Judge orders porn site to pay $4 million to Iowa-based company in piracy case

A judge has ordered the operators of a popular pornographic website to pay $4 million to an Iowa-based adult film company for copyright infringement.

U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett entered the judgment last week against Mark and Mina Faragalla of Beaumont, Calif., who operate PornVisit.com. He ordered them to pay damages to Norwood, Iowa-based Fraserside LLC, a subsidiary of Private Media Group, Inc., that owns the U.S. copyright to 75 adult films.

Bennett said PornVisit.com is visited by more than 500,000 Internet users daily and profited off the intellectual property of others, selling memberships and advertising while allowing unauthorized viewing of films.

Bennett called his order "a shot across the bow" against further piracy.

A man who answered a California listing for the Faragallas said they no longer live there.