TeenRevenue Sues RedTube for $40M

[Toby]

TeenRevenue Founder Slaps RedTube With $40M Suit

LOS ANGELES — Kevin Cammarata’s $40 million lawsuit against operators of RedTube may have legs.

The online adult entrepreneur, who is founder of numerous websites and affiliate programs, including TeenRevenue, claims in a suit filed last month that streaming video site RedTube has unlawfully offered free movies as loss leaders in an attempt to crush the competion.
full article - http://www.xbiz.com/news/106980

This part is worth special mention:

The suit, filed at Los Angeles Superior Court, also names as defendants Choopa, which hosts RedTube from Sayreville, N.J., as well as numerous blue-chip adult companies that advertise on the tube site.

Those advertisers that also are named include Bangbros.com; Utherverse, which owns RedLightCenter; Generation Financial, which owns Videosz.com; Fling.com; Stallion.com FSC Limited,which owns SexSearch; Lalib Limitada, which owns LiveJasmin.com; FriendFinder Networks and Brazzers.

An interesting legal strategy. About time someone formally called these bastards out.

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by Toby

TeenRevenue Founder Slaps RedTube With $40M Suit

LOS ANGELES — Kevin Cammarata’s $40 million lawsuit against operators of RedTube may have legs.

The online adult entrepreneur, who is founder of numerous websites and affiliate programs, including TeenRevenue, claims in a suit filed last month that streaming video site RedTube has unlawfully offered free movies as loss leaders in an attempt to crush the competion.
full article - http://www.xbiz.com/news/106980

This part is worth special mention:

The suit, filed at Los Angeles Superior Court, also names as defendants Choopa, which hosts RedTube from Sayreville, N.J., as well as numerous blue-chip adult companies that advertise on the tube site.

Those advertisers that also are named include Bangbros.com; Utherverse, which owns RedLightCenter; Generation Financial, which owns Videosz.com; Fling.com; Stallion.com FSC Limited,which owns SexSearch; Lalib Limitada, which owns LiveJasmin.com; FriendFinder Networks and Brazzers.

An interesting legal strategy. About time someone formally called these bastards out.

They'll never win.
Nice try though.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

They'll never win.
Nice try though.

This suit was filed in California Superior Court, not US Federal Court. California has a formidable Unfair Business Practices statute. This may have a far better chance than many people think at first glance.

[Forest]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

They'll never win.
Nice try though.

i pretty sure he knows he wont win the suit

BUT if he can effect the money flow from the advertisers then he Does win

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Forest

i pretty sure he knows he wont win the suit

BUT if he can effect the money flow from the advertisers then he Does win

Spot on. It's all about going after the advertisers who as RawAlex points out are in clear breach of their own rules.

But don't expect it to change the fortunes in our industry.

If this case is successful and it stops Tubes using content they don't own or don't have the rights to, there will be some customers returning. But not as many as we lost.

There's nothing to stop anyone with content opening a Tube site with content they own, giving it away for free, buying traffic and living off the profits from the adverts. The companies advertising on illegal Tubes will be looking for legal sites to advertise on.

Same goes for people like Brazzers. Or anyone with a lot of content that's not making money. Like content providers. So as the industry buys less content it's an option for content providers.

Then there are also the Tube sites with 3-6 minute clips, sometimes hosted by the sponsors. These sites will get content so they can sell dating and cam sites. All backed up by sponsors looking for the easy route, even if it kills the business in the long run.

There is only one way to get customers to buy. That's give them something they want to buy. In adult it's even more important, because porn customers are repeat buyers. Customers who buy repeatedly have a habit of learning

And customers will decide the future of this industry.

[pornlaw]

I think he may have problems with jurisdiction wth all the defendants. He could have filed this in US District Court with a copyright claims and perhaps could have avoided the the challenges that will be filed.

This one will be interesting to watch develop. I hope he has something there.

[TheEnforcer]

That will certainly send some shock waves through the industry. The question is whether it will have anything beyond this initial filing.

It's an interesting strategy to use though I'm not sure how successful it will be with including companies that aren't stealing their content. Not to mention that their lawyers will be taking on lawyers for about a dozen different entities which, I imagine, will be quite the workload to have to deal with as they get deluged with motions upon motions to respond to.

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by TheEnforcer

That will certainly send some shock waves through the industry. The question is whether it will have anything beyond this initial filing.

It's an interesting strategy to use though I'm not sure how successful it will be with including companies that aren't stealing their content. Not to mention that their lawyers will be taking on lawyers for about a dozen different entities which, I imagine, will be quite the workload to have to deal with as they get deluged with motions upon motions to respond to.

actually, I think it is exactly the way to go. As of the date the lawsuit is filed, the sponsors have no way to say "they were not aware of violations". Each and every one of those sponsors has anti-hacking / anti piracy terms (Videoz; "NO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY VIOLATIONS. Webmasters are prohibited from engaging in any promotion which would violate the intellectual property rights of any person, group or corporation."). So basically, as of this date, each one of those sponsors should in fact be pulling away from RedTube, because they are now aware that RedTube is potentially in violation.

