Adult media company Perfect 10 has started yet another lawsuit, accusing a website of disregarding their intellectual property rights. This time it has targeted cyberlocker MegaUpload, with claims that the file-hosting giant infringed its copyrights and trademarks, and engaged in unfair competition. In addition, Perfect 10 claims MegaUpload does not remove footage from their websites upon complaints of copyright owners. Perfect 10 demands that defendants should cease all unlawful activity and damages and attorney’s fees running to millions of dollars.

Perfect 10 is originally known as the publisher of porn magazines, but nowadays they appear to focus on filing copyright lawsuits. In 2009, Perfect 10 filed a lawsuit against the leading file-hosting service, RapidShare. Among other claims, Perfect 10’s complaint stated that RapidShare was guilty of infringing the copyrights of many of its images. In May 2010, the District Court of California ruled that RapidShare was not guilty of copyright infringement. RapidShare went on to countersue Perfect 10 “for being a copyright troll.”

It is striking that they almost always lose their cases. MegaUpload: “Our legal team is confident that we have nothing to worry about. We always remove files as soon as a copyright owner notifies us of infringing content on our websites. (DMCA notices) All infringing files Perfect 10 has ever reported to Mega have been removed within hours.”

This new lawsuit seems quite similar to the one Perfect 10 lost to RapidShare last year. RapidShare was not responsible for copyright infringements, partly because they closely follow up on notifications by copyright owners and deserved the ‘safe-harbor’ excepion under the DMCA legislation. Therefore, We’re looking forward to review the quality of Perfect 10’s complaint and associated evidence this time. In any event, their actions have helped to define case law concerning copyright.

Source: TorrentFreak