German Court Denies Copyright Protection to Malibu Media Porn

MUNICH, Germany—A German court has reportedly rejected attempts by X-Art parent Malibu Media to export its copyright infringement end-user litigation tactics to that nation, ruling in part that the content in question is not eligible for copyright protection. “Last year,” reported TorrentFreak, “Malibu issued complaints in Germany that Internet subscribers had illegally shared eight of their X-Art movies including Flexible Beauty and Young Passion. As a result the company wanted to obtain the identities of Internet subscribers behind the IP addresses it held on file in order to extract settlements from them.” Malibu Media has filed innumerable such claims in the United States, and prevailed in a bellwether trial in Philadelphia last month. According to TF, however, the District Court of Munich expressed reservations about several of Malibu’s arguments, including doubts as to the veracity of Malibu’s claims to ownership to the content and whether it had actually been distributed in Germany. But those two findings were overshadowed by its ruling on the content itself, reported Andy for TF: “The Court noted that the videos showed ‘only sexual processes in a primitive way’ and are therefore classified as ‘pure pornography.’ As such, the productions are not a ‘personal intellectual creation’ and are not entitled to protection under Germany’s Copyright Act.” While the ruling is bad news for Malibu Media as far as Germany goes, it is not binding on other European courts, which may have more lenient standards when it comes to the creative thresholds necessary for adult content to receive the protection of the courts.