On March 31, 2003, Federal District Court Judge Ronald M. Whyte ordered David Forest to pay a default judgement against Titan Media $69,506.50 as a result of their copyright infringement case against Forest.
"Most of the accusations in the lawsuit were highly exaggerated, unfortunately I couldn't afford to run to San Jose and hire a copyright attorney. So I basically defaulted on the lawsuit," explained Forest.
The action had been initiated by IO Group, the parent company of Titan Media, creators of all-male multimedia entertainment, after Forest refused to remove illegally gathered Titan Media photographs from his paid subscription-based website, www.forestmen.com.
At the center of the Forest lawsuit were twenty Titan images of adult star Chris Steele. Forest formerly represented Steele. At Steele’s request, Titan supplied Forest with watermarked images of the actor for use on Forest’s website.
Forest chose instead to scan non-watermarked, high-resolution images of the same photographs from a magazine layout.
According to Titan, over the course of a year and a half, Forest failed to comply with successive requests from Titan to remove the images, with legal action resulting.
Forest denies this, insisting he removed the images immediately after receiving a cease-and-desist.
"I took them off the minute they said to take them off. Yet, to enforce their lawsuit, they said in the lawsuit that I wouldn't take them off. Because they can say and then I have to go in there and defend myself - and that costs a lot of money," said Forest.
"They went ballistic, saying to get those things off the website, which we did. Then they said you owe us $50,000," said Forest
Damages for the infringement of twenty (20) Titan-owned photographs consisted of $2500 per image for base copyright infringement and $750 per image for violation of Titan Media’s Rights of Publicity. Court sanctions, combined with attorney fees and costs brought the total award to almost $3500 per image.
Titan's CEO, Bruce Cam, announced that all of the award would be donated to the Free Speech Coalition saying," For us, this lawsuit was never about money; rather it was about the protection of our intellectual property, which is Titan's most valuable asset."
"The illegal resale of intellectual property on the Internet is rampant," said Titan's General Counsel Gill Sperlein. "I am employed full-time to protect Titan's property; I have made significant progress and will continue to aggressively pursue, prosecute, and do whatever is necessary to protect our company’s intellectual property."
Forest "It's an unfortunate thing. I'm a good guy and I fight hard for my stars. Titan Media unfortunately is just really, really, animalistic when it comes to this whole thing. There is no way they were damaged. I just couldn't afford to have a lawyer."
Titan promises that "many more" lawsuits will follow. "If you steal from Titan, you will pay or be prosecuted, " said Sperlain.
