Don't Let the Free Speech Die!

Flower Tucci Plans to Drop Suit Against Reality Kings, LLL

2009-11-05T23:50:00.003-05:00

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

2009-10-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

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

2009-10-28T00:04:00.000-05:00

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

2009-10-26T00:05:00.000-05:00

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

2009-02-13T19:39:00.000-05:00

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

2009-02-13T19:32:00.002-05:00

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

2009-02-04T18:24:00.000-05:00

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

2009-02-04T18:23:00.000-05:00

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

2009-02-03T18:18:00.000-05:00

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

2009-02-03T18:16:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-31T18:14:00.000-05:00

XBIZ News Debuts on Twitter

In an effort to keep the Web 2.0 community informed of all the latest adult entertainment news, XBIZ has launched its official Twitter news feed. By following XBIZ on Twitter, users will receive a real-time feed of all the news that posts to XBIZ.com every day.

Porn bailout? Unlikely, but sales still down

2009-01-12T21:06:00.002-05:00

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

2009-01-12T21:04:00.001-05:00

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

2009-01-11T21:46:00.000-05:00

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?

2009-01-11T21:15:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-11T21:11:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-10T21:23:00.001-05:00

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 Ã¾up within 10 feet of a business' windows or doors....read more

Stage set for Showgirls

2009-01-08T14:52:00.000-05:00

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?

2009-01-07T21:44:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-05T12:52:00.001-05:00

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

2009-01-05T11:41:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-04T12:48:00.001-05:00

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

2009-01-04T11:53:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-02T13:03:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-02T12:57:00.000-05:00

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

2009-01-02T11:58:00.000-05:00

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.

Adult business law ready for City Council

2008-12-15T19:20:00.001-05:00

BY WILLIAM F. WEST
DAILY DISPATCH WRITER

A proposed adult entertainment ordinance will go to the Henderson City Council on Jan. 12 with a recommendation by the Planning Board, but amended to allow for such establishments to have access to municipal sewer and water hookups and to avoid being so strict the city could become a target of First Amendment lawsuits...read more

How many sex shops in Queensland? Nobody knows

2008-12-15T07:10:00.000-05:00

December 15, 2008

DESPITE Queensland having the dubious honor of being the nation's sex-shop capital, its adult retail industry is badly regulated and it lacks planning laws restricting the set-up of new stores near schools and churches.

A planning-law review that Planning Minister Paul Lucas announced in April is under way but industry identities want the State Government to go further with a proper legal framework for retailers of adult erotica.

Eros Association chief executive officer Fiona Patten said it was impossible to calculate exactly how many sex shops operated because they were not recognised by law....read more

Net filter 'will spark sex shop boom'

2008-12-15T07:07:00.001-05:00

Kate Dennehy
December 15, 2008

SEX shops will inundate Queensland if the Federal Government filters internet pornography, an industry expert has warned.

Fiona Patten, chief executive officer of adult industry group Eros Association, said people who could not access "adult material" online would buy it from sex shops.

Queensland already had at least 116 sex shops - more per capita than any other Australian state.

"If the filtering goes ahead, Queensland will see an explosion of adult shops because, if people can't access adult material online, they'll go to retail outlets instead," she said. "Increased demand will lead to more shops."

Before the last election, the Labor Party promised to introduce internet service provider (ISP) filtering of "prohibited" material including images of sexual abuse of children.

The Labor Party promised to block content using a site blacklist that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) maintains.

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, said the Government was also considering more sophisticated filtering techniques to allow families to exclude additional online content from home computers. Critics say internet filtering will be too costly, slow download speeds and threaten civil liberties.

They say children will "get around" the filters and parents will incorrectly believe their children cannot access pornography.

Keith Boswell, who runs three BeDaring Adult Shops in south-east Queensland, said some traders had complained of a downturn in business since the economic slump, while others reported business as usual.

"There is enormous demand for non-violent erotica in Queensland, so I think adult stores are probably more resilient when it comes to discretionary spending," he said.

"If the filtering goes ahead, I think some people who prefer to look online will be embarrassed to go into stores."

Protests against the proposed filters were held in Brisbane and other centres around the country on Saturday.

Lincoln: What defines 'special amusement'?

2008-12-15T07:04:00.001-05:00

By Nick Sambides Jr.
BDN Staff
December 15, 2008

LINCOLN, Maine — Town Councilor Thora House doesn’t want an adult entertainment center on Main Street.

