YNOT – Three of the largest gay adult studios in the U.S. have received a preliminary injunction freezing the assets of a U.K.-based tube site operator pending the outcome of a copyright-infringement lawsuit.

A spokesman for the combined forces of Corbin Fisher, Titan Media and Channel One Releasing indicated the California District Court’s decision to prevent GLBT Ltd. from transferring, selling or hiding assets is a good sign the studios will come out on top of the longstanding $29-million battle.

Corbin Fisher General Counsel Marc Randazza said the case took a turn in early August when the studios asked the court to sanction GLBT Ltd. after discovering the defendant had destroyed evidence relevant to the case. GLBT compounded that error with another, Randazza said.

“We caught them taking actions to move assets out of the United States,” he revealed, adding that although GLBT is a U.K. company, the presence of assets in the U.S. makes the company subject to U.S. law. “They clearly know they are losing the case.

“Preliminary injunctions are difficult to win,” Randazza added. “In laymen’s terms, [the court’s decision] basically states that one party, in this case the [gay adult studios], has shown such a strong case that the other party would all but lose if the case went to trial.”

Among other directives, the injunction orders GLBT Ltd.’s domains — including the tube sites GayForIt.com, ItsAllGay.com and JerkYourTube.com and their dot-eu counterparts — seized and held in receivership pending resolution of the lawsuit.

Defendants also are enjoined from redirecting any traffic; registering domains incorporating any forms of “GayForIt,” “ItsAllGay” and “JerkYourTube” in other domain spaces; and taking any other action that in any way might “cause damage or harm to the assets” or “in furtherance of dissipation of the assets.”

“Once again, [the progress of this lawsuit] shows the power of content providers banding together to exterminate the piracy that ultimately harms not only the industry itself, but the people employed in the industry, from performers to programmers,” Randazza said.