Flower Tucci Plans to Drop Suit Against Reality Kings, LLL

Flower Tucci Plans to Drop Suit Against Reality Kings, LLL

Flower Tucci’s counsel has indicated that the adult performer will “voluntarily dismiss” her claims against Reality Kings, LLL Advertising and others, XBIZ has learned.

Ruling Likely to Upset Obscenity Prosecutions

Ruling Likely to Upset Obscenity Prosecutions

Prosecutors will have to work much harder reaching a Internet obscenity convictions after Wednesday's ruling by the 9th Circuit.

9th Circuit: Obscenity Should Be Defined by U.S. Community Standards

9th Circuit: Obscenity Should Be Defined by U.S. Community Standards

A federal appeals court has decided that a national community standard to define Internet obscenity is more appropriate for online communications.

New South Wales Adult Film Ban Assailed in Poll

New South Wales Adult Film Ban Assailed in Poll

More than 70 percent in Australia’s New South Wales believe that the state’s ban on the sale of adult video content at brick-and-mortar stores is wrong, according to a study.

DuPage outlaws BYOB at adult businesses

By James Kimberly
Tribune reporter
February 13, 2009

Responding to a fatal car wreck involving a driver who drank too much while visiting a strip club near DuPage Airport, the DuPage County Board has strengthened restrictions on adult businesses that allow patrons to drink. Under an ordinance passed this week, anyone with an open alcoholic beverage in an adult business or any employees who lets someone drink at an adult business would be subject to a fine of $1,000 or more.Although County Board members said no specific business was targeted, board member James Zay of Carol Stream said the only adult businesses in the county are Diamonds Gentlemen's Club near West Chicago and Zebulon adult bookstore near Roselle."It's not about the 1st Amendment right to be a strip club. It's that they are bringing liquor in there and they don't have a liquor license," said Zay, who spearheaded the push for the new ordinance, which will take effect in 30 days.

Zay proposed the law after a drunken patron left Diamonds on Jan. 4, 2006, and crashed head-on into another car, killing his passenger and the driver of the other car, April Simmons, who was pregnant with her first child. John Homatas, 27, of Wayne was sentenced to 12 years in prison for aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol.Zay said when Simmons' husband sued Diamonds over the crash, the attorney for the strip club argued the club was not liable because it had not served alcohol to Homatas. A Kane County judge rejected the argument, and Zay said he wanted to make sure it was not raised in another case."We are going to make sure we protect people who are out there, not only people who are going there but people who might be driving by," Zay said.

Store Showing XXX Movies

Lawsuit Alleges Store Is Unlicensed Adult Business
Friday, 13 Feb 2009

ISIAH CAREY

HOUSTON - A major battle is brewing at the Harris County Civil Courthouse. The city of Houston wants to shut down what they call a sexually oriented business operating illegally and without license.

Tryst Boutique sits just off the North Freeway just before the beltway, and what goes on inside has the city of Houston trying to shut it down. “This is an adult arcade operating illegally and the city is asking the court to close it and shut it down," Assistant City Attorney Thomas Sultan said.
Houston investigators say triple x movies are shown in 28 small dark booths at the business. Attorneys for the city say the company doesn't have an adult arcade permit to operate and therefore they're breaking the law.

The city ultimately wants to shut down the entire business but for now they're going after the arcade or video booths inside. The fate of the full operation will be decided at a trial in June.
The owner of Tryst, William Becker, was in court. They brought along samples of what's sold in the store and shown in the arcade to prove the store is not all adult.

"Initially, they were in adult business, and they made a business decision that they were gonna change the focus to be more of a store for lovers than an adult business," the store’s spokesman Richard Kuniansky said.

The owners of Tryst said because more than 50 percent of their merchandise is not consider pornographic, and more than 50 percent of the movies shown are not adult they shouldn't be required to get a permit.

A judge will likely make a decision on the injunction to temporary close Tryst next week.

