Ventura Content, Ltd. v. Motherless, Inc.

Joshua Lange operated Motherless, Inc. (defendant), a user-upload porn website prohibiting copyrighted material, using takedown-notice software and advising it terminates repeat infringers when appropriate; Lange and a contractor reviewed all uploaded content for infringement and child pornography before display, and Lange personally terminated repeat infringers based on his own judgment without keeping a formal log. Over three years, Lange terminated roughly 1,320 to 1,980 users for possible infringement, missing only nine, only four of whom had more than one takedown notice. Ventura Content, Ltd. (plaintiff) found 33 clips of its movies uploaded by eight users, but instead of sending takedown notices or using Motherless's self-deletion tool, sued for copyright infringement directly; Lange requested URLs from Ventura and deleted the infringing clips the same day he received them. The trial court granted summary judgment for Motherless under the DMCA safe harbor, and Ventura appealed, arguing Lange lacked a reasonably implemented repeat-infringer policy.