YNOT – Music industry giant Warner Music Group has filed a federal lawsuit against Reality Kings and its parent company, RK Netmedia Inc., alleging the internet pornography producer has infringed the copyright on dozens of recordings owned by Warner labels.Filed July 7 in Los Angeles, the 44-page complaint claims Reality Kings committed “deliberate and brazen exploitation of Plaintiff’s sound recordings and musical compositions in hundreds of extreme hardcore pornographic videos, without any consent or authorization from Plaintiffs.”
Plaintiffs include Warner Bros Records, Electra Entertainment Group, Atlantic Recording Corporation, Bad Boy Records and Asylum Records.
“Defendant’s use of Plaintiff’s recordings and musical compositions is no accident,” the complaint states. “Each of the Plaintiff’s works is featured prominently, in the foreground of the video, and serves as a focal point for the visual content.” In addition, the alleged infringement “of the most blatant and offensive kind” employs Warner-owned song titles in the names of the pornographic video segments on RealityKings.com.
“Defendants are sophisticated companies that go to great lengths to protect their own copyrights, including by registering their own copyrights, placing copyright notices and warnings on their websites, sending take-down notices and demand notices to websites that infringe their content, and designating an agent for service of infringement with the U.S. Copyright Office,” the complaint continues. However, they show no respect for the intellectual property rights of others, as evidenced by the presence of “over 200 full-length … videos, comprised of individuals dancing and then engaging in explicit sexual activity” on the Reality Kings website.
Perhaps most blatant and offensive, according to Warner’s complaint, is that the videos contain almost no dialogue, relying on the background music to provide the sound. In some cases, the performers lip-sync the words to the songs. The absence of music in the preview clips in the RealityKings.com public tour proves RK Netmedia is aware the unlicensed use of Warner’s music violates copyright laws, the complaint alleges.
RK Netmedia attorney Lawrence G. Walters told AVN.com Reality Kings considers its employment of music snippets within the legal realm of fair use. In addition, the company stands ready to defend its free-speech right to produce social commentary on pop culture.
“The actual videos where the music appears is a live reality show of what’s going on in a club,” Walters told AVN.com. “And that’s exactly the point: that we have no control over what occurs there and they are merely filming what’s actually happening.”
The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring future unlicensed use of any Warner music and $150,000 for each instance of alleged infringement.
