Yesterday, in a ruling against Malibu Media, U.S federal judge Katherine Forrest slammed the porn company over the practices it was using to get money out of alleged pirates.

Sending threat letters to pirates is not new or unheard of and lot of companies do it to get money from alleged pirates. However, some companies take things to a new level by spying on people to find potential pirates to target. One such company Malibu Media – a porn company, was using questionable methods to extort money from people.

The “X-Art” porn production company sends letters to thousands of alleged copyright infringers (whom the company has no solid proof) and ask them to pay up, or face a hefty lawsuit. Usually the amount asked is in few thousand dollars. Most victims (or pirates) do not have the resources to fight a lawsuit and feel ashamed about their pornographic habits, so they end up paying the money.

Up to this point, this sounds like how most media companies collect money from the pirates. However, Malibu has taken this to next level, which sound more like extortion. If the victims did not pay up the money they asked, they threaten them to subpoena their neighbors and spouse.

As Fight Copyright Trolls points out, Malibu’s emails ask the defendant to either admit that he downloaded the content, or that someone else on his Wi-Fi (neighbors or spouse, presumably) must have done so. In other words, admit you downloaded the films, or have us tell your neighbors and partners that you pirated porn.

One such victim has taken this to federal court and U.S federal judge Katherine Forrest agreed that the practice is shady and slammed the company for blackmailing the defendant.

At this point, this deposition appears to be harassment and at least outweighed by such considerations.

Despite the loss for Malibu, the case is still alive and kicking. We hope that we will get some more details on exactly how porn companies shake people down by the time it ends.