Pornhub Parent Settles for $1 8 Million with Prosecutors Over San Diego’s GirlsDoPorn Site

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In response to the lawsuit and reporting that was done on the subject, GirlsDoPorn’s videos have been removed from many websites that host streaming adult videos. The latest lawsuit alleges that “MindGeek also knew of the significant harassment and trauma GirlsDoPorn’s victims were enduring by its continued publication of the victims’ videos” but that the company “simply did not care.” A few years ago, in 2015 and earlier, hundreds of women were allegedly lured to San Diego for what many of them didn’t know were actually film shoots for GirlsDoPorn. They were fed alcohol and drugs, coerced into signing dense contracts with incomprehensible legal jargon, and subsequently raped on camera—for 7 painful hours, in some cases. Shortly after being filmed, in each of these women’s cases, the footage reportedly ended up on major porn sites accompanied by their real names and personal information.

San Diego’s short-term rental rules have had a disastrous effect

GirlsDoPorn argued that the women were over 18, knew what they were agreeing to, accepted payment for the videos and in some cases returned numerous times to make additional videos. GirlsDoPorn continued to show total indifference throughout the trial, even uploading a new video involving one Jane Doe who claimed that she was not made aware of the lawsuit when she shot the video in August. One defendant alleged that she’d asked not to go through with the shoot at all, but the company threatened to withhold her hotel reservation and plane ticket home, knowing she couldn’t afford to pay for them herself. But even if the stigma against porn and its performers didn’t exist, there would still be sex trafficking and exploitation. Of course, not every porn company tricks, forces, or coerces performers to have sex on camera. Even so, unfortunately, it happens way too often—we’ve heard too many stories of the porn industry’s unethical dealings, and this GirlsDoPorn story is just one more added to the list.

GirlsDoPorn employee who created own related website indicted in San Diego on sex trafficking charges

“The government’s burden of proof in the criminal case is ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’ which is a much higher standard than in this civil lawsuit where the burden of proof is a mere preponderance of the evidence,” the attorneys added. “The findings of fact in the civil case do not carry over to the criminal case where the government will have to prove the facts under a much more stringent standard.” Meanwhile, the men still face federal charges of sex trafficking and producing child porn. In the 2016 lawsuit, the Jane Does, who were all between the ages of 17 and 22 at the time, said Girls Do Porn duped them into creating videos based on the understanding that the content would only be for a private collector, sold outside the US, or for a limited-release DVD. Now, after a years-long legal battle, a California judge on Thursday not only ordered Girls Do Porn to pay the 22 women $12.7 million in damages, but took a rare — and potentially game-changing — step of granting them ownership rights to the content.

• The US Department of Justice has ruled that rights to videos and images produced by the now-defunct sites belong to the women.
• While they were separate businesses, many of the videos produced by GirlsDoPorn were uploaded to and hosted on Pornhub.
• Garcia told the women that the videos would be published only on DVDs and sold overseas.
• Garcia and other co-conspirators threatened to sue the victims, cancel flights home, and post the videos online, if the victims did not complete the sex videos.

Deceived women win GirlsDoPorn legal battle

• The GirlsDoPorn operators knew this, and they wagered the Does’ shame over appearing in porn would likely ensure these victims would not take the site’s management to task for this fraud.
• Althaus says she agreed to another shoot and that Pratt and Garcia once again gave her alcohol, marijuana and Xanax and spiked her drink with oxycodone.
• The website operators had also assured models that their real names would never be linked to the videos.
• He called and FaceTimed the women, dodging answering any specific questions by instead offering to immediately book plane tickets—even before any women had agreed to participate in the filming.
• First, Jane Doe 7 found out the photo shoot was actually a video shoot only when she was picked up at the airport by Matthew Wolfe, a videographer working for the porn website GirlsDoPorn.

Pratt fled the country during the civil trial but was arrested on a San Diego warrant in late 2022 by Spanish National Police in Madrid. I jumped out of my seat,” said one victim about learning of Pratt’s presence in the courthouse Tuesday. Althaus says she agreed to another shoot and that Pratt and Garcia once again gave her alcohol, marijuana and Xanax and spiked her drink with oxycodone. Pratt was so enraged by her pleas to stop that he broke a hotel lamp and flashed a gun when she fled to the bathroom, the suit alleges.

The companies were instead identified with innocuous names, such as Bubblegum Casting. Twenty-two women have won $12.75 million in a years-long lawsuit alleging a predatory scheme by GirlsDoPorn, a site that hosts purportedly one-time pornographic videos featuring “amateur” college-age women and teen girls. The women provided evidence that the company lured them into shoots under false pretenses, intimidated and coerced them into performing, and shared the images online without their consent.

“It was eye-opening to me how pervasive and obsessive some of these people are,” said Holm, the victims’ attorney. Weeks after they returned home, the videos were released in full on Pratt’s subscription site, and as clips on PornHub and other popular free porn platforms. Dozens of victims had gathered at San Diego’s James M. Carter and Judith N. Keep Courthouse to speak at the sentencing hearing when they were told that Pratt was in federal custody. “Plaintiff fears for her life and safety, as well as the lives and safety of people close to her,” the complaint continues.