An adult film company continues to mass-file copyright infringement lawsuits in the Northern District of California and elsewhere against defendants it says viewed the company’s films via illegal downloads.
Strike 3 Holdings LLC filed new federal lawsuits in the Northern District in February, accusing anonymous defendants identified only by their internet protocol numbers of using BitTorrent protocol of downloading the company’s motion pictures, which are typically distributed through adult websites such as Vixen and Slayed, as well as DVDs.
Typically, Strike 3 obtains the owners of IP addresses through cable or internet companies. A news media tally indicated that the company has filed more than 9,500 such lawsuits nationwide since 2017.
Some critics have accused the company of using the courts as leverage in a copyright-enforcement business model. An attorney who has defended clients against such cases said the Northern District of California is a hotspot for such filings and that Strike 3 often targets those who live in affluent areas and have a lot of equity in their homes.
“Over the years, having handled hundreds of these cases, I have found their system of detecting infringers to be mostly good, but not foolproof,” attorney Steven C. Vondran of Vondran Legal said in an email to the Northern California Record. “Some cases do get dismissed because, I believe, they were unable to come up with sufficient evidence of infringement against the accused.”
Due to the economics of litigation, Vondran said, it often makes sense to agree to a settlement rather than fight the allegation in court.
“In some cases, we can convince Strike 3 of their innocence, but in others, they don’t buy it and press on,” he said. “ … I think the number of innocent people being forced to pay a ‘shame settlement’ is low, thankfully.”
Some of these lawsuits reviewed by the Record contain a demand for a jury trial and accuse defendants of “rampant and wholesale copyright infringement” by downloading multiple movies without paying.