World Sex Sells News

  Brothels Stay in Business

Based on an article from Korea Herald

Two years have passed since the Special Law on the Punishment of Sex Trade was put into force, strengthening crackdown on sex businesses. Implementation of the special law that replaced the old Anti-Prostitution Law proved that a statute cannot effectively suppress trading sex as a commodity as long as there are demands for it, but it has reduce the number of women who were forced into the job as a last choice for a living.

The new law took the basic position of regarding the women as victims of social absurdities. The law exempts them from punishment when coercion by their employers is involved while operators of brothels face harsher punishment of up to 10 years in jail with forfeiture of profits from their sex trade business.

Male clients who could expect the generous "release after admonition" if caught in occasional police crackdowns in the past should now risk punishment of up to one year in prison and 3 million won in fines. The strange reality is that a considerable number of brothels still remain "in business," according to police report, although they are suffering from sharply reduced number of visitors.

What is evident is the "balloon effect" which transfers the sex trade from the traditional brothels to such legitimate establishments as massage parlors, barber shops and body care houses where lewd services are offered behind the curtain. Internet is widely used between independent prostitutes and male surfers.

In police enforcement campaigns this year, 85% of those booked were male customers, 7% were pimps and only 8% were the service women, a clear reversal from cases before the legislation.
 

  Update: Passport to Repression

From Asian Sex Gazette

South Korean "sex tourists" could lose their passports under new proposals to crack down on prostitution at home and abroad.

The proposals and others directed at the Korean market were announced by the ministry of gender equality and family to mark the second anniversary of an anti-prostitution law.

Since then, the number of brothels has fallen and more sex workers are training for new jobs, vice-minister Kim Chang-Soon was quoted by the Korea Times as saying: However, there are also new kinds of problems to deal with, such as the sex trade going underground at hotels, massage parlours and bars, and the growing number of people going overseas to buy sex.

Kim said the government would form a special team to monitor Koreans buying sex overseas and investigate Internet dating services which were sometimes a front for the trade.

Under a new law being drafted, authorities will be empowered to shut down hotels, massage parlours, karaoke bars and other establishments found to be offering sex. Building owners could be punished for knowingly renting space to sex operations.

While the number of brothels has fallen since the 2004 law took effect, other establishments are filling the gap by providing what were described as "male resting rooms".

  Decrminalisation in Western Australia

From News.com.au

WA Attorney-General and Health Minister Jim McGinty said a working group would study the detail of current prostitution laws in other Australian states and New Zealand as part of a move towards decriminalisation.

Prostitution in WA is not currently an offence, but activities related to prostitution are illegal, including keeping or managing a brothel and living off the earnings of prostitution.

McGinty said the laws were ambiguous and did not provide a clear framework for police: Brothels in WA have been operating without any proper checks and balances for too long now, so it is time we looked at laws to properly deal with the sex industry. We want to look at the possibility of decriminalising brothels while ensuring the practice of streetwalking remains illegal.

Perth madam Mary-Anne Kenworthy said she was "rather amused" by McGinty's announcement. She said the state's sex trade laws had been reviewed several times, and no changes had ever resulted.

Police welcomed the announcement, saying the current prostitution laws were unclear and inadequate.

The working group will consult with representatives from the sex industry, local government and public health groups and report back to the Attorney-General by the end of the year.

McGinty said the Government wanted to develop laws which would be acceptable to all sides of parliament after a 2003 prostitution Bill failed to get majority support in the Upper House.

  Jon Dough

From AVN

AVN Hall of Fame porn performer, Jon Dough, passed away on Sunday. Dough, whose real name was Chet Anuszek, was 43. He took his own life.

Dough also had his own company, Jon Dough Productions, for his gonzo product, in addition to his Doughboy Video line that were his oral titles. Dough was known as one of the most reliable studs in adult, and had the type of longevity that only a small amount of male performers have enjoyed in the past two decades.

Fellow AVN Hall of Famer Ron Jeremy remarked, I met Jon Dough way back. We went to Europe a couple times together, and when you travel internationally with someone, you really get to know them. Jon was a great guy. He always had a good attitude, he was funny, and he was a fantastic performer. He would always defend his friends.

Dough, who began performing in 1985 and has appeared in several classic adult films, has well over 1,000 titles to his credit as an actor. He has directed over 70 titles, most recently for VCA Excessive, Hustler, NJ Films and Anabolic.

  City of Sex

Based on an article from Macon.com

City of Sex is a proposed erotic center that would be built in the famed beach neighborhood of Copacabana. Rio de Janeiro. The center would house art shows, informational exhibits, shops, a museum and clinics dedicated to sexual health. And sex pods and swingers clubs too.

Sex pods are egg-shaped huts with beds designed to help podsters perform various positions outlined in the Kama Sutra. The pods would be interspersed throughout the three-story center, which would be about 1,500 feet long, 140 feet wide and constructed using white recycled plastic. The futuristic design, in the "liquid architecture" style, manages to be both uterine and phallic at the same time.