That’s why the planning board tonight will discuss and possibly reword the town’s special amusement permit to specify what businesses are allowed to offer, she and council chairman Steve Clay said Sunday.

“They might specify what is not ‘special amusement,’” Clay said Sunday. “It came up because every year we give special amusement permit renewals to [town businesses] and Thora was concerned that there was nothing in the ordinance that prohibited anything.”

Peter Phinney, the board’s chairman, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Sunday.

At House’s request, the council referred the matter to the board at the council’s meeting earlier this month, Clay said.

Lincoln has no adult entertainment centers, such as businesses that feature exotic dancers or sexual paraphernalia. Nor were Clay and House aware of any such businesses with plans to open in Lincoln. Some town convenience stores sell adult magazines.

Businesses must apply for special amusement permits in order to offer karaoke, live music and jukeboxes, among other things, House said. She has voted against the last two special amusement permits the council approved because she believed the ordinance lacked definition.

House is not necessarily against adult entertainment centers such as strip clubs in town, she said, but would want them at least placed in discreet locations — definitely not on Main Street.

She asked that the board consider rewriting the ordinance to reflect three entertainment levels. Jukeboxes and G-rated entertainment would be first; then more restrictive live and more adult-oriented entertainment, such as comedians who use adult language; and adult, or X-rated, entertainment, she said.

“When somebody comes to me for an entertainment license, I want to know what that means,” House said. As it stands, “There is nothing there; they can do whatever they want.”

Benicia council to hear public comments about adult entertainment law

2008-12-15T06:52:00.001-05:00

By JESSICA A. YORK
Times-Herald staff writer

Posted: 12/15/2008

A tightened city law covering "adult entertainment" businesses in Benicia will be open to public comment Tuesday night.

The Benicia City Council will take its first crack at the adjusted law, which addresses the likes of strip clubs, adult book stores and other entertainment not for minors.

The fact that the law's update, which sets a number of restrictions on adult businesses, cannot just ban those businesses has riled residents in recent months.

Dozens of residents attended a recent city Planning Commission on the law. They urged the commission to throw out the restrictions and just say no to those businesses. City staff and commissioners explained that federal law prohibits banning the establishment of strip clubs and their like, but allows the city to set certain hoops for the business owners to jump through first.

The law attempts to mitigate "undesirable secondary effects" of adult businesses, according to a city staff report. Some hypothetical effects the city wants to avoid include increased crime, blight, reductions in property values and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

The public hearing, set for Tuesday's city council meeting at 7 p.m., comes more than a year and a half after the city set a moratorium on all new adult entertainment. Out-of-town business owner Robert Amatrone, who put out feelers on the city's adult entertainment laws in May 2007, was the council's impetus for updating its city codes....read more

Porn Oscars Hosted by Vegas Casino, Linking Sex to Gambling

2008-12-14T19:14:00.000-05:00

Preston Lewis
December 14, 2008

Strip clubs are working deals with casinos to provide eye candy by supplying girls to lounge at resort pools.

In yet another sign that the sex and gambling industries are blurring the lines where one form of adult entertainment stops and the other begins, one of the premiere events of the new year will be the AVN Adult Movie Awards, to be held at the Mandalay Bay Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. This is essentially the Oscars for sex films.

Just as the gambling industry in general, and recently online casinos in specific, have endured legal assaults due to stigmas and mistaken assumptions about the nature of the business, so too has pornography had to suffer social alienation and legal persecution before achieving acceptance.

Yet, the x-rated movie industry may offer hope for the future for gambling aficionados. Even though participants in the porn field were threatened with lengthy prison sentences in the Seventies and the Eighties, porn has become socially cool. Jenna Jameson is an idol to many young girls, and porn goddesses regularly earn mainstream work, once unthinkable when porn work made actors and actresses lepers.

So, even though currently online gambling operators are relentlessly pursued by federal law enforcement, advertising a sports wagering service earns long jail terms, and millions are forfeited to the government, gambling can expect that laws will soften as the immutable truth sinks in, as it did with porn: America likes it.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas continues to snuggle ever closer to sex industry brands. Penthouse is searching for a Strip casino to buy, and Playboy operates a club at the Palms casino and an online casino under its own brand. Strip clubs are working deals with casinos to provide eye candy by supplying girls to lounge at resort pools. And the Girls of Glitter Gulch strip club wants to install slots.

