US Sex Sells News

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has signed a nasty bill that will massively restrict strip clubs and other adult businesses.

The bill, sponsored by nutter Senator Matt Bartle is very similar to the one passed in 2005, but was overturned in state courts.

The bill restricts placement of adult businesses, including strip clubs and certain bookstores. It also limits the amount of nudity at strip clubs, bans alcohol sales at these establishments and limits hours of operation.

Adult business owners said the bill will be devastating to the adult industry. Mike Ocello, president of VCG Holding, which owns adult businesses, said he will likely be the plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to declare the law unconstitutional: I'm very disappointed by the governor's decision.

According to a press release issued by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the unnamed Chief Legal Counsel for the Florida Department of Health—no such entity is listed on the Health Department's website, and each county appears to have its own Chief Legal Counsel—has begun an investigation based on complaints filed by three residents at AHF's urging, alleging the lack of use of condoms in films produced by Florida's fast growing adult film industry.

The complaints are based on a skewed reading of Florida's Sanitary Nuisance statutes which, though vaguely worded, appear to refer to such tangible nuisances as rotting garbage, liquid chemical waste or smoke, and machinery that may pose a risk when operated. Regarding the nuisance, the Department of Health is authorized to undertake required correctional procedures, including the removal of same if necessary, creating, keeping, or maintaining such nuisances. Moreover, maintaining a sanitary nuisance is a second-degree misdemeanor under Florida law, punishable by a $500 fine but not imprisonment. Nothing in the statute raises the offense level for multiple violations.

In its press release on the Florida situation, even AHF hedges its claims about the law, noting that adult producers shooting non-condom content only arguably fall under the definition of a 'sanitary nuisance', and although the release refers at one point to a local sanitary nuisance ordinance for Miami-Dade County, where much of Florida's adult production takes place, it's unclear (at least from the press release) whether that county's Director of Public Health has agreed to investigate AHF's claims.

Pornography Harms: A Briefing, sponsored by the Coalition for the War Against Illegal Pornography—apparently a front group for former Justice Department prosecutor Patrick Trueman and his supporters, who recently inaugurated the website pornharms.com was held on Capitol Hill with a panoply of anti-porn zealots as scheduled speakers.

First up was Donna Rice Hughes, who came to national prominence as the gal on then-presidential candidate Gary Hart's lap but then went on to co-found (with the late Andrea Dworkin) Enough Is Enough, which recently launched its Internet Safety 101 program to immunize kids against online predators, cyberbullying ... and, of course, anything remotely sexual.

Next was University of Pennsylvania psychotherapist Dr. Mary Anne Layden, co-author of the unscientific pseudo-study The Social Costs of Pornography.

Also up was Dr. Laura Lederer, a longtime anti-porn activist who in 1977 founded Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media spoke anout Pornography's Link to Sex Trafficking, and deals with the incidence of children trafficked to appear in child pornography and to become sex slaves—none of which, of course, has anything to do with the adult entertainment industry.

And of course, what anti-porn conference would be complete without Pink Cross Foundation founder Shelly Lubben, who's described as a former porn performer and now an activist against the illegally operating porn industry in California? Lubben claimed that she suffered much at the hands of the porn industry and their illegal activities and hazardous work conditions I was subjected to. Here, Lubben spoke on the Truth Behind the Fantasy of Porn.

The finale was PornHarms.com founder Patrick Trueman.

A federal agency is investigating whether an HIV testing clinic funded by the adult film industry routinely releases health information about actors to porn producers, violating the actors' privacy, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation announced.

The US Department of Health and Human Services investigation is in response to a written complaint from the foundation alleging violations of federal patient confidentiality laws.

In its complaint filed earlier this year, the foundation alleged that the clinic's release of patient data on HIV and STD infections via an online database violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA.

During a March protest outside the clinic, Whitney Engeran-Cordova, director of the foundation's public health division, said there is a contradiction between AIM vigorously blocking the release of patient data to state workplace safety officials, yet making the same data available to adult film producers.