Some designers, artists and even the city's mayor praise City of Sex for its bold form and provocative function.

Of course there are some who don't like the idea. Some have warned against mixing sexual health treatment with the kind of activity that can lead to needing treatment.  Even some of Rio's plentiful prostitutes don't like the idea. They see the City of Sex turning into a kind of sex ghetto, ultimately keeping sex, and those who work providing it, locked up in a box.

Whatever kind of attention the project brings, its creator welcomes all of it. We are a country closely connected with sex. Everyone knows that, said Igor de Vetyemy, who designed City of Sex last year for his final architecture school project at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. But we don't know how to live with sex. There is still a lot of Puritanism here. We talk only about the bad things of sex - sex tourism and the child exploitation. We never talk about the good faces of sex.

Vetyemy said he realizes his City of Sex may never be built. Even beyond the objections of the Roman Catholic Church, or those of a society beyond the borders of Rio that has a deep streak of moral conservatism, there are the more prosaic challenges of zoning and funding.

  Risque Denial of Free Speech

From AVN

A U.S. Appeals Court here has struck down a Pennsylvania law that bars "lewd" behavior at businesses that serve liquor.

The U.S. District Court of Appeals three-judge panel ruled that a state law which prohibits "any lewd, immoral or improper entertainment" at establishments that serve liquor "punishes a significant amount of protected speech".

The ruling comes after two exotic dancers were cited for performing wearing only high heels, G-strings and Latex pasties at Club Risque.

By law, statute violators would be charged with a misdemeanor and face a $5,000 fine and up to a year in prison as well as loss of the establishment's liquor license, if convicted.

Lawyer J. Michael Murray, who represented the dancers, said his clients feared that their right to express themselves artistically had been compromised by the law, which dates back to the 1950s, according to city records.

John O.J. Shellenberger, the chief deputy Pennsylvania attorney general involved in the case, said that he was unsure how the ruling would impact enforcement of the law. Clubs are often cited for lewd entertainment, according to documents with the Liquor Control Board.

  More Relaxation is Australian Brothels

From News.com.au

Changes have been passed by the Australian Queensland Parliament last night put in place recommendations made by the Crime and Misconduct Commission after a review of the Prostitution Act.

These amendments ... will help ensure the viability of the legal industry as well as reduce incentives for illegal operators, Police Minister Judy Spence said today.

Under the previous laws, a sex worker was not permitted to engage in sexual intercourse or oral sex without using a condom. But the amendments will now make it an offence to also "offer" oral sex or intercourse without a condom.

Licensed brothels will now be allowed to have up to eight sex workers to provide services at any one time in a five-room brothel.

This is in line with the CMC's recommendation to increase the number of sex workers from five to eight to lessen some of the workplace health and safety issues faced by the brothel workers, such as allowing them to have a break between clients, Spence said.

  Utah: The Burkha State

From AVN

The Utah Supreme Court has upheld an ordinance prohibiting nude dancing at strip clubs and other adult entertainment businesses.

American Bush, a strip club in South Salt Lake, sued in November 2003 to overturn the city's ordinance against nude dancing which was passed in March 2001. It required dancers to wear at least a G-string when dancing.

A previous law allowed nude dancing if a club did not allow alcohol.

Lawyers for American Blush argued that the state constitution protected nude dancing, but the state high court ruled 3-2 against the club.

Justice Jill Parish wrote in the decision that free speech protection does not extend to nude dancing, adding that it is contrary to the intent of the state constitution: Were we (to overturn the ordinance), we would not be interpreting the constitution, but substituting our own value judgment for that of the people of Utah when they drafted and ratified the constitution. It is not our place to do so, she wrote.

But Chief Justice Christine Durham disagreed, saying in her written opinion that the framers of the constitution did not outline the right to nude dancing in the document, but that they did seek to protect communication: I believe the relevant initial questions are whether nude dancing is communicative and whether nude dancing is an abuse to freely communicate, he wrote.

The club's attorney, W. Andrew Bush said he was disappointed in the court's decision, but not surprised given the mostly Mormon community's conservative politics.

McCullough said he is optimistic that he'll win in a federal court where the club is also challenging South Salt Lake's ordinance based on so-called "secondary effects" caused by nude dancing. He added that he hopes the case goes before the U.S. Supreme Court in October when it reconvenes.

  Record Keeping 4472 Censorship Laws

From J. D. Obenberger, Attorney at Law, www.xxxlaw.net

On Thursday, July 27 2006, President Bush signed House Resolution 4472 into law, an enactment with profound effects for adult webmasters.

The definition of those who produce sexually explicit content now includes the class of persons who have been called "secondary producers" in the Regulations. That change seems to take effect immediately.

