Suit Seeks to Stop Unauthorized Online Sales of DVDs

Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart and others are unlawfully selling unlicensed DVD and Blu-ray copies online of the 1981 film Just Before Dawn, alleged independent film company Redoak Communications in a complaint Wednesday (docket 9:23-cv-80008) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in West Palm Beach.

There have been authorized releases through the years of Just Before Dawn on DVD and Blu-ray, plus through theaters and on pay TV, but “no valid licenses and thus no authorized releases” of the film currently exist “in any medium,” said the complaint. Small independent film companies like Redoak continue to lose “substantial” revenue due to the unauthorized sale online of films like Just Before Dawn, it said.

There's “simply no means” to deter infringers other than by bringing legal action, said the complaint. But that often entails hiring out-of-state counsel and filing a lawsuit in a court located at defendant's place of business, which can involve “substantial cost,” it said. “To allow wrongdoers this advantage in deterring legal action flies in the face of fair-play, and substantial justice,” it said.

The courts fortunately “have started to make it easier for owners of copyrights to seek remedies against infringers by being more concerned with the location of the plaintiff's principal place of business,” said the complaint. The courts also have “further recognized” that for cases about infractions that originate with the internet, “the injury caused by the infringer could not be associated with a single location associated with the infringer’s principal place of business,” it said.

Those infractions can occur throughout the U.S. and worldwide involving “anyone with internet access,” said the complaint. “This is particularly the case here where there are multiple defendants located in various jurisdictions,” illegally selling an unlicensed product over the internet, it said.

Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart, and the co-defendants where they source the illegal product, knew or should have known that goods they offer for sale are unlicensed, said the complaint. Their lack of due diligence constitutes “reckless disregard for or willful blindness” to Redoak’s rights, it said.

Redoak, with varying results, sent multiple cease and desist letters to Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart, to take down the unlicensed products, requesting an accounting of their sales and demanding damages, said the complaint. Amazon removed one version of the unlicensed movie, but not a second, it said. Best Buy, Target and Walmart removed the products but didn’t provide the requested accounting, it said.

Redoak “is entitled to recover losses,” including “actual damages,” plus “any and all profits” generated as a result of the “wrongful conduct,” said the complaint. It also seeks the “impoundment” of all remaining inventories of the unlicensed product, it said. None of the various defendants commented Friday.