MetArt Drops Lawsuit Against MindGeek

MIAMI—A little more than a month after filing a lawsuit alleging piracy of content against MindGeek USA, Hydentra L.P., which does business as adult content providers MetArt and SexArt, has dropped the suit. “Hydentra dismissed the lawsuit it filed on August 29, 2015 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, against various MindGeek entities and Feras Antoon,” the company said in a statement.  In the lawsuit, Hydentra/MetArt claimed that "Pornhub.com has been utilized by Defendants to collect Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works and trademarks for unlawful and unauthorized display on Defendants’ new pay-only membership site Pornhubpremium.com, where Defendants charge a fee to view Plaintiffs’ works," and that "Plaintiffs discovered numerous copyrighted works on Pornhub.com that were not mere promotional materials, were not provided by Plaintiffs, and were not authorized for display on Pornhub.com." Hydentra alleged although it demanded that all of its copyrighted works be removed from Pornhub.com, the site's owners failed to do so, and moreover, "took these same materials and utilized them for direct financial gain, directly charging internet users money to view the videos in high definition, without interruption of advertising, and to download the videos." UPDATE: Catherine Dunn, vice president of global communications for MindGeek, issued the following statement concerning Hydentra dropping its lawsuit: "MetArt is a longtime business partner of MindGeek and we are pleased that the claim has been withdrawn without having to resort to the court system, nor making any payment to MetArt. With this behind us, we look forward to continuing to work with MetArt and grow our partnership to new highs."