COLOGNE, Germany, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- German attorneys say they have advised thousands of users of a pornography website to ignore an erroneous court order to stop using the site and to pay a fine.

The Bavarian state court that issued the order mistook website Redtube.com for a file-sharing site, which is illegal in Germany, TheLocal.de reported Tuesday.


Redtube, which is based in the United States, is a free video-streaming website.

The Bavarian law firm Urmann and Colleagues sent out letters ordering users to stop using the site and to pay a $344 fine, said Johannes von Ruden, a Cologne lawyer who said he represented about 10,000 people who received the letters.

"From my viewpoint, the consumers did nothing illegal," said another Cologne lawyer, Christian Solmecke. He has advised many people who got the letters not to sign the cease-and-desist order or to pay the fine.