NR Media Files Amended Complaint in Lawsuit Against Too Much Media
Attorney: ‘Things have happened’ since original class-action suit filed.
By: Sherri L. Shaulis
Posted: 03/19/2008
FREEHOLD, N.J. -
An amended and supplemental complaint was filed in federal court this week in
NR Media's lawsuit against Too Much Media, creator of the NATS back-end
affiliate program software, and Chief Executive Officer John Albright.
The original suit, filed in August 2006 by NR Media
subsidiary Naked Rhino, claims the defendants are responsible for destroying
Naked Rhino's business through "intentional and reckless online Internet
verbal assaults concerning the reputation and operation of Naked Rhino, as well
as [Too Much Media's] suspension of Naked Rhino's online payment processing,
reporting and affiliate management system (NATS)."
At the center of the dispute is a post Albright made on
GFY.com's message board. In the post, he said he had suspended the NATS license
for XclusiveCash, Naked Rhino's affiliate program, because he believed the
company was shaving, or altering sign-up and re-bill statistics in order to
cheat affiliates, after a discrepancy between the number of re-bills reported
by payment processor CCBill and the number reported to the NATS system.
Too Much Media filed its own suit that same month, directly
accusing NR Media of fraud, an allegation based on a discrepancy between the number
of re-bills reported in NATS and the number reported by payment processor
CCBill during the same time period. The filing says Too Much is "bringing this
action to restrain apparent fraud by NR Media and ascertain the extent of that
fraud."
Charles Carreon, general counsel for NR Media, told AVN
Online the new information filed in federal court this week was
necessary because since the original complaint was filed, "things have happened
that affect the disposition of this case."
Of note, he said, was Too Much Media's recent annoucement of
a security breach in December 2007. The breach of Too Much Media computers
allowed hackers to access various adult websites' subscriber lists. Personal
and company information was used to bombard subscribers with junk emails
advertising sexually explicit images from competitors. No credit information
appears to have been stolen.
But that breach, Carreon said, adds to NR Media's claim that
Albright's statement was used to not only ruin NR Media's reputation, but also
deflect attention away from NATS, which has been heavily marketed as shave-proof.
The original complaint reads, in part, "the 'shave-proof' NATS program was
the real likely cause of the missing re-bills."
The court has not scheduled a hearing for the amended claim.