So, the Adult Video News Adult Movie Awards will take place at Mandalay Bay on January 10th, hosted by noted fornicator Belladonna. What could make more sense? With tickets running from $107 to $240, it's a sure sellout. After all, whether the government likes it or not, people love porn and gambling.

Adult store plans move forward - Business - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

2008-12-09T10:01:00.000-05:00

Adult store plans move forward - Business - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

2008-12-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

Adult store plans move forward - Business - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

News: Maleflixxx Donates for World AIDS Day

2008-12-01T09:16:00.001-05:00

December 1 is World AIDS Day.

Since 1988, this global event has been observed in order to fight prejudice, raise funds, educate and bring awareness in the war against HIV and AIDS. This year, the porn industry is joining in the battle. Toronto-based Sureflix Digital Distribution, parent company of Maleflixxx on-demand network, will donate one dollar from every rental on World AIDS Day to charity. In an effort to extend its philanthropic reach, the studio will contribute to a number of different organizations this year, including the Canada-Africa Partnership, the Test Positive Aware Network and the Folsom Fund. “As members of the gay adult entertainment industry,” says Eric Johnson, president of Sureflix, “we believe it is our responsibility to assist in the fight against this unyielding disease.” MaleFlixxx, which distributes online content from Lucas Entertainment, COLT Studio Group, Bel Ami and Blue Blake, among others, has pledged funds since 2005. For more information, visit Maleflixxx.tv and WorldAIDSday.org.

East Volusia News - newsjournalonline.com

2008-12-01T08:44:00.000-05:00

November 28, 2008
Ormond being proactive to restrict adult businesses
By EILEEN ZAFFIRO

ORMOND BEACH -- From 1991 until a few weeks ago, Ormond Beach had a law that banned all sexually oriented businesses.

Before 1991, there were no laws on the books that governed strip clubs, adult bookstores and similar X-rated operations.

If someone had tried to open a gentlemen's club in Ormond Beach during all those years and was turned down, he or she could have won a court argument about their First Amendment rights being violated and walked away with a tidy sum of damages.

That person also could have located pretty much anywhere he or she wanted inside the city limits, and operated how they wanted, and there would have been no city laws to stop them....read more

Dirty little Web secret: Porn at work

2008-12-01T08:09:00.000-05:00

Dirty little Web secret: Porn at work
BY JANE H. FURSE
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Monday, December 1st 2008

Americans aren't waiting until quitting time to get their X-rated kicks on the Internet.

Office workers view more porn sites at their office than at home - and are doing it 23% more than just a year ago, Newsweek reports in its upcoming issue.

"People are looking for an escape," says Steve Hirsch, CEO of Vivid Entertainment Group, an adult online video provider.

Many white-collar workers believe their bosses are too busy to notice their dirty Web surfing, Dawn Adams of the consulting firm HResults tells Newsweek.

"Managers are dealing with so many issues right now that sometimes people are able to hide out and no one knows what they're doing," she says.

Another possible factor may be that porn is no big deal for some Generation Y workers.

"You're looking at a younger consumer who has grown up with pornography being out there in the pop culture," said M.J. McMahon, publisher of AVN Online magazine, which tracks the adult video industry.

The increased volume of on-the-job smut surfing doesn't just mean lost productivity or an increase in sexual harassment lawsuits.

There's also an increase in computer viruses, adware and spyware that wind up in corporate networks. They can wreak havoc on companies and also expose wayward employees.

Adams said she fired an executive for spending hours a day on adult sites. The skin sites repeatedly crashed his computer.

"That's how we found out," Adams said.

THE RIGHT TO OFFER NUDE DANCING'? Topless bar applicants sue city of Destin

2008-11-29T08:26:00.001-05:00

November 25, 2008 - 1:46 PM

Dusty Ricketts
Florida Freedom Newspapers

The Oasis of Destin has sued the city claiming that adult entertainment ordinances violate the bar's First Amendment rights.

The action was filed by the bar located on Mountain Drive and Trident-Operations LLC, a company that the Oasis has entered into a management agreement with to run the bar.
"The plaintiffs wish to engage in activities protected under the First Amendment, i.e., offering nude dance entertainment," the lawsuit says.

The city's rules governing such establishments "has deprived the plaintiffs of the right to offer nude-dance entertainment," the lawsuit further states. "For these reasons the plaintiffs are entitled to declaratory and permanent injunctive relief barring the City from enforcing these ordinances ..."