The foundation has pushed for regulations that would require porn actors to wear condoms to slow the spread of sexually transmittable diseases. It also wants access to the health data of porn actors to track the spread of STDs in the industry.

Some adult filmmakers have objected, saying condoms can detract from their movies. Instead, they contracted with AIM to ensure actors are disease free before they have sex.

The US woman convicted of offering sex for baseball World Series tickets has been sentenced to one year's probation.

Susan Finkelstein was convicted in March of attempted prostitution. She was also sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

Last year, she placed an online ad on Craigslist seeking tickets for a Philadelphia Phillies game.

She was caught after meeting an undercover policeman who responded to the ad.

Judge Albert Cepparulo called Finkelstein's crime incredibly stupid, saying her ad could have left her vulnerable to a predator, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The judge suggested she spent her community service speaking to groups of women about the dangers of the internet.

Finkelstein said she had wanted to get tickets to take her husband to the opening game of the World Series - in which the Phillies beat the New York Yankees 6-1.

A Houston inventor whose medical device turns out to have more market value as an adult sex toy was in federal court fighting against what he claims are sex toy knockoffs.

Our business took a major detour when men started using our prostate massager for recreational purposes, said Amy Sung, executive director of High Island Health.

The product in question is called a Pro-State massager on the company's medical website, which features a happy-looking, fully dressed middle-aged couple and promises better health. Massager starter kits start out at $78.50.

The massager is also called Aneros on the company's adult novelty website, which features younger naked people and promises great orgasms. That starter kit goes for $49.95 with the slogans: The sex toy that's good for you.

Takashima and High Island have sued British company Libertybelle Marketing, also known as Pleasure2Me, and others claiming infringement of the 1998 patent of the plastic massager designed to massage a man's prostate without the use of electrical power. The design was intended to relieve fluid congestion, but it apparently does more than that for some.

She said he's in court because he feels the copies have cheapened his work and also might be dangerous because they aren't carefully crafted.

Houston lawyer Charles Rogers was in court defending Libertybelle and others by attacking in preliminary motions whether Takashima's patent was ever properly approved and ever specific enough to be patentable. Rogers said his clients have not infringed on Takashima's work in any way.

State Senator Matt Bartle's eight-year mean minded quest to crack down on Missouri strip clubs finally succeeded this week.

The state Senate voted 27-4 for legislation that will ban full nudity and prohibit adult businesses from selling alcohol. The clubs also would have to close between midnight and 6 a.m.

Most human beings understand that if you mix alcohol and women dancing in the nude, that's a tough combo, said Bartle: Bad things happen.

The vote, combined with the House's 118-28 vote earlier, sends the bill to Governor Jay Nixon. A spokesman for the Democratic governor said he was inclined to sign it. He is generally supportive of tighter restrictions on these types of businesses, spokesman Jack Cardetti said.

Opponents said if enacted, the new law will almost certainly result in a court challenge. They said the law will hurt all strip clubs and hundreds, and maybe thousands, of workers will lose their jobs.

Under the proposal, the adult entertainment industry would undergo  major restrictions. Juice bars that don't sell alcohol, but present nude dancers would be outlawed. Semi-nude dancers would have to stay at least 6 feet away from patrons and no touching would be allowed.

All that lap dancing stuff, that's gone, Bartle said.

Adult businesses could not operate within 1,000 feet of a school, church, day-care facility, library, park, residence or another adult business. Operators of any adult establishment would have to have an unobstructed view…of every area of the premises.

The bill's passage came on the second to last day of the 2010 session and represented Bartle's last shot at passing a bill because he is retiring from the Senate.

The Australian film-maker planning to auction off virgins in Las Vegas may have to put his plans on hold as he could face legal trouble for human trafficking.

The controversial project initially had to be moved to Las Vegas from Australia to dodge prostitution charges.

But those familiar with the Nevada sex industry now say the project could be stopped if Nevada authorities find it violates human trafficking laws, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

Specifically, it could challenge the US Mann Act, which prevents the transport of females across state lines for immoral purposes.

John Sisely, the brain behind the new low in reality-TV, is a Melbourne-based film-maker who plans to turn the auction into a documentary.