China Extends Anti-Porn Mobile Device Crackdown Through April

China Extends Anti-Porn Mobile Device Crackdown Through April

A new campaign was jointly launched by five departments, including the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, to combat distribution of adult videos through cellphones.

Neighbors Protest Porn Studio

Neighbors Protest Porn Studio

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said, "We believe the occupier is legitimately running a pornographic recording studio."

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nominee Has Adult Ties

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nominee Has Adult Ties

As Eric H. Holder Jr. was sworn in today as attorney general, attention shifted to the No. 2 slot at the Justice Department.

MySpace Hands Over Names of 90,000 Sex Offenders

MySpace Hands Over Names of 90,000 Sex Offenders

MySpace today handed over the names of 90,000 registered sex offenders who had registered at the popular social networking site and been removed over the last two years.

XBIZ News Debuts on Twitter

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Porn bailout? Unlikely, but sales still down

By: OSKAR GARCIA

The latest joke around the adult entertainment industry is that sales have slid enough to justify asking the federal government for a bailout.

Companies say people were already spending less on naughty DVDs before the economy went sour, increasingly turning to pirated copies and YouTube-like Web sites that stream clips for free and undercut companies working to sell adult content.

And now, with consumers tightening spending as much as they can, those who work in the industry say paid pornography is the first thing to go.

"Porn and Starbucks -- we're going down," porn star Stormy Daniels said Sunday as she took a break from signing autographs and mingling with fans at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.....read more

Porn makers surf mobile phone wave

January 13, 2009

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Adult entertainment powerhouse Pink Visual saw visits to its mobile video service soar after Christmas as people turned on new iPhones and tapped into porn.

Sex video makers and distributors are evolving with the technology times, catering to customers seeking satisfaction on smart phones, Blu-ray players, and Internet television.

Digital Playground, which is credited with producing the first high-definition adult film five years ago, has a Web site devoted exclusively to Apple’s hot iPhones and offers free trailer "podcasts" for iPods.

"The way people get their porn is changing," Pink distribution operations manager Kim Kysar said as an annual Adult Entertainment Expo wrapped in Las Vegas on Sunday.

"It is going to be more personal and you get it anywhere you are: on the road, in the bathroom at work. Nobody is going to be the wiser."

"We saw a peak after Christmas when everybody got new video phones," Ms. Kysar said. "One of the first things people do after activating their iPhones is Google ’iPhone porn,’ and here they are."

"How great would it be to have a porn Internet café?" she asked, dreamily peering into adult entertainment’s future. — AFP

Porn industry bosses seek bail-out

Sunday, 11 January 2009

Porn industry bosses seek bail-out (My emphasis):

"Porn barons in the US have called for a multi-billion dollar bail-out of the adult entertainment industry to help it through the "hard times" ahead.

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild chief executive Joe Francis issued a joint plea for Congress to pump 5 billion US dollars (£3.3 billion) into the sector.

They claim that the economic downturn is hitting the porn business and that federal assistance is needed to boost the nation's sex drive. The pair add that they deserve the same treatment offered to banks and the automobile industry.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Mr Francis said the cash injection was needed "just to see us through hard times".

He added: "Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses. We feel we deserve the same consideration. In difficult economic times, Americans turn to entertainment for relief. More and more the kind of entertainment they turn to is adult entertainment."

But according to Mr Flynt, economic woes have led to a flagging national sex drive.

The porn baron-turned-campaigner said: "People are too depressed to be sexually active. This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

He added: "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It is time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."

Anti-porn campaigners said that they were not treating the request seriously.

Michael DePrimo, spokesman for the American Family Association, said: "Obviously they are being facetious. It is very much tongue-in-cheek - Larry Flynt has a sense of humour. But the fact that he is mocking Congress is not unreasonable." "

Next in bailout line: Porn?

Sunday, January 11, 2009

You knew this had to happen. Purveyors of adult entertainment say it's time that they got the same government help as financial firms and the auto industry.

