Evil Angel fights off Canadian pirates
In addition to keeping an eye on unusual neighborhood personalities and crime, I also cover the porn beat, which is not quite as lurid as you'd probably suspect. On Friday, I caught up with the folks from Evil Angel, who've been wrangling in court for several years with some accused Canadian movie bootleggers.
Here's what we ran in Business:
VAN NUYS — After three years of legal wrangling, adult film producer Evil Angel won an $11.2 million court victory against Canadian pirates on Friday.
The Van Nuys-based studio and its co-plaintiff, Jules Jordan Video, accused distributor Alain Elmaleh and his subsidiaries, Kaytel Distribution and Leisure Time Canada, of selling fake movies to retailers. After more than a week in court, the jury found Elmaleh and the others liable for ripping off 31 Evil Angel titles and 13 of Jordan's movies.
In addition to the $11.2 million awarded to Evil Angel, the defendants owe Jordan around $5 million.
"It's a good day — a very good day," said EA spokeswoman Karen Stagliano, wife of EA owner John Stagliano. "Of course, we were nervous. We felt we had a solid case, but we were afraid we'd get tripped up on some little legal detail. Now, everybody's overjoyed."