Sisely has spent more than a year recruiting male and female virgins willing to auction themselves on camera. Sisely held auditions for the auction in Sydney in 2009, using posters with Virgins Wanted plastered over an image of the Virgin Mary.

Sisely plans to pay each virgin $AU20,000 and they will also receive 90% of their sale price, with the remaining 10% going to the Nevada brothel where the auction will be held. Bids will be placed online before the final auction.

The project has infuriated nutters, with Senator Steve Fielding of the Family First party branding it absurd, ridiculous and disgusting.

The X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) held their 26th annual awards show at Highlands in Hollywood. If the AVN Awards and XBIZ Awards are the Oscars and Golden Globes of the adult industry, then the XRCO Awards are equivalent to the New York Critics Circle or Los Angeles Film Critics Awards.

BEST RELEASE
Flight Attendants – X-Play/Adam & Eve Pictures

BEST EPIC
2040 – Wicked Pictures Nurses

BEST DIRECTOR (features)
Will Ryder

BEST DIRECTOR (non-features)
William H

BEST COMEDY or PARODY
Not Married With Children XXX – X-Play/LFP Video

BEST GONZO MOVIE
Big Wet Asses 15 – Elegant Angel

BEST GONZO SERIES
Seasoned Players – Tom Byron Pictures

BEST GIRL/GIRL SERIES
Women Seeking Women – Girlfriends Films

BEST POV MOVIE
tie: POV Jugg Fuckers #2 – Darkko Productions/Evil Angel
tie: POV Pervert #11 – Mike John Productions/Jules Jordan Video

BEST ETHNIC SERIES
Big Black Wet Asses – Elegant Angel

NEW STARLET
Kagney Linn Karter

FEMALE PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Tori Black

MALE PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Evan Stone

Craigslist has been subpoenaed by Connecticut's top law enforcement official, who is investigating whether the site is doing enough to get rid of ads for prostitution and other illegal activity.

The demand came from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal who is co-heading a group of 39 states that has expressed concern over the ads. In addition to law enforcement agencies, nutter groups, opposed to the mostly hype human trafficking, have also criticized the ads.

Craigslist have estimated that sales this year from adult services will triple to about $36.3m compared with sales from 2009.

The craigslist brothel business seems booming - belying its promise to fight prostitution, Blumenthal said in a statement: The best evidence is thousands of ads that remain on craigslist - skimpily and slickly disguised with code words. We are asking craigslist for specific answers about steps to screen and stop sex-for-money offers - and whether the company is actually profiting from prostitution ads that it promised the states and public that it would try to block.

In late 2008, Craigslist announced changes that for the first time required people posting to the site's red-light district to register using a valid credit card and telephone number. Those caught posting inappropriate ads were threatened with being blacklisted.

Website officials also promised to donate the proceeds of those ads to charities that work to prevent human trafficking. Craigslist later backed away from that promise and now refuses to say what it does with the ad sales. Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster has defended the steps his employees take to filter out prostitution services, saying they go well beyond those carried out by newspapers.

Joe Sarno—aka Irving Weiss aka Monica Fitta aka Eric Andersson aka Lester Jordan aka dozens of others—died on Monday of undisclosed causes, leaving a legacy of adult and sexy mainstream films nearly unmatched in the history of adult cinema.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Sarno directed 105 films during a career that lasted over 40 years, often employing adult performers in his more mainstream projects. For example, Sarno's last work, Suburban Secrets (2004), about a famous nude model who returns to her home town to find that her ex-boyfriend is having an affair with her aunt, starred an adult actress in a major role. Sarno has been described by film historian Michael Bowen as the Ingmar Bergman of sex films.

Joe was a well-respected mainstream filmmaker, having made close to a hundred feature films, mainly in Sweden, both sexploitation and horror, noted actor/director Gino Colbert. His best work was in the psychological drama genre. One of his films, Inga, ran for over a year on 42nd Street and was considered groundbreaking at the time. Joe worked up until a few years ago, making the sexploitation picture Suburban Secrets, which starred Tina Tyler. Martin Scorsese saw it at a film festival and complimented Tyler's performance. And Joe had another script in development. He was a regular at film festivals, being honored for his amazing body of work. Last year, he was honored at a film festival in London and one in Italy for his work. He also lectured in film schools around the country.