Yep, Hustler's Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild's Joe Francis say it's time for a bailout of the porn industry.Flynt and Francis say the economy has hurt their businesses, too, with sales of XXX DVDs down 22 percent. They want $5 billion in federal funds to help them make it until things pick up.

TMZ has Francis' rationale behind the request. "The government has changed its economic policy and now is just handing out money," he told TMZ. "We have a $13 billion industry that's very in need of correcting, so I'll be happy to take their money."

Congress must "rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America," Flynt said.

However, if the three Congressmen that TMZ questioned are any indication, Flynt and Francis have their work cut out for them.

That doesn't dissuade Francis, who says he will personally go to Washington, D.C., to make the bailout request. I'm presuming that such travel is allowed under the terms of Francis' bail while he awaits trial on tax evasion charges.

The joke's on us: Although I don't doubt that the adult entertainment industry is, like many other sectors, taking a hit in this dire economy, I suspect that Flynt and Francis are simply taking advantage of current events to get some press.

The sad fact is that Capitol Hill asked for such mockery, from not only Flynt and Francis, but all Americans.

From the get-go, the lack of oversight in administering the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has made every bailout handout a very unfunny, and egregiously costly, joke.

And since Congress opened up the bailout door so wide, then who's to stop any legal business form seeking relief?

Porn yes, autos no: That's the position of the folks at the Tax Policy Blog, where Josh Barro says the porn industry bailout isn't as crazy as it might seem.

"This bailout request may seem like a joke, and it will certainly strike many people as humorous, inappropriate, or downright outrageous," writes Barro. "However, we will, for the duration of this blog post, treat it as a serious request in order to explain some of the criteria that policymakers should take into account when considering whether/when to provide financial support to a private industry."

After evaluating that criteria, Barro concludes that the adult entertainment industry has several characteristics that make "providers of pornography a more attractive bailout recipient than, say, the auto industry." You can read Barro's full analysis here.

And you thought economists practiced the dismal science.

Annual porn convention has a political streak

By Melissa Arseniuk
January 11, 2009

While the 2009 AVN Adult Movie Awards hosted a solar system of adult film stars – Ron Jeremy, Jenna Haze, Tera Patrick, Belladonna, Stormy Daniels, Jesse Jane, Sunny Leone and Bree Olson, to name a few – the annual celebration of porn was surprisingly political this year.

The night got off to a partisan start at Mandalay Bay when emcee Thea Vidale began her opening monologue by saluting the victory of President-elect Barack Obama.

“We’re going to have a hot couple having hot sex in the White House – with each other, no less!” she rejoiced.

The X-rated star proceeded to rattle off a litany of X-rated jokes and one-liners about Obama’s sex life and compared his physique to that of President Bush before the awards program got underway....READ MORE

Smoking-ban legislation lacks accommodation

by Elizabeth Hovde
Oregonian columnist

Saturday January 10, 2009

Addicts with no hope of quitting being penalized

It feels good to pass laws that protect people's health. But retaining the rights of private property owners and the social lives of a minority group feels pretty good, too. It's unfortunate state lawmakers didn't choose to do both. They could have.

Instead, Oregon rang in the new year with an indoor smoking ban similar to bans in other states and cities. It prohibits smoking at all indoor work sites. Smoking is no longer allowed in bars or restaurants, and a person can't light þup within 10 feet of a business' windows or doors....read more

Stage set for Showgirls

January 8, 2009

By Chris Bone
City planners have recommended the approval of Gilroy's first topless bar with a handful of conditions, and the police chief and planning commissioners who must approve the permit said they won't stand in the way as long as the applicant and his business plan adhere to the law.

"I'm bound by the law, not public opinion," Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner said. "It may not be something the public wants, but legally we can't object to it if it complies with the law."

