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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Call for Porn After Jury Award Angers Judge

DALLAS (CN) - After a Texas federal jury awarded two investors $24 million for being denied profits from the popular VideoGames channel on YouTube, the judge threatened to hold a defendant in contempt for urging users to submit pornography to the channel.

The seven-member jury unanimously concluded there was a membership agreement between plaintiffs David Moss and Brandon Keating and defendant channel operators Marko Princip and Brian Martin. The jury assigned each plaintiff a 30 percent ownership interest in the channel and each defendant 20 percent.

It awarded more than $7 million in past and future royalties and $16 million in punitive damages.

The investors sued in 2014, alleging breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference and conversion. The plaintiffs claimed they each invested $1,500 in the channel in exchange for the ownership interests and a corresponding share of profits.

The channel has more than 3.3 million subscribers and more than 816 million views since it was started in April 2006. It features almost daily uploads of user-submitted video game content.

The lawsuit took a strange turn on Sunday when U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Stickney ordered defendant Martin to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court for telling subscribers on Twitter to "send me porn for submission on the channel" after the verdict.

The judge had ordered the defendants to "not do anything to harm" the channel after the verdict.

Martin responded in a document to the court that says his post was an "April Fool's Day" joke and that his "free speech comments were taken out of context."

He points out the plaintiffs and their attorneys posted on social media that they now own the channel after the verdict.

"No porn was ever sent, uploaded or viewed on the 'domain name' of the channel by defendant Brian Martin," the response states. "Defendant Brian Martin has not done anything, nor will he to adversely affect the revenue stream of VideoGames YouTube Channel."

Martin was ordered to appear in court Tuesday morning to respond to the order in person.

Follow @davejourno
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