An adult film company whose productions are billed as having had a “positive global impact” is taking legal action against an unidentified torrenter for allegedly stealing its works.
In court documents filed in New York court on Monday (Dec. 22) and viewed by Complex, lawyers for Strike 3 Holdings—a limited liability company said to be based in Delaware—claim that the unnamed individual, referred to as John Doe, “has been recorded infringing 26 movies over an extended period of time” dating back to July of this year. Among the sites listed as the original sources for these unspecified titles are popular adult film platforms like Blacked, MILFY, Tushy Raw, and Vixen.
“Defendant is, in a word, stealing these works on a grand scale,” Strike 3’s legal team argues. “Using the BitTorrent protocol, Defendant is committing rampant and wholesale copyright infringement by downloading Strike 3’s motion pictures as well as distributing them to others. Defendant did not infringe just one or two of Strike 3’s motion pictures, but has been recorded infringing 26 movies over an extended period of time.”
The most recent instance of alleged infringement is claimed to have occurred earlier this month in connection with a title originally published to Blacked in October 2021.
Strike 3 says the defendant, at least for now, has only been linked to an IP address. The docs, however, suggest that the company wants the defendant’s internet service provider to disclose the accused’s identity.
The company is asking for the defendant to be ordered to delete the files in question, as well as for damages and attorneys’ fees to be awarded in their favor.
If one were to embark on a cursory Googling of Strike 3, you’d likely find a number of articles detailing prior legal action on its part that’s strikingly similar to the New York filing. In 2018, for example, a Washington, D.C. judge described the company as “a copyright troll” known for flooding various court systems “with lawsuits smacking of extortion.” Per the Los Angeles Times, Strike 3 had filed more than 12,000 copyright infringement-related lawsuits as of 2023.