But while most of Sarno's adult productions were directed under pseudonyms, or credited to others, they include movies that would show up on almost anyone's list of the best adult films of all times. He was responsible for creating the 'Inside' movie series—All About Gloria Leonard, Inside Seka, Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle and many more—which became huge box office successes and are now classics.

From review of Confessions of a Young American Housewife from Amazon US:

Sarno ground out countless sex films throughout his illustrious career, and the usual consumer for this type of film was overly grateful to have a film with plot, acting and direction. This reviewer has always felt a sense of malaise hanging around most sex films. The actors, even if they're game and put forth a little extra effort, all appear keenly aware that the project at hand will not further their career, further their cause or endear them to their dear old Aunt Fanny.

If "adult films" are your cup of tea, a Sarno feature usually delivers on the premise of being as close to a "real movie" as this genre gets.

As a Cal State Northridge associate professor, Kenneth Ng spends his days teaching students the principles of economics: markets, monetary policy, interest rates.

But in his free time, Ng focuses on a very different kind of market: sex tourism in Thailand. For the past year, Ng has been running a Web site that offers insights into the Thai bar scene, such as where to meet beautiful women and how to negotiate fees for their services.

But he was outed by a group of foreign businessmen who were outraged by what they considered a disrespectful Internet posting. They contacted his employer and colleagues, hoping Ng would be pressured into taking down his site.

It was a post he wrote on another Web site, run by owners of the Big Mango Bar in Bangkok, that triggered the organized campaign against him. In it, he instructed men to look for women near a particular Buddhist shrine. The Big Mango Bar owners said they found his post disrespectful.

University officials say they will not intervene or discipline Ng as long as his extracurricular activities do not involve public resources.

...Read full article

Update: Self Censored Under Pressure

24th April 2010. See article from bigbabykenny.com

An American professors website about Bangkok nightlife has been deleted bar a final explanatory posting:

For those not familiar with Bangkok, many bars, including the Big Mango Bar, are actually brothels. They employ girls who are paid a small monthly salary and get most of their pay from commissions on drinks customers buy them and from what are referred to as barfines in Bangkok. A barfine is a fee paid to the bar that frees the girl from working for the rest of the day and allows the girl to go out with the customers. Sometimes customers take girls dancing and to dinner but most of the time they take the girl home for sex. There are quotas and girls who don't get barfined enough or induce enough men to buy them drinks get their salary proportionately reduced.

It sounds worse than it is because the girls are all over 20, are free to quit whenever they want, go home with whomever they please, and, in the end, many actually end up marrying and/or girlfriending men they meet at the bar. Legions of Thai girls from poor, uneducated, impoverished backgrounds have found opportunity and a better life by working in Bangkok bars and meeting foreign men over the years.

The whole system sounds a bit unsavory to Western sensibilities but the system is ubiquitous in Bangkok among foreigners and native Thais and a form of the same system is prevalent in most Asian countries–Communist China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Vietnam. It is even rumored that the wives of several high Thai government officials and politicians started out as a hostesses in similar clubs. Before BigBabyKenny.com was turned off, you could have read through the many posts on the site for more information. Now that BigBabyKenny.com has been turned off, I'm not sure if an equivalent source exists.

The articles were too good at laying bare the economic underpinnings, the inter-personal dynamics, the nuts and bolts, and even the humorous side of The Thailand Girl Scene.

The discussion of The Thailand Girl Scene was too interesting and too revealing about the realities of life in a third world country where the usual ways women advance themselves socially and economically in The World are blocked off.

The photography was too good at documenting the nitty gritty nature of the various nooks and crannies of the Thailand nightlife industry.

The realities of life, love, dating, marriage, and sex in Southeast Asia and the politically correct western centric view of the world clashed.

Better to live in a make believe fairy tale western fantasy version of Southeast Asian culture and society than deal with an accurate, well documented truth.

