MyEx.com Lawsuit: Suing the non-existent owner of a revenge porn site

• July 09, 2014

Copyright Infringement Lawsuit against MyEx.com, Google and Yahoo

Recently one of the net's largest pornography sites has been sued for copyright infringement. MyEx.com with their co-accused Google and Yahoo have been sued because a recent complaint by a woman claiming that the site did not have the right to use her images without her consent.
The woman is seeking monetary compensation for damages resulting from Copyright Infringement and demanding that MyEx.com remove the content. and Reasoning behind the two search engines involved is that she had also filed complaints to their appropriate departments but the images were still available through searches on their websites.

Who's responsible for MyEx.com content on search engines?

This is not the first time a site like MyEx.com has been brought to court for issues pertaining to copyright infringement. Quite a few high profile stories have developed over the last number of years yet this seems to be the first time the website itself has been charged. The owner of MyEx.com was tracked down to be a company named Web Solution, B.V. This company has a listed address in the Netherlands but doesn't seem to actually exist. Hence, things are about to get a bit complicated for this legal situation. Take a look at the official court filling against MyEx.com, Google and Yahoo below.
 

Naming blame in the MyEx.com lawsuit

There are so many variables surrounding this particular case it is hard to keep track of. For starters with laws governing copyrights concerning the digital age being fairly new ground there is not a lot of precedence this case can pull from. Is MyEx.com liable for images that were supposedly legally sold them by this person's spouse? Does the fact the MyEx.com label themselves as a “revenge” pornography site count for anything? Using the concept of revenge makes it certainly sound like they use images and videos where permission of the original subject was not asked for. Are Google and Yahoo liable by not effectively resolving the initial complaint back in October of 2013? These are questions that will take a lot time and work to get answers to and even then may not be right. Digital media is growing faster than federal law can keep up with. There are some regulations in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act governing this sort of activity, yet is it enough to decide who is at fault in this case? Should MyEx take sole responsibility for the content users post to its site or should search engines like Google and Yahoo share in the responsibility since, if it on these internet searches that most of this content is found and viewed. Indeed there are many questions that need to be addressed beyond a reasonable doubt before any ruling can be made. Only time will tell the outcome of MyEx.com lawsuit. One thing is for sure will be a very expensive process for both sides involved. This will be a very interesting case to follow and could quite possible set some important precedence for this area of law. In the next several decades we will likely see more copyright infringement cases involving revenge porn sites if the lawsuit against MyEx.com proves successful.