February 10, 2010 12:58pm
Corbin Fisher Wins Judgement
Source: Corbin Fisher
by: Company Press Release
(SAN DIEGO, CA) -- Texas man who was caught illegally pirating CorbinFisher.com videos, burning those videos to DVD, and then selling them online, was hit with a $990,000 judgment in federal court after the gay adult producer filed suit against him for copyright infringement.
The near million-dollar judgment held the defendant, A.D. Trice, liable for $15,000 in statutory damages for each of the 66 individual CorbinFisher.com videos he infringed upon through his illegal and unauthorized eBay piracy enterprise. the federal judge acknowledged that Mr. Trice's conduct was illegal, that he willfully and intentionally infringed upon CorbinFisher.com's copyrights, and that CorbinFisher.com was therefore entitled to substantial statutory damages.
Corbin Fisher General Counsel, Marc Randazza, expressed satisfaction with the judgment, noting, ''The court recognized our right to protect the material we produce, and this judgment reflects that.''
Continued Randazza, ''This guy certainly got an education in copyright law. I'd imagine that he is reconsidering whether his little enterprise was a worthwhile pursuit. I hope that this case will stand as a warning to others who are doing the same thing.''
Corbin Fisher sued Mr. Trice in federal court after a lengthy investigation in to his activities on eBay brought on by information provided by alert fans of the producer. The investigation revealed the involvement of a number of codefendants, each of whom have also been sued by Corbin Fisher and are actively being pursued.
''While some satisfaction comes from this judgment,'' notes Corbin Fisher COO Brian Dunlap, ''this is by no means the end of this case. There are codefendants identified in our suit who can expect us to pursue them. We are seeking damages from them as aggressively as we did with Mr. Trice, as they are no less liable and their conduct no less illegal.''
Emphasized Dunlap, ''We are entitled to protect our copyrights. No matter how a content thief might justify their actions or behavior, as this case proves, the law is clearly against them and they expose themselves to substantial liability through their illegal behavior.''
''Mr. Trice was fully aware his conduct was illegal and not authorized by us, but that did not dissuade him from engaging in it,'' noted Randazza. ''Rather, he went out of his way to attempt to concoct some fancy, elaborate scheme he felt shielded him from the law and liability. We saw through that, and the courts saw through that. That will always be the case.''
Although the case against Mr. Trice is over, the case itself continues. Pittsburgh resident, Eric Brown, ran his own counterfeit DVD operation, and has been named as a codefendant. CorbinFisher.com is seeking an even greater judgment against Brown.
''Mr. Trice faced a potential liability of $9.9 million, but due to his cooperation and contrition in the case, we agreed to reduce our claim by a factor of 10,'' said Dunlap. ''Mr. Brown has been a lot less cooperative, so we don’t plan to take it easy on him.''
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