Flava Works Gets Another $1.5M BitTorrent Default Judgment

MIAMI—Adult gay ethnic studio Flava Works has been awarded another $1.5 million default judgment. The Honorable George W. Lindberg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued the default judgment against Anwar Ogiste for copyright infringement regarding the uploading of seven videos. These videos had been downloaded and shared over 6000 times on BitTorrent networks.   The judgment, along with two other judgments against Kywan Fisher and Cormelian Brown earlier this month, is the largest yet in a BitTorrent copyright infringement case.   Flava Works, which operates a string of gay adult websites featuring Black and Latino models, decided to sue 13 website members for allegedly posting its videos on file sharing websites and networks. The alleged infringers were identified by Flava Works’ proprietary digital fingerprinting technology.   Anwar Ogiste was originally a defendant in a case filed in 2011 against a total 13 defendants; however, the case was severed into separate ones after one of the defendants (Andrew Clavio) asked a judge to break them apart. Only five defendants remain, Frank Rossi, Lloyd Johnson, Gregory Nance, Latavius Robinson and Andrew Clavio.   “We take piracy and theft very seriously and we intend to pursue any one who illegally distributes our content,” said CEO Phillip Bleicher.   Flava Works also has filed a lawsuit against a former website customer Nathan Rowader of San Francisco, who was caught posted the comnapy's videos on BitTorrent sites.