Secondary producers, eg adult webmasters  now have to maintain records of actors in hardcore scenes. Previously these records were maintained by the primary producer.

In addition new softcore material will also require the maintenance of records.

JD Obenberger maintains information about the new censorship law at www.xxxlaw.net and in particular tries to answer some of the following questions:

• When does HR 4472 Take Effect?
• Why Did Congress Enact the Section 2257 Amendments?
• What is the Practical Effect of the Changes in Section 2257?
• What Should a Webmaster Do to Comply with the Amendments?
• What Else did Congress do in HR 4472?
• What other Changes of Interest to Adult Webmasters did HR 4472 Make?
• Isn't There an Injunction Against Section 2257 Inspections?
• Isn't all of this Unconstitutional?
• What Should I Do If the Agents Come for an Inspection?

  Reworking Reforms

From Scoop

A working group has been formed to review the New Zealand Prostitution Reform Act, part of United Future's support agreement with Labour.

United Future MP Gordon Copeland, Labour's Marion Hobbs and former United Future MP Larry Baldock will be part of the group that will also include officials from the Ministry of Justice and Department of Internal Affairs. The group will report to Justice Minister Mark Burton.

Mr Copeland said the group would consider three areas outlined in the party's confidence and supply agreement with Labour: That will involve addressing problems associated with street soliciting, underage involvement in prostitution, and local authority control over brothel zoning.

The Prostitution Reform Act, which legalised prostitution for those over 18 years old, was passed in July 2003.

United Future strongly opposed the Act, which it wants overturned.

Meanwhile, Hamilton City Council has won a landmark High Court decision backing its Prostitution Bylaw. Escort agency owner Julie Conley appealed the bylaw in May this year, because she was not allowed to operate her businesses in a residential area. The bylaw states brothels can only be sited in the main industrial and central city commercial areas.

Justice Ellen France has thrown out the appeal and awarded costs to the council.

 

Update: Working Well

2nd October 2007

The author of the prostitution law says it is working well following the arrest of a woman who allegedly sold her daughter for sex.

The South Auckland woman will be charged under the Prostitution Reform Act for marketing her 16-year-old to a client.

Labour MP Tim Barnett, who sponsored the Prostitution Reform Bill, says the case highlights how the bill is working effectively to clamp down on the actual criminal and not vulnerable youth. He says it's an example of the law getting the person allegedly causing the real harm.

 

Update: Unappealing Bylaw

4th December 2007

An appeal lodged in the Court of Appeal against a Hamilton City Council Prostitution Bylaw of 2004 has been dismissed.

Three Court of Appeal judges unanimously agreed to dismiss the appeal lodged by Julie Conley, the owner of Hamilton brothel Toni's Escort Agency.

The decision also included an order for her to pay costs of $6,000 to the council.

In 2004 the council passed a bylaw that established a permitted zone for brothels, and prevented them from being located within 100 metres of 'sensitive sites'.

  Happening Bars

Based on an article from Mainichi

Tokyo's Shibuya district is home to 'happening bars' which offer chaotic, erotic action at bargain prices. One out-of-the-way club is located in the corner of a nondescript building off Miyamasuzaka and the place looks, well, sleazy right down to its official ladyboy greeter.

Happening bars in Roppongi and other parts of Tokyo, explains Shukan Taishu offer customers a chance to engage in, or observe, anything-goes activities, performed spontaneously in the most exhibitionist style imaginable. Catering to the jaded affluent and the morbidly curious, they generally charge a minimum of 10,000 yen (£50) for membership by couples, and perhaps twice that figure for unaccompanied males. Females are generally admitted for a nominal fee, and in some places even free of charge. A typical admission charge is 4,000 yen (£20)

An example club had a maximum capacity of about 15 people. So as to leave little doubt as to its purpose as a venue for the sexually open-minded and the hopelessly horny, its brown-hued walls were festooned with suggestive motifs, such as phallic symbols and erotic "shunga" woodblock prints from the Edo period.

Four women, who appeared to be in their 20s, and seven somewhat older men were already seated and sipping at their drinks. The reporter's eyes gradually adjusted to the interior gloom and they soon noticed that an older man with white hair was in the process of using a hemp rope to tie up a nude young woman, using an elaborate combination of loops and knots. Once she was rendered immobile, he began teasing her nipples, and she writhed and squealed with a combination of humiliation, pain and pleasure.

Seeing this, a woman who appeared to be an office worker said, Ah, I feel like eating! She knelt before her date, lowered the zipper on his trousers, and buried her face in his crotch, making loud sucking sounds. After bringing her date to orgasm, 'Yukorin' moved on to the customer at the next stool and, after washing out her mouth with a shot of tequila, repeated the process.

The reporter was upbeat after his experience. After all, he asks, where else can you enjoy such chaotic, erotic action in a city like Tokyo at these bargain prices?