The number of visits to the pirated adult video website MISSAV may reach tens of billions per year, and it ranks within the top 60 in global website traffic rankings. After operating smoothly for many years, the main domain name of the website has been blocked (but has been reincarnated through a new domain name).
It is relatively common for domain names to be seized in the field of pirated and infringing content. In fact, with the scale of MISSAV, it is surprising that it has only now been attacked by copyright agencies. The copyright agency that initiated the lawsuit this time is the Japanese adult content production company WillCo., Ltd.
The company chose to sue not in Japan but in a U.S. court. There were various reasons for choosing to sue in the U.S., including that the MISSAV domain name registry is a U.S. company and the use of U.S. judicial capabilities to fight against infringers.
Initially, the team behind MISSAV did submit a statement stating that the U.S. court had no jurisdiction over it, but the Washington District Court disagreed and the case continued.
Last week, the Washington District Court ruled in absentia (obviously the MISSAV team members will not actually go to the US court to respond). The copyright agency requested 300 infringing works (videos) to be compensated at US$150,000 each for a total of US$45 million. The court’s final judgment was 1/10 of the amount, which is a compensation of US$4.5 million.
The infringers sued by WillCo., Ltd. include a person named KaYeungLee and the companies YouhahaMarketing and PromotionLimited. There are also multiple JohnDoes sued (this name is replaced by a person whose specific identity cannot be found).
The main domain name of MISSAV is supported through a court relief order, which allows WillCo., Ltd. to directly control its domain name through VeriSign, the COM domain name registry. Now that the main domain name of MISSAV has been transferred to the copyright agency, a copyright reminder will appear when accessing.
As for the new domain name that MISSAV has reincarnated, it has also been known to copyright agencies. The anti-piracy company BattleshipStance, which assisted WillCo., Ltd. in the lawsuit, said that they have taken legal action to prevent the continued spread of pirated content.