Gawker media has agreed to take down the McSteamy homemade sex tape of Rebecca Gayheart and husband Eric Dane having a threesome and pay the couple a sum in the low six-figures, MSNBC reports. In exchange, the couple has agreed to drop its $1 million lawsuit.
The case was filed in September after excerpts of the so-called “McSteamy” tape surfaced on Gawker’s Defamer blog and porn-culture sister site Fleshbot. Here’s the interesting part: Eric and Rebecca blazed a new trail in sex tape law (a growing field, no doubt) by suing for copyright infringement. Since Eric held the camera for some of the shoot, he has partial copyright in the footage. Kari Ann Peniche also held the camera for a time, but her rights were said to have been purchased by Dane and Gayheart.)
At first, Gawker refused to take down the video, citing “fair use” under copyright law. As the case went on, the tryst was viewed more than 4 million times. In December, a judge ruled that Rebecca and Eric were not entitled to damages because they registered the tape with the US Copyright Office four days after Gawker posted it. It’s a bit of a draw overall; the couple will get a nice settlement, but the tape was up for over a year, and I’m guessing anyone who was going to watch it already has.
The moral of the story here: Make sure you get behind the camera when you make a sex tape!
Or, um, don’t make a sex tape?
