The Internet hosts millions of websites and, unfortunately, a substantial number offer videos or images relating to pornography hosted from locations around the world. Since the inception of the Internet, legal disputes relating to the copying and distribution of pornography have been a driving force in the application of traditional legal concepts in the electronic era. When a foreign actor violates U.S. copyright law using the Internet, the injured party may have difficulty in securing jurisdiction in a local court to bring a lawsuit. In an otherwise routine copyright case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressed whether a foreign actor whose adult content website is accessed by users in the United States can be sued in Arizona. The Ninth Circuit’s decision also questioned the standards recently applied by the Fourth Circuit in a very similar case.
In AMA Multimedia v. Wanat, 970 F.3d 1201 (9th Cir. 2020), the plaintiff was the owner of various copyrighted pornographic videos. The defendant, Mr. Wanat, was a Polish citizen and the co-owner of the website ePorner.com (“ePorner”). ePorner is foreign website that collects and replays adult videos downloaded by its Internet users. The ePorner website is operated by MW Media, a Polish civil law partnership, and Mr. Wanat is one of the partners. The contents of the website are stored on a server located in the Netherlands. The site is accessible globally but the largest number of its users, about 20%, are in the United States. ePorner does not have does not have an office or any representative in the United States.
