Vancouver dating site PlentyofFish.com is being sued by the family of an American solider for hosting an ad that featured the man’s photo four years after he was killed in battle.
The popular free dating site is one of two named in a lawsuit filed in Texas. The family of Lieut. Peter Burks is also suing True.com, a dating site based in the U.S.
Burks, 26, was killed in Iraq in 2007. Rogge Dunn, the lawyer representing Burks’ family, told Business in Vancouver that a friend of the family, who has a profile on Plenty of Fish (POF), happened to notice an ad entitled “Military Man Looking for Love.”
She recognized the soldier in the ad was Peter Burks. When she clicked on it, it took her from POF’s website to True.com.
The woman called Burks’ father, who was distraught to find his son’s photo used on a dating site – something aggravated by the fact that he had been engaged when he was killed in action.
On behalf of the Burks, Dunn sent both POF and True.com cease-and-desist letters on January 17, 2011. On January 27, 2011, POF responded saying it had removed the ad. The company explained that the ad was from a third-party advertiser and could not provide information on how Burks’ photo was obtained.
Dunn underscored that Burks did not have a profile on POF, and his family wants to know how the photo was obtained and how either company thought they could use it for commercial purposes without permission.
“This is a commercial ad that a multimillion-dollar successful established company like Plenty of Fish is allowing on its website,” Dunn said. “They ought to know better.”
Paul Bloudoff, POF’s manager of corporate development and legal affairs, said in an email that the ad did not belong to POF.
“Lieut. Burks’ image was never used by PlentyofFish Media in any way, shape, or form,” Bloudoff wrote.
“A third-party advertiser, with no affiliation to Plenty of Fish, ran an ad promoting another dating site using Lieut. Burks’ picture, and one of the places this advertiser ran this ad happened to be our site. We have no knowledge about where this third-party advertiser acquired the image.
“We dealt with this matter a month ago when we blocked the image from appearing on PlentyOfFish.com, in accordance with the DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act], after being made aware of the situation. This case should not have been filed, as the DMCA’s safe-harbour provisions protect service providers from lawsuits such as this.”
Dunn said POF refused to disclose who its affiliate was, which is one of the reasons the Burks decided to include POF in the suit – to force it to disclose information about the third-party advertiser.
“We want to know how long this ad’s been running and how much money they’ve made from using his picture,” Dunn said. “If they’ve been using his picture for four years, and they’ve made $2 million, they shouldn’t keep that money.”
Dunn added Burks’ father plans to donate any money awarded by the court to military charities.
