AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - January 24, 2017) - Today Giganews announced its victory in a landmark copyright law dispute decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit against appellant Perfect 10, Inc. At its core, this case was a fundamental challenge to the Usenet industry and Internet services.
Perfect 10, Inc., a publisher of adult material, has a history of aggressive copyright litigation. Before suing Giganews for $1 billion, the notorious copyright plaintiff sued Google, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Tumblr and other Internet services over alleged copyright infringements. In spite of its reputation of being a copyright troll, during the appeal Perfect 10 had the backing of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
"This has been a long and hard-fought battle," said Ron Yokubaitis, Co-CEO of Giganews. "We were not going to settle this case just to avoid the risk of potentially catastrophic statutory damages in today's crazy copyright world, a threat that unscrupulous plaintiffs like Perfect 10 use to extract unjust settlements from more timid companies. We took a stand for Usenet, for technology and online platforms, for the public, and for rational copyright law."
In earlier stages of the litigation, three separate federal judges in the trial court in Los Angeles made key rulings for Giganews, culminating in a complete victory for Giganews in late 2014. The trial court also awarded Giganews over $5.6 million in attorney's fees and costs against Perfect 10 in 2015.
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, by a 3-0 decision, affirmed Giganews' victory over Perfect 10. The court's opinion consolidated important principles of copyright law which will positively impact online service providers for years to come.
Giganews is grateful to those who have supported it in its long and expensive fight. They include Internet Infrastructure Coalition (I2C), Internet Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries, who supported it with amicus briefs.
The case now moves to its final stage to collect attorney's fees from Perfect 10. Giganews is seeking the appointment of a receiver to take charge of all of Perfect 10's copyrights, trademarks, and domain names and to liquidate them in partial satisfaction of Giganews' judgment against Perfect 10.
About Giganews
Giganews, the world's largest and most trusted Usenet provider for more than a decade, offers unparalleled newsgroup access through a proprietary, scalable platform designed to maximize speed and reliability. Giganews serves individuals, as well as the largest Internet service providers, telecommunications companies, and multi-service providers in more than 200 countries, making it the top Usenet aggregation point in the world. More articles pass through Giganews on a daily basis than any other provider. In addition, the Giganews Newsgroups Archive hosts more than 12 billion articles requiring several petabytes (PB) of storage. Learn more about Giganews at http://www.giganews.com.
Contact Information:
Contact: