Legal News

Florida A&M Rattlers Rattled by Dorm Room Porn Video

By Matthew Heller, Editor

A trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Florida A&M University pits the venerable, historically black school against the publisher of a "reality porn" website that features "wild sex parties" in college dorm rooms.

Daredorm.com is part of a network of sites published by RK Netmedia of Miami that also includes the popular BangBus.com. In a complaint filed last week, Florida A&M alleges the site posted a video on March 1 that is a "transparent attempt to trade on [its] good name and identity."

The video, entitled "Big Rattler77," depicts "no less than eight individuals engaging in multiple acts of sexual intercourse in what is intended to appear to be a dorm room on the campus of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University," the suit says.

Participating colleges are not specifically identified by Daredorm and stills from the videos on the site's home page suggest many of them are filmed in the same location, one furnished with pine bunk beds. The Bang Bus videos, in which women supposedly "picked up on the street" have sex in the back of a van, are in fact staged using paid actresses.

But Florida A&M says the "BigRattler77" video "is likely to deceive, confuse and mislead prospective purchasers and viewers of the video into believing that the video was produced, authorized or is in some manner associated with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University."

Among other things, the Rattler is the school's mascot and the caption for the video states that it was filmed "at a a historically black college in Florida." The video also displays Florida A&M's orange and green color scheme "in connection with the 'FAMU' and 'Rattlers' marks," the suit says.

None of the performers in "BigRattler77" are in fact Rattler students and the video was not filmed on its campus, the school says, but the video "wrongly insinuat[es] that its students routinely engage in the debasing and degrading behavior depicted therein."

This isn't the first time that RK Netmedia has been accused of taking indecent liberties with porn shoots. In October, a property owner in an exclusive South Florida resort community sued its BangBros.com site for using one of his apartments for a shoot featuring porn star Devon Lee without his permission.

The RK Netmedia porn empire was founded by two friends from the University of Florida. Daredorm.com invites coeds to make $10,000 by "submitting your college dorm action" for Internet publication and requires "models" to sign a release.

The Florida A&M suit is potentially far more serious for the company because the school's claims under the federal Lanham Act and Florida trademark infringement law provide for treble damages. The school, founded in 1887, is also defending its "strong reputation and tradition as one of the nation's oldest and most distinguished public universities."

A Lanham Act plaintiff can recover damages by showing that a "reasonable consumer" would be confused as to the source of a product based on the use of a trademark.

RK Netmedia could argue that no reasonable consumer would believe Florida A&M had authorized or was associated with the filming of "BigRattler77." But in what may be an admission of sorts, the video no longer appears to be available on Daredorm and, in the latest addition to the site captioned "College in: Colorado," the logo on a performer's t-shirt is blurred out.

By Matthew Heller
On Point

Full post as published by On Point News on March 25, 2010 (boomark / email).