Malibu Media, LLC v. Funderburg, No. 13 C 2614, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Apr. 24, 2015) (Dow, J.).

Judge Dow granted plaintiff Malibu Media’s motion for default judgment in this copyright case regarding pornographic movies.  Malibu Media sufficiently pled copyright infringement: 1) Malibu Media owned a copyright in the movie; and 2) defendant downloaded “bits” of that movie that constituted “constituent elements” of the work.

While courts have challenged the sufficiency of the connection between an ISP address and an account holder as the accused infringer, Malibu Media met its burden in this case showing the ISP address was linked to hundreds of downloads in just three months.

Finally, defendant had made no response to the complaint for eight months, which is plenty of time to respond.

Mindful of the concerns with copyright trolls (and without characterizing Malibu Media as a troll) the Court declined to find the infringement willful based upon circumstantial evidence.

The Court awarded $750 per work for a total award of $9,000.  The Court also awarded $2,525 in costs and attorney’s fees.

Finally, the Court entered a permanent injunction preventing defendant from infringing Malibu Media’s copyrights and ordering the defendant destroy any infringing material in its possession.