That's good news for Ante Bilic, the Saratoga-based club owner who wants to turn El Amigo Restaurant just north of the Gilroy Premium Outlets on San Ysidro Avenue into his latest venue: Showgirls. The building sits in a commercial zone that allows strip clubs if the planning commission and police chief agree. The commission will meet Jan. 15 to review Bilic's plans for a 56-seat club with two catwalks, a wrap-around bar, a main stage for topless dancing, six lap dance booths, a pool table and an outdoor patio.

If the body approves Bilic's permit, Chief Turner will then review it. She will also work with the local Alcohol Beverage Control Committee and the city's attorney to decide whether Bilic can serve up booze along with the show. City code allows both in commercial zones with separate permits, but Sgt. Kurt Ashley said the city attorney was reviewing this unprecedented request just to be safe.

As for security in general, both police and residents have expressed concern.

"I think it would make for more crime," Norma Jamies, the mother of a teenager, said. "Kids will find a way to get in. There will be fights, more drinking. It's not a good idea."

For Bilic to receive his permit, Chief Turner and the planning department have already required that he have a manager on site at all times with a security plan and ample lighting inside and out. Staff has also barred Bilic from staying open past 1 a.m. or open before 8 a.m., and his potential permit will expire before its three-year life span if the city receives complaints about drugs, prostitution or noise and if the city council acts on those complaints.

Thirteen years ago, four dancers at the Kit Kat Club - which Bilic runs in Sunnyvale along with Paul & Harveys bar, Tarragon restaurant and Sporty's Bikini Bar - pleaded guilty to performing lewd sexual acts in public. Police searched Bilic's property in connection with the sting, but they never charged him with a crime, and the city never revoked his permit, according to public records and his lawyer. Bilic, who has declined to comment, currently faces a class-action lawsuit filed by two dancers who claim he did not pay them properly, but his lawyer said he has beaten similar suits in the past and will prevail again. Gilroy requires a clean permit and legal history to open an adult business.

Larry Flynt wants money?

Larry Flynt wants money?

I came across this today.

Let it soak in a moment…

Okay, so we have Larry Flynt and the Girls Gone Wild guy (who I could have sworn was in jail for tax evasion or something along those lines) asking the government for a $5 billion bailout. Their DVD sales have slipped, but their website growth has actually increased in the past year.

And their reasoning for this is not that they need money but rather:

[T]he industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. “People are too depressed to be sexually active,” Flynt said in the statement. “This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex.”

“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly.”

I am as pro-porn as the next pro-porn person, but this is just god-damn ridiculous. What I’d like to see is exactly what Flynt’s plan is for rejuvenating the sex lives of Americans. Personally, I’m doing alright, but still …

I guess we’ll see how broken the government is depending on what they do with Flynt’s request (ignore it, I imagine).

A final note, the quotes from that article are the most amazingly vague quotes I’ve seen in some time, and we just had an election.

Smoking ban opponents mostly still opposed

Lee Mauer read the recent news report about a possible link between a community's smoking ban and a drop in heart attacks there.

But Mauer says the new research won't change his view on local smoking bans.
"In this day and age, everyone knows smoking can kill you," the 24-year-old smoker said while flicking his cigarette in an ash tray at a Greater Lafayette bar. Still, Mauer said, he believes the choice of banning smoking should be decided by business owners and not by politicians.
Although proponents of the local smoking bans said the new research helps strengthen their case, the research had little impact on some opponents' views.
According a recently released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, the rate of heart attack hospitalizations dropped 41 percent in the three years after a workplace smoking ban started in Pueblo, Colo.
Secondhand smoke exposure causes an estimated 46,000 ischemic heart disease deaths among American nonsmokers each year, and long-term exposure is associated with a 25 percent to 30 percent increased risk for coronary heart disease in adult nonsmokers, according to the CDC....read more

