June 22, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – PerezHilton.com, a blog covering news and comments related to celebrities, was dropped recently by its web hosting provider for copyright violation. The blog was dropped after ignoring repeated warnings from Australian hosting company Crucial Paradigm not to post copyrighted images.
Perez Hilton, real name Mario Lavandeira, has been hit by a number of lawsuits for posting images of celebrities on his blog, but maintains use of the images was legal. After being dropped by Crucial Paradigm, the site reemerged in a reduced format hosted by Blogads. Matt Lum, owner of PerezHilton.com and manager of Hoodlum Productions, was quoted in the press as saying, "We've enabled Lavandeira to continue to do what he does to a limited degree until we can figure how to handle the larger situation."
Francois Navarre, a co-owner of X17, a photo agency that is suing Lavandeira, was quoted in arts newspaper Variety as saying, “It's a precedent that's huge. When we were talking to Crucial Paradigm they were saying they were not responsible, dragging their feet. We had to threaten them and show them they were liable. His new host is Blogads, and we're contacting them already."