Unfortunately, because I am a professor at a big public university, the popularity and publicity surrounding the ideas, the subjects and questions discussed and debated, and, of course, the ground breaking photography at BigBabyKenny.com became so great that the site had to be turned off.

Read the full article

University Statement

See article from bigbabykenny.com

Some of you may be aware of an issue that recently has received some attention related to a website run by a university employee on his own personal time with no connection to Cal State Northridge. I am writing with an update about this issue.

Professor Kenneth Ng informed me Thursday night that he is reluctantly taking down his web site on Friday. He will replace it with a brief account of the business dispute that led to the current controversy.

Professor Ng said that he is taking down the site because of the deleterious effect it had on the university's reputation, not because he considered the subject matter and content as unsuitable for public discourse, public discussion, or public debate.

I thank him for his reflection and removal of the site. I thank the University community for their comments.

I understand that some people will be disappointed that we did not force the site's closure; others already object that university leadership was critical of a university employee's speech.

We are trying to balance two principles that, in this case, clashed. Our commitment to gender equity compels us to see the site as offensive; our commitment to expression urges us to tolerate words and pictures we find intolerant. As university leaders, we believe open debate is critical to ordering our values and determining our acts. While belief in an absolute right to censor might initially comfort us; our and us has a way of quickly narrowing to you and me. Then the danger is that exclusion and exploitation, the acts that initially incited us to censor, become the rules of the day.

As with other incidents that have arisen on campus in the past, I encourage everyone to use the issues that have been raised in this matter as an opportunity to examine and talk about how we deal with values and perspectives that may conflict with our own while balancing the rights of others.

Harry Hellenbrand, Provost

An 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals panel indicated that Internet porn sites broadcasting from private residences constitute a business and could violate municipal zoning ordinances.

The comment was made during oral arguments in the city of Miami's appeal to enforce municipal codes at a two-story colonial home used by cocodorm.com, a gay sex site that provides in-home camera feeds to subscribers.

Judge William H. Pyror, one of three judges hearing the city's appeal said that the house is essentially a production studio because independent contractors provide a service for a salary, room and board, the appellate judge said.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke ruled last year in favor of cocodorm's parent company, Flava Works, citing a 2001 ruling by the 11th Circuit that concluded such homes did not constitute adult entertainment business because the product was essentially in cyberspace.

The city argued the issue is not whether cocodorm.com is an adult entertainment facility but that businesses of any kind are prohibited in residential zones.

A porn video was promoted as having been filmed at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University with students acting in explicit sex scenes.

But Florida A&M University was not amused when the name of its teams — the Rattlers — the FAMU logo and the school colors appeared in a RK Netmedia video featuring what appeared to be eight students having an orgy.

RK Netmedia operates daredorm.com, which promises the hottest real college girls having wild sex parties in their dorm rooms.

FAMU officials investigated and contacted RK Netmedia which admitted that the video titled BigRattler77 was not filmed at FAMU. Plus, FAMU students did not act in the film.

So FAMU sued. As a result of the litigation, RK Netmedia agreed to pay $120,000 in scholarships and attorney fees to FAMU over the course of the next year as part of the settlement.

The apology says: RK Netmedia greatly respects the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and is pleased to fully fund two scholarships for two deserving Florida residents.

Dozens of New York adult video and bookstores could be forced to close up shop after a judge upheld stricter regulations.

The ruling is bad news for X-rated businesses that sought to work within a 1995 zoning law by devoting 60% of their floor space to non-adult material.

The city tweaked the law in 2001 to go after those shops, saying their compliance with the 6-0/40 zoning rules was a sham because their main focus was porn. The owners responded with a legal challenge, and the city was barred from enforcing the new provisions while it played out in court.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Louis York ruled the city can shut down adult-oriented businesses that were taking advantage of the 1995 regulations.

Many of these so-called '60/40' establishments are shams created by adult businesses in an attempt to avoid complying with the law - and we will continue to hold them accountable, said John Feinblatt, the mayor's criminal 'justice' coordinator.