Mixed-use development proposed at Boynton Beach strip mall put on hold

By Erika Pesantes
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 5, 2009

Boynton Beach - The reality of the recession has sunk in. Gung-ho developers who tried to cash in on the housing boom are now either sitting idle or backpedaling in Boynton Beach. The vacant strip mall on the northwest corner of Gulfstream Boulevard and Federal Highway has remained undeveloped, despite plans for the proposed Heritage Club, with 166 residences and 19,000 square feet of commercial space, on the site. The property abuts Delray Beach and Gulf Stream."In today's economy, it's just not realistic," said Jim Knight, a partner in Thirty-Six Hundred Holdings LLC, which owns the property. "We think it's more advantageous to have a commercial zoning designation as opposed to mixed-use residential and commercial."Commissioners on Tuesday will decide whether to change the 8-acre parcel's zoning and land-use designation back to commercial, as it was before 2005.
Lisa Bright, director of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, says the property, which falls within the redevelopment district, is better suited for businesses."There's opportunities with commercial and retail," she said. "Whereas housing would have been nice, we all know housing is not going to be happening for a couple of years." But for now, the fenced-in strip mall is likely to remain as is — there are noprospects, Knight said. The rundown strip mall once housed the notorious Club Ovation nightclub, along with a dry cleaner, thrift store, realty office and other businesses. A truck overflowing with tires now remains in the parking lot. City police are investigating who dumped the truck there about six months ago, Knight said.And next door to the strip mall sits the former Platinum Gold strip club, which was shut down by the city in May when officials purchased its liquor and adult entertainment licenses.

JOHNS CREEK: Legal fight with adult business costly, ongoing

By Doug Nurse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, January 04, 2009

To take on its lone adult business, Johns Creek hired a legal sharpshooter who drafted a no-loophole ordinance that made the store clean up its act. Ultimately the store, the Love Shack, closed.
But the fight wasn’t cheap. And it’s not over.
Since hiring attorney Scott Bergthold of Chattanooga in 2006, the city has paid him $238,000, at $250 an hour. City Attorney Bill Riley is paid $150 an hour for litigation. The city typically budgets $700,000 or so a year for legal expenses. It has paid another firm about $61,100 in Love Shack litigation fees.
Mayor Mike Bodker makes no apologies for the expense.
“We have laws on the books that say this business, because it’s an adult business, cannot operate in this zoning district,” Bodker said. “Short of repealing that law, we should enforce it.”
The owner of the Love Shack, John Cornetta, is fighting the city in Superior Court, the state Supreme Court and a federal appellate court. So far, the city has mostly prevailed. But three related cases linger in the courts.
Bergthold, who has a national anti-adult-business legal practice, said he brings experience and expertise to a field that is constantly changing and that can be extremely tricky to navigate because of its constitutional issues.
“We’ve seen a lot of the strategies and tactics and legal theories that have been advanced against municipal ordinances across the country,” he said. “We see industry tactics other lawyers wouldn’t see unless they practiced it extensively.”
Cornetta sounded incredulous upon hearing the price tag for the legal fight against him.
“Are you kidding?” he asked. He estimated he has spent $110,000 on legal fees. “That’s shocking. But then they did hire the biggest Bible-thumper money could buy.”
Bergthold’s clients range from Bartow County to Clark County, Nev. —- home to Las Vegas —- from Daytona Beach, Fla., to Pasadena, Calif., and points in between.
Another reason the bill is so high, Bodker said, is because there are three related cases in various stages of trial.
Chuck Thompson, executive director of the International Municipal Lawyers Association, said adult businesses try to delay a final decision because in the meantime, they get to stay open and make money.
Thompson said he wasn’t surprised at the $238,000 bill.
“That sounds pretty typical,” he said. “It’s an expensive proposition. It’s very time-intensive.”
Bergthold has been advising the city since its birth on Dec. 1, 2006. In the first hour of the city’s first City Council meeting, Bergthold gave a briefing on how to respond to the Love Shack, which had opened a few days earlier.
Technically, the battle was over zoning. The city maintained the Love Shack was an adult business in an area not zoned for adult businesses. The city argued the Love Shack needed to close or clean up its act.
Bergthold’s strategy was to close every loophole that adult businesses had ever used.
He drafted an ordinance that defined adult businesses by percentage and volume, sales, and floor space for adult material.
Many residents wanted the Love Shack to move, or better yet to close. A town hall meeting soon after the city was launched drew more than 1,000 people. The store was shuttered in September.
Kim Tye, a Johns Creek resident and opponent of the Love Shack, said Bergthold has been worth the money.
“I hated it so much,” she said. “It could have set a precedent. If we let him [Cornetta] get away with it, then there wouldn’t have been any recourse for any other type of things. It’s a little expensive, but it was something that had to be done.”
Sharon Simon, 39, echoed Tye.
“I think it was money well spent,” she said. “It’s in the face of our children. The $238,000 doesn’t bother me a bit.”

