{"id":69983,"date":"2023-01-03T09:02:59","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T09:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=69983"},"modified":"2023-01-03T09:02:59","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T09:02:59","slug":"piracy-lawsuit-will-be-dismissed-unless-copyright-troll-fixes-corporate-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=69983","title":{"rendered":"Piracy Lawsuit Will Be Dismissed Unless Copyright Troll Fixes Corporate Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tax\"A few years ago, Malibu Media was one of the most active<\/a> \u2018copyright trolls\u2019 in the United States.<\/p>\n

The California-based company behind the adult brand \u2018X-Art\u2019 filed thousands of lawsuits targeting Internet subscribers whose accounts were allegedly used to share Malibu\u2019s films via BitTorrent.<\/p>\n

In recent years this activity ground to a halt, and in the cases that remained active, things didn\u2019t go to plan. After plenty of drama<\/a>, Malibu was ordered to pay more than $100,000<\/a> to a wrongfully accused internet user in 2021. <\/p>\n

Last Cases Standing<\/h2>\n

At the start of 2023, only two Malibu Media cases remain open. In one, the court denied a default judgment last summer, instructing the rightsholder to provide more evidence of infringement beyond a simple IP-address. After that, things went quiet. <\/p>\n

In the other case, the accused file-sharer went on the offensive<\/a>. The \u201cJohn Doe\u201d defendant filed a long list of counterclaims against Malibu Media, accusing the company of abuse of process and misuse of copyright, among other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff monetizes its alleged copyrights through coercive and needless litigation and by extracting settlements from that litigation disproportionate to the minimal value of Plaintiff\u2019s works,\u201d the defense wrote. <\/p>\n

Corporate Status Suspended<\/h2>\n

The Doe defendant also asked the court to dismiss Malibu Media\u2019s claims, arguing that the company can\u2019t be involved in a lawsuit due to its corporate status. California\u2019s Franchise Tax Board suspended Malibu Media in 2021 over tax deficiencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff lacks the capacity to sue. Specifically, Plaintiff is suspended in its state of incorporation, California. Under California law, a suspended corporation cannot maintain a lawsuit,\u201d the defense wrote.<\/p>\n

The suspension came to the forefront in 2021. The court initially allowed Malibu some time to get its paperwork in order to get the suspension lifted, but that doesn\u2019t appear to have happened. At the time of writing, California\u2019s Franchise Tax Board continues to list Malibu Media\u2019s status as suspended.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"malibu<\/center><\/p>\n

In a recent advisory to the court, Malibu Media confirms that its corporate powers are still suspended. However, it argues that courts have previously held that suspensions are a \u201cmere technicality\u201d that, once fixed, return a company\u2019s status \u201cback to good standing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Malibu sees no reason why the present case should not be able to proceed to trial due to a technicality.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"malibu<\/center><\/p>\n

Dismissal Looming<\/h2>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Ezra agrees that previously suspended companies successfully continued lawsuits, but only after their suspensions had been resolved. That\u2019s not the case here.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorporate status may be a \u2018mere technicality,\u2019 but courts in California and the Fifth Circuit only deem it so after the corporation has cured the defect in its corporate status,\u201d the order reads. <\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, if Malibu Media\u2019s corporate status is not reinstated by Friday, January 20, 2023, the case will be dismissed without prejudice,\u201d Judge Ezra adds.<\/p>\n

A dismissal \u201cwithout prejudice\u201d means that Malibu will be allowed to refile its claims after the suspension is lifted. Based on the lack of recent progress, it\u2019s doubtful that will happen anytime soon.<\/p>\n

The underlying issues aren\u2019t entirely clear but Malibu CEO Colette Pelissier is no stranger to corporate troubles. Other companies under her control \u2013 Colette Productions<\/a>, Colette Holdings<\/a> and Colette Properties<\/a> \u2013 are all listed as suspended.<\/p>\n

The order issued by U.S. District Court Judge David Alan Ezra is available here<\/a> (pdf)<\/em><\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, Malibu Media was one of the most active \u2018copyright trolls\u2019 in the United States. The California-based company behind the adult brand \u2018X-Art\u2019 filed thousands of lawsuits targeting Internet subscribers whose accounts were allegedly used to share Malibu\u2019s films via BitTorrent. In recent years this activity ground to a halt, and in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/69984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}