Australian Reporter Exposes LA Film Distributor

Karl Quinn, entertainment editor of Australia’s The Age newspaper, has authored a fascinating look at the latest business dealings of thirtysomething brothers Matthew and Richard Clapham. The trigger for the piece was an October 1 third-party blog mention of their company Movie Rights Group, which is going after illegal Internet downloaders.

Quinn details a massive Internet porn empire and suggests this nascent legal action may be a tactical prelude to going after U.S. surfers of free X-rated sites. He also reveals that a Santa Monica film distributor the brothers do business with, Lightning Entertainment, has a parent company in Colorado that makes most of its money from pay-per-view and subscription TV channel porn:

The Lightning website does not reveal that it is also a subsidiary of New Frontier Media, a publicly listed Colorado-based company… Lightning Entertainment promised a response from Los Angeles via its legal counsel, but after a week and follow-up approaches by The Age had provided none.

There’s much more in the article, although Quinn points out that no aspect of the brothers’ 100+ porn sites empire appears to be illegal. Lightning Entertainment handles a wide variety of U.S. and foreign indie fare, including the Val Kilmer-Christopher Walken crime drama Kill the Irishman.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.