I would assume that RLD is relying on the Pam Anderson case to hold up in court. That case did allow the distribution to go ahead but I think they later got sued and had to give a portion of the profits to Pam and Tommy.

I believe in that case the judge ruled something that the couple routinely marketed their own sexuality in order to conduct business and that the tape was no different even if it was not their intention to release it.

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As for the pirates on the internet; I assume it's hard to sue them because they cover themself really good so it's hard to track down the person behind it.

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In answer to your question - how do people who steal porn content not get caught, if they have credit card operations:

My father was targeted by credit card scam artists, who set up phony sweepstakes contests, which people could enter by "paying an entry fee" conveniently with their Visa/Mastercard. The scam artists were all set up with the credit card companies, and proceeded to charge up $5000 on my father's account.

I was only able to get the $5000 charges dropped by getting an affidavit from the Federal Trade Commission that the sweepstakes company was phony, and hence the charges were fraudulent. Still, it took me 3 months to get the charges dropped, and I only was able to do this by filing a complaint with the US Treasury department.

In essense, even if you are offering a fraudulent product - say Internet content that was stolen from a porn company's DVD - the credit card companies don't care (they want their money, period), and they won't try and figure out who and where the Internet porn people are. It turns out that only law enforcement people can do these investigations, since it involves financial/banking/business records.

I think this is why some porn producers have tried to have watermarks on their DVD's.

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The companies do keep records on who owns the sites but they don't usually have the time or money to investigate each client to see if their name and location are accurate.

There are tons of places that will give you a mailing address with little or no ID and that is really all you need.

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To reverse the $5000 fraudulent charges on my dad's visa card, I had to contact, either by phone or by certified mail, the police department in Vancouver, BC, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver, the FTC in Seattle, the US Treasury department, and only then was I able to get the problem resolved. I did have an FBI agent from Los Angeles call me, because he had been assigned to investigating these phony sweepstakes companies.

I gather that the porn companies are reluctant to turn to government or law enforcement agencies to find the people who are ripping off their content over the Internet, for obvious reasons. But it takes government investigators to even have the resources to find these criminals, let alone put them out of business.

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And besides, you're still thinking within ONE country. Internet is a worldwide phenomenon. One can live in Russia and have a server in Indonesia. That doesn't make things any easier.

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