Webmasters: Keep your distance from rocker Fred Durst.
The Limp Bizkit front man, 33, is hopping mad that several Internet sites hosted footage and still images from a sex video of him and an ex-girlfriend that was reportedly stolen from the rocker's hard drive--and he's taking legal action.
In paperwork filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Durst seeks restraining orders against an array of Web companies accused of airing portions of a 2003 bedroom encounter. The rock star admitted to filming the clip himself.
Attorneys for the singer said in the filing, which was first posted on The Smoking Gun, that the video was stolen from the hard drive of Durst's computer, possibly by the same individuals responsible for the recent hack into reality TV star Paris Hilton's Sidekick.
Durst's lawyers requested the temporary restraining orders to prohibit the companies from further airing any elements of the tryst. Named as defendants in the filing are Internet hosting and service providers including Everyone's Internet, Hurricane Electric, Peer1 Network, Servint Internet Service, The Planet Internet Services, Tierranet and Verio, along with Web gossip specialist Gawker Media and music label Roadrunner Records. An individual, Tyrone Norris, is also named.
According to the filing, the owner of a pornographic film company first contacted Durst's manager, Peter Katsis, in December 2004 claiming to have access to the sex video through a third party and asking if the singer was interested in commercially marketing the footage. Upon contacting the unnamed third party,
Katsis claims he was again asked if Durst wanted to sell the video and, upon pushing for information about how the clip was acquired, was informed that the content was stolen from the singer's computer by the same party responsible for the Hilton attack. Around this time, clips and still images taken from the video began appearing on numerous sites, including Gawker, the claim said.
In the filing, Durst's representatives said the singer has now copyrighted the video, which he admittedly filmed himself, in order to prevent companies from selling it. Durst's attorneys maintain that the defendants have failed to cease and desist from showing the footage, as they have been asked to, and continue to advertise the video online. Gawker said in a post to its site on Monday that it pulled the content immediately after receiving a request from Durst's lawyers.
Durst's team said in the filing that they were informed by the U.S. Secret Service that the singer's hard drive may have been hacked by the individuals responsible for targeting Hilton, and were told that the two events may be connected.
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Unfortunately, like many of this items, it will rejuvenate his popularity and we'll have to endure his pseudo-tough-guy shtick for awhile longer :(
It's the most uninteresting bit of pr0n I've ever seen... even the chick was falling asleep.