Lap dancing clubs among job centre advertisers

January 4, 2009
By Eddie Barnes

WOMEN are being asked to prostitute themselves after applying for vacancies in job centres, the Government has admitted.
Job centres across the UK are routinely advertising for escort agencies, lap dancing clubs, massage parlours and TV sex channels, according to a new report released by the Department for Work and Pensions.The Government has now revealed that applicants getting such jobs have complained after being asked to perform "sexual services" for clients.Women's groups last night said the revelations were effective proof that job centres were providing a path into prostitution for out-of-work customers.All job centres across the UK have been forced to advertise adult entertainment posts since 2003 after the High Court ruled that a previous ban was discriminatory....read more

City smoking ban causes little suffering

HATTIESBURG — Two years after a citywide smoking ban was implemented in Hattiesburg, most owners or managers of local bars and clubs say their businesses have suffered little ill effect.

The exception is the End Zone.
"It's killed us," said Gale Walker, owner of the End Zone, citing a 30 percent decrease in bar sales since the ban went into effect.
Jeremy White, a manager of Buffalo Wild Wings, said initially there was a temporary downturn.
"When it first went into effect it affected us. We had people that quit coming," White said.
But he said that his business has experienced a 5 to 6 percent increase over last year's sales.
The ordinance, passed by the City Council in November 2006, banned smoking inside all businesses with employees or buildings accessible to the public. The ban also prohibits smoking within 15 feet of the entrances of these buildings...read more

New smoke-free law to start today

Friday, January 2, 2009
Donald Allison

Bars build patios for tobacco smokers

In order to comply with a new law that prohibits smoking in bars, restaurants and fraternal clubs, a few businesses in Seaside are creating outdoor smoking areas to accommodate their clientele who like to light up.Creekside Pizzeria Restaurant & Lounge Owner Bill Ayottee said he would build an outdoor patio overlooking Neawanna Creek to accommodate smokers after Jan. 1.“We haven’t done it yet, but we will have a patio smoking area outside, and it will be covered,” Ayottee said. “We will have something rigged up for them out there… We will probably just extend the deck and put a little cover on it. That’s the plan.”Ayottee said because he is getting ready to remodel the exterior of his business, he has held off on building the smoking area to see how it will incorporate into the remodel. Ideally, Ayottee said he would extend the deck to the river for the new smoking area.“If not, we might put something up temporarily until we get it done,” he said. “We will definitely have something to take care of them.He added that he is glad that the no-smoking law starts today....read more

A look back at 2008

By: Staff Reports
01/02/2009

Adult entertainmentSpeculation about a possible adult entertainment business opening in Boone began in late September.A letter released by the city stated "The City of Boone Building Official's office has been made aware that an Adult Entertainment establishment may be opening at The Venue, 1805 Mamie Eisenhower Avenue."Residents began a petition drive in opposition to adult entertainment operating within city limits.A community forum to address the issue of adult entertainment, commonly referred to as "strip clubs" or "juice bars" is scheduled to take place at City Hall, Jan. 5, 2009, at 5 p.m.