San Diego-Tech

Movie studios are extending their efforts to take down sites that offer pirated material, with a new lawsuit targeting an advertising company that provides services to such sites. As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. and Disney have teamed up to sue Triton Media, accusing the company of both contributory and induced copyright infringement because Triton helps to keep the sites alive by providing them with advertising and referral income.

Warner and Disney say that Triton has relationships with at least nine sites that they consider to be “one-stop-shops” for illegal copies of the studios’ work. The list is made up of mostly no-name sites, such as free-tv-video-online.info, watch-movies-links.net, and thepiratecity.org. According to the complaint, Triton and the nine sites basically had a symbiotic relationship—both sides allegedly profited from the distribution of pirated works, and Triton made it possible by offering “material assistance” to the websites.