I am not sure that Teenrevenue will ever get a dollar for all this, but I suspect they will get redtube shut down at some point.

[gonzo]

Way to go Kevin.
Instead of being like DGay Erik or XXXJay sitting around crying and beating your cheat youve stepped up to lay the smack down!

[tony404]

They get a win on one of the advertisers. The house of cards will fall fast.

[pussyMaster]

Finally a good news

[RawAlex]

Actually Paul, the consumer decides only in part - when mob rules mentality runs amok, everyone thinks everything is free. But that can change pretty fast, consider:

http://www.thelocal.se/18770/20090409/

The rules changed in sweden recently, that makes downloading music from pirate sites (like TP risky - basically, you can be tracked down and found liable very easily now. Well, suddenly, paid downloadable music is seeing massive growth.

I wish some people in the porn business would wake up.

[tony404]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Actually Paul, the consumer decides only in part - when mob rules mentality runs amok, everyone thinks everything is free. But that can change pretty fast, consider:

http://www.thelocal.se/18770/20090409/

The rules changed in sweden recently, that makes downloading music from pirate sites (like TP risky - basically, you can be tracked down and found liable very easily now. Well, suddenly, paid downloadable music is seeing massive growth.

I wish some people in the porn business would wake up.

The problem with our industry alot of people made alot of money inspite of themselves. Things have been starting to change for a few years and they started to panic. When you have a business model that's based on giving so much of the sale as commission for life.Unless you have huge numbers that business model starts to fail. So alot people attached themselves to tubes instead of fighting. You never saw the music industry flying ads on pirate sites. lol

[Paul Markham]

Yes Alex the customer can only buy what he can afford, wants and is available. But he's still king of this castle.

I wish some people in the porn business would wake up.

As I said if they bring down illegal Tubes they will be replaced by legal ones. The only way is to make the product fit the buyers needs more than Tubes. More content, better content, more varied content, flexible joins and freebies like live shows and dating. You need only tip the balance between profit and loss to make it work. You don't need all the free loaders to come and buy memberships. They never did, never will and we don't want them to. We want them burning the Tubes BW. Traffic + not enough sales = loss.

Take the profit margins out of running any kind of Tube and they sink.

You never saw the music industry flying ads on pirate sites.

The record industry is run by businessmen and people who understand the concept of marketing. Not people who will fill sites with enough content, legal or not, to deter customers from buying. Then tell you the solution is to get more traffic.

[griffin8r]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

The record industry is run by businessmen and people who understand the concept of marketing.

I don't know a ton about the porn industry, but I can tell you, unequivocally, that the record industry is NOT run by people who understand 21st century marketing. It is run by people who have learned that forcing something down the public's throat is the only way to make money.

Seriously, the RIAA marginalized talented musicians because talented musicians may or may not sell records, and they are generally a pain in the ass to deal with (read: they won't just sign an ass-fucking of a contract with a big goofy grin on their faces) in favor of cookie-cutter bullshit they could easily just "recruit" (read: idiots that look good but have no talent) and "polish in the studio" (read: Autotune + dance lessons)

The music industry is suffering just as bad, if not worse, than the porn industry because they just don't fucking get that people will NOT spend $20 for a CD that includes ONE decent song and a bunch of crap - especially when that ONE song is questionable, at best...

Just my $5.73 (two cents, adjusted for inflation...)

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by griffin8r

I don't know a ton about the porn industry, but I can tell you, unequivocally, that the record industry is NOT run by people who understand 21st century marketing. It is run by people who have learned that forcing something down the public's throat is the only way to make money.

Seriously, the RIAA marginalized talented musicians because talented musicians may or may not sell records, and they are generally a pain in the ass to deal with (read: they won't just sign an ass-fucking of a contract with a big goofy grin on their faces) in favor of cookie-cutter bullshit they could easily just "recruit" (read: idiots that look good but have no talent) and "polish in the studio" (read: Autotune + dance lessons)

The music industry is suffering just as bad, if not worse, than the porn industry because they just don't fucking get that people will NOT spend $20 for a CD that includes ONE decent song and a bunch of crap - especially when that ONE song is questionable, at best...

Just my $5.73 (two cents, adjusted for inflation...)

So don't buy the CD and don't steal it.

One of the reasons they are reluctant to sign bands who are on the edge of making a profit is because their profits are slashed by the piracy.

Music piracy is rife so it seems these albums that are so bad are worth downloading for free.

The part of your statement about cookie cutter bullshit also shows how young you are. They have been doing this since the 50s. I don't know about before because I'm only 58.

Your post is one of the typical ones to justify theft. The reason people steal is because they think they can get away with it. They never care about the people they hurt. Recently a friend of mine lost his job in the music industry, because of piracy, he also is now bankrupt and has lost his house. Is that his fault or the people who decided to steal instead of buy?

Also many of the greatest bands of the 20th Century are suffering from piracy. So it seems thieves don't just steal the bad, they steal the great as well.

The power of the consumer is in the fact that he can direct and shape and industry by buying what he likes. When he stops buying he has no say in what direction that industry takes to keep as many people in work as possible.