About Lucas Entertainment

Lucas Entertainment is one of the world’s most recognized and prominent gay-adult-film companies. Lucas directs, produces and stars in his own films under his namesake banner. His studio has earned many nominations and wins from the GayVN Awards, the Oscars of the adult world. Lucas Entertainment is recognized as showcasing the industry’s hottest sex with unprecedented achievements in cinematography, production quality and style.

In the summer of 2005, Lucas released the wildly successful Michael Lucas’ Dangerous Liasons. The film won a gamut of awards, including the Best Picture GayVN. Beyond the adult gay accolades Lucas and his company had infiltrated the mainstream with his celebrity friends performing cameos, including RuPaul, Michael Musto, Lady Bunny, Amanda Lepore, Bianca Del Rio, Sherry Vine, Graham Norton, Bruce Villanch, and Boy George.

In 2006, the studio released Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita. The film still stands as the most expensive gay porn film ever made. Again Lucas Entertainment surpassed all industry standards and won a yet unsurpassed record of fourteen honors at the 2007 GayVN Awards. The film took home every category in which it was nominated including Best Picture, a second year in a row for Lucas Entertainment.

In 2009, Lucas Entertainment broke ground with its film Men of Israel. The movie was the first gay adult production shot entirely on location in Israel with an all-Israeli cast. Men of Israel is a landmark in the history of Israel and in the evolution of adult entertainment. The film garnered international praise and recognition and ignited discussions in the LA Times, on E! Network’s Chelsea Lately and on countless other mainstream platforms.

In 2009, Michael Lucas was inducted in to the GayVN Hall of Fame. The media has made Lucas its feature time and time again. Political magazine The New Republic gave him the moniker of “Gay Porn’s Neocon Kingpin,” and New York Magazine dubbed him the “last of the New York porn moguls.” Lucas is renowned for his standing as the industry’s leading director and performer.

Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita In Court

Lucas Entertainment, Inc. and Michael Lucas were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by International Media Films, Inc., which owned the rights to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, in February 2007. The suit alleged willful trademark and copyright infringement against La Dolce Vita, seeking unspecified damages and to stop sales of Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita Parts 1 & 2. In May 2007, Judge Koeltl of the United States District Court in Manhattan rejected the request to enjoin the sales of Lucas’ film. He wrote that it “seems extremely unlikely that a hapless purchaser seeking to buy Fellini’s film will inadvertently stumble across Michael Lucas’s La Dolce Vita”, which would be an important element in proving IMF’s case.

After a four year legal battle, Judge Koeltl dismissed IMF’s entire lawsuit after concluding that the “plaintiff has failed to show that it has sufficient admissible evidence from which a reasonable fact finder could conclude that it was the copyright owner of the Fellini film”. The court ruled that IMF lacks credible documentation of its chain of title, stating: “In fact, it is possible for the Fellini film to be in the public domain.”

“I’m proud that my company won a case of such magnitude,” said Lucas Entertainment President/CEO Michael Lucas. “We believed strongly that we hadn’t done anything wrong even before we learned, through the meticulous, extensive and expensive fieldwork of our lawyers, that IMF doesn’t even own the movie it went to court over. Of course I can only guess at my opponents’ motivations, but if they thought that they could get a quick payday by walking all over a porn company, they were sorely mistaken. I am very proud that my company had the professionalism, the quality legal advice and the financial resources to stand up to this bullying.”

Fighting Unauthorized Use of Men of Israel Image by Anti-Israel Fanatics

During a Gay Pride event in Toronto, the political group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid used images from Lucas’ blockbuster series of films shot in Israel on anti-Israeli propaganda without his consent. The signs used the copyrighted image to wrongly and misguidedly portray Israel as an “apartheid” state.

“I was really amused to see this enigmatic picture from my film Men of Israel on the poster of anti-Israel demonstrators,” said Lucas. “I am happy that this series of bestselling movies, including Men of Israel, has made them mad, because it shows Israel just the way it is, a joyous and beautiful safe haven for LGBT people. That is the reality of Israel. Obviously that is not how Queers Against Israeli Apartheid would like to see Israel portrayed.”

Lucas’ lawyer, David Steinberg, stated, “In the view of our client, QUAIA member or members have not only used this image without his permission, [the] group is using it to portray the State of Israel in an absolutely misguided, hateful and perverse manner. In fact, Mr. Lucas is dedicated to fighting against the wrongful demonization of Israel by groups such as QUAIA. Consequently, this unauthorized use of his work is even more offensive.”

“This unauthorized use by QUAIA of our client’s ‘still’ image amounts to copyright infringement and a violation of our client’s moral rights,” he continued. “We therefore demand that [they] immediately cease and desist from using this image any further as part of [their] negative propaganda campaign against Israel or otherwise. We further demand that [they] put [their] membership on notice to this effect.”

After Lucas called for them to cease and desist, the organization contacted him agreeing to discontinue any use of his images on any of their propaganda. In a statement to his lawyer the group said, “…We are deeply sorry for any offense caused by the…use of Mr. Lucas’ image…The image has been destroyed and therefore it will not be used again. Our members have been notified of this issue. We have forwarded them a copy of your letter and this response…”