*It’s unclear whether or not Salomon sold the initial clip, but he did sell the video. If you want the details: The first part of the tape that was released was a four-minute night-vision clip by the porn company Marvad. This quickly blew up, but it was only the beginning: two months later, stills from the video were released on an anonymous website, with pre-orders for the full video. Salomon was caught as the man behind the site, which he soon admitted. He then sued Hilton’s parents for “slandering” him, and also sued Marvad for releasing the clip. Marvad fired back with a photo of the contract his ex-roommate had facilitated, ostensibly in Salomon’s name, and sued Salomon for breach of contract. Salomon reportedly told Hilton’s parents he’d drop his lawsuit if they forfeited their monetary and copyright claims; no word on exactly what transpired there, but Salomon did drop his defamation suits against the Hiltons.
Salomon claimed a friend stole the tape and sold it to Marvad. He claimed he was releasing the full video as people already believed him responsible for the leak, so essentially, he might as well profit. “Everybody thought I released this tape, so, you know, now I‘m at least getting some reward, so no, there’s not any downside to me releasing it right now,” he told NBC, saying he felt no guilt over it as the video “sort of ruined my life and now I‘m capitalizing on it.”
Salomon ultimately released the full video with the help of the Red Light District Video distribution company; it sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Paris sued the company for invasion of privacy, but it was later dismissed after all parties settled. When all was said and done, Hilton received damages that she donated to charity. While reports stated that after the settlement she received some of the profits, Hilton said in 2006 she “never received a dime from it” and considered it “dirty money.”
