watch their content through BitTorrent.”

If “the ISP excludes the subscriber, allowing him to be named as a defendant” in public court documents, Davila wrote, “any future Google searches of his name will reveal associations with the Vixen, Blacked, Tushy and Blacked websites Raw.”

Strike 3 Alleges 'Large-Scale' Copyright Infringement

Strike 3 has been engaged in this type of litigation for years, leading the New York Post to call the company the “Steven Spielberg of porn.”

Since 2022, Strike 3 has launched a resurgent campaign in Honolulu with the help of Christian Kamau. His firm, Virtuesq, claims to merge “modern legal expertise with the spirit of Hawaii.”

Kamau did not respond to a call for comment.

Kamau's latest complaint on behalf of Strike 3 was filed on May 29 against “the IP address assigned to John Doe's subscriber 76.39.47.10.”

The lawsuit is nearly identical to others filed on behalf of Strike 3 in Honolulu. He alleges that the accused did not simply share the graphic sex films with one or two close friends. Instead, the complaint alleges that “Defendant is, in short, stealing these works on a massive scale,” using BitTorrent to pirate “25 films over an extended period of time.”

Although the complaint asks the court for a jury trial, that rarely happens, said Jeff Antonelli, a Chicago attorney who specializes in BitTorrent copyright cases. He recently published a blog post titled “Can You Afford to Ignore a Strike 3 Notice on Assets in Hawaii?”

The short answer is “No,” the blog post says.

“This is a real report that should be taken seriously,” the blog states. “It is crucial to remedy the situation quickly. »

“If a Billy Goat Gruff decides to take on a copyright troll in court, the troll cuts and goes back under his deck.”

Royce Lamberth, United States District Court Judge

In an interview, Antonelli said that while most civil suits settle rather than go to trial, Strike 3 claims belong to a special class. BitTorrent cases almost never go to trial, he said.

“I have never encountered such legal practice as BitTorrent copyright infringement,” he said.

A typical settlement might be between $750 and $1,000 per film, Antonelli said, although he said it could go higher.

At least one federal judge has sided with a defendant who opposed Strike 3's request to subpoena the alleged hacker's ISP records. U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia said Strike 3's need for discovery does not outweigh the potentially non-infringing defendant's right to anonymity, which is the Second Federal Circuit's legal test .

Lamberth also had some choice words for Strike 3 and others he called “copyright trolls”, describing them as bullies who preyed on the weak and fled at the first sign of a fight .

“If a Billy Goat Gruff decides to take on a copyright troll in court, the troll cuts and goes back under his deck,” Lamberth wrote. “Perhaps the trolls fear the court will disrupt their rinse, wash, and repeat approach: filing a barrage of complaints; ask the court to require disclosure of account holders; resolve as many claims as possible; give up the rest.