Amazon Sues Alleged DVD Piracy Websites for Copyright Infringement

Amazon sued a network of alleged piracy websites for selling DVDs that infringe Amazon's copyrights for original works, including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, said a Tuesday complaint (docket 2:23-cv-06886) in U.S. District Court for Western California in Los Angeles.

The complaint named defendant Yangchun Zhang, doing business under the name DVD Shelf, as the center of the “piracy and infringement scheme.” It cited trademark records showing Zhang is located in Sichuan, China, and also owns a trademark registration for DVD Shelf in Australia. Zhang had the ability to supervise, direct and control the wrongful conduct alleged in the complaint, and he derived direct financial benefit as a result of the conduct, it said.

Defendant DVD Trade International does business under the name DVD Shelf, whose principal place of business is “unknown,” said the complaint. The defendant had the ability to control the wrongful conduct alleged, and derived a direct financial benefit from the wrongful conduct, it said. Defendant Media Wholesale UK also does business under the name DVD Shelf, with the principal place of business “unknown,” the complaint said.

The complaint also named “Does 1-10,” unknown entities operating under piracy websites -- dvd-wholesale.com (DVD Wholesale), bilidvd.com, dvdshelf.com.au, ddddd.com.au, buydvds.com.au, dvds.trade, and dvdwholesale.co.uk -- alleging they work “in active concert with each other” and the named defendants to “knowingly and willfully manufacture, advertise, market, offer, distribute, and sell pirated and counterfeit DVDs.”

Amazon’s investigation shows defendants use a logistics hub at 17256 S. Main St, Gardena, California, to warehouse and fulfill orders for their pirated DVDs for U.S. customers. Amazon’s test purchases of infringing DVDs from DVD Wholesale and dvdshelf.com.au displayed the Gardena address as the return address on shipping labels for the products delivered to Amazon’s investigator, the complaint said. Terms of service on DVD Wholesale and bilidvd.com websites indicate defendants ship some of their packages from a warehouse located in the U.S., “presumably the Gardena Address,” Amazon said.

Defendants’ infringement also targets U.S. companies and their intellectual property, the complaint said. Most of the film and TV series offered for purchase on the piracy websites “appear to be titles for an American audience offered by studios based in the U.S.,” it said. Many of these studios are based in Los Angeles, it said.

Amazon Content owns or co-owns and has exclusive rights covered by the copyright registrations in connection with certain Amazon series, the complaint said. The copyrights cover all episodes of the series, and were duly and properly registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before or within three months of the copyrighted series having first aired on Prime Video, it said.

Amazon performed test purchases of the series offered for sale by the piracy websites for Lord of the Rings, The Peripheral, The Boys, Daisy Jones and the Six, Carnival Row, Clarkson’s Farm and The Legend of Vox Machina. Defendants shipped DVDs that Amazon confirmed contained pirated and infringing copies of the series; they bear “infringing depictions of the Amazon Trademarks both on the DVD covers and within the audiovisual content of the DVDs,” the complaint said. Amazon has never offered for sale or licensed the sale of any DVDs of the series, which it streams exclusively through Prime Video, it said.

Amazon also sent test buys of DVDs purchased on defendants’ piracy websites to the MPA for review. The association determined that certain non-Amazon DVDs sold by the defendants were also counterfeit, the complaint said.

Amazon charges defendants with copyright infringement, trademark counterfeiting and trademark infringement, false designation of origin and false advertising, and violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law. It seeks a permanent injunction preventing defendants and their agents from importing, manufacturing, advertising and selling any product or service using a counterfeit imitation of the Amazon copyrights or trademarks on any platform or medium.

Plaintiffs seek orders requiring the registrars for the piracy websites’ domains to re-register the domain names in Amazon’s names, or those of their designees, under Amazon’s ownership; impound and permit destruction of all infringing products; give Amazon a complete accounting of all amounts due and owing to Amazon due to the unlawful activities; require financial institutions to “restrain and transfer” to Amazon all amounts arising from the illegal activities: and to require defendants to pay the maximum prejudgment interest authorized by law. Defendants couldn’t be reached for comment.