Couple with Beaumont Address Ran Porn Site, Ordered to Pay $4 Million

A couple with a Beaumont address has been operating a pornographic website, and a U.S. District judge ordered them last week to pay $4 million for copyright infringement to an adult film company in Iowa, the Associated Press reported Monday.

Mark and Mina Faragalla of Beaumont, Calif., operated PornVisit.com., the AP reported in a story datelined Iowa City, Iowa.

"The modern day pirates at issue in this litigation do not wear tricornes and extract their ill gotten booty at cutlass point, but with a mouse and the internet," U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett wrote in a 23-page memorandum opinion and order dated Feb. 13, 2012. "Nonetheless, their theft of property is every bit as lucrative as their brethren in the golden age of piracy."

Bennett, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, entered the $4 million judgment last week against the Faragallas, ordering them to pay maximum damages of $150,000 per infringement to Iowa-based Fraserside IP LLC, and to stop stealing its copyrighted works, the AP reported.

Fraserside is part of a Nevada-based adult entertainment company called Private Media Group.

According to procedural background in Bennett's memorandum, Fraserside filed a complaint on July 10, 2011, against Mark Faragalla, Mina Faragalla, John Does, and John Doe Companies, alleging copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, inducing copyright infringement, false designation of origin, and dilution of trademark.

"On July 31, 2011, Fraserside served a copy of the summons and complaint upon Milad Faragalla, a person of suitable age, at the Faragallas' residence in Beaumont, California," Bennett's memo states. "Also on July 31, 2011, a copy of the summons, complaint, and Civil Servicepacket was mailed to the Faragallas' home address. The Faragallas did not file an answer or any responsive pleading to the complaint."

Bennett called his ruling "a shot across the bow" against online piracy, the AP reported. PornVisit.com received more than 500,000 Internet users daily, making it among the top 2,900 most popular sites in the world, Bennett said.

An estimated 2 percent to 3 percent of visitors to PornVisit.com bought memberships priced from $3.95 for two days to $100 for six months, and the site made $720,000 a year in advertising revenue, Bennett said in the AP's report.

The ruling against the Faragallas should serve as a deterrent to other people who pirate content online, Phoenix attorney Chad Belville, representing Fraserside, told the AP Monday.

Belville said PornVisit.com stopped operating recently but its sister site, PornVisitHD.com, remains in business.

The Faragallas did not have an attorney, the AP reported.

A man who answered the phone at the Beaumont address where the summons and complaint were served in July 2011 said the Faragallas no longer live there, according to the Associated Press.

Belville said he would try to collect the $4 million judgment against the Faragallas by tracking down their assets, which he said include two homes and the PornVisitHD.com site.