"We approached (the city), made a case for why the ordinances are not valid and then applied for a business license and were then promptly turned down," said Cary Wiggins, a former Niceville resident now practicing law at the Atlanta-based law firm of Cook, Youngelson & Wiggins. "There's really nothing left to do. If the ordinances aren't valid, there's really no sense in working with them."

Destin attorney Jerry Miller did not return messages seeking comment on the lawsuit.

__________

To read the entire lawsuit, click here.

THE ANATOMY OF A TOPLESS BAR LAWSUIT

2008-11-29T08:21:00.000-05:00

Business owner: Erotic dancing ‘viable’ in Destin
November 29, 2008 - 10:13 AM
William Hatfield

A businessman who wants to become the first topless bar owner in Destin says it is “absolutely a business just like anything else.”

“Well, maybe not like anything else,” said Terry Stephenson, who is operating the Oasis on Mountain Drive. “But if the biggest issue you have to deal with is that an adult, 21 and over, wants to go to a club, watch girls dance, and have a drink … Surely there are other big issues to deal with than what an adult does in his spare time.”

Stephenson and his attorneys recently filed a First Amendment lawsuit in federal court alleging that the city of Destin is infringing on the bar’s right “to offer nude-dance entertainment.”

“Ultimately, I feel like the erotic dancing format is a commercially viable situation in Destin. So that’s pretty much what I’m gonna pursue,” he said.

__________

To read the entire lawsuit, click here.

The odd crowd slip in for a bit of adult entertainment

2008-11-26T08:54:00.000-05:00

The Times

November 26, 2008

Ann Treneman: Parliamentary Sketch

Don’t get me wrong but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Peter Stringfellow when he wasn’t wearing a thong. But that was in the papers, of course, not in the flesh (so to speak). It was still a bit of a shock to see Mr Stringfellow wearing a pinstripe suit when he came to Westminster yesterday. Still, all else about him was as expected: the grey-blond hair that crept over the collar, the tinted shades, the aura of loucheness that clung to him like a starlet on a sugar-daddy’s arm.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s session on lap dancing had attracted an odd crowd. There was Mr Stringfellow, a former dancer named Nadine Stravonia de Montagnac, and a beautiful woman who went by the name of Solitaire. She gave me her card that showed her, head thrown to one side, dark hair cascading, in a dress split to the thigh and beyond. Did she have a last name? “I just go by Solitaire,” she said sultrily with an enigmatic smile as if she were in a Bond movie or something.

First up was Nadine Stravonia de Montagnac (we never did get to the bottom of that name) and a woman from a group called Object who, not surprisingly, objected to just about everything. “We should call a spade a spade,” said Nadine, who had a permanent pout about her face. She’d been a dancer of eight years and thought the clubs should be classified as “sex encounter establishments” and licensed as such....read more

Deputies Searching For Adult-Entertainment Venue Bandit

2008-11-26T08:47:00.001-05:00

November 26, 2008
FOX 34

Sheriff's deputies are searching for the bandit who robbed an adult-entertainment venue. The Fantasy Theater on Slaton Highway was targeted by a gun-wielding robber who walked in and demanded cash at about 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning.
The clerk says the man was wearing a brown stocking over his head and black gloves. The suspect is described as Hispanic, about 5'6", and weighs about 200 pounds.
According to a witness, the getaway car is a green Pontiac Grand Am....read more

Dream Pleasure Tours to Exhibit at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo

2008-11-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

Nov. 25, 2008

LONG BEACH, CA, (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Dream Pleasure Tours announced today that it will be exhibiting at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo from January 8 to 11, 2009 at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is the premier show for adult themed products and entertainment. The show attracts more that 30,000 attendees and appeals to a very eclectic crowd, including singles, couples, swingers, and fetish aficionados -- anybody who's a "free thinking, liberated individual." The show is attended both by members of the adult entertainment trade and adult entertainment consumers. Featured at the show will be 350 exhibitors showcasing everything from sexy fashions and adult toys and novelties to the latest in sex enhancement products. The event is packed full of special attractions including seminars, contests and entertainment.

Dream Pleasure Tours has been designated as the official "travel agency for adult only, open minded vacations" and will be providing five super sexy vacations to world famous adult only anything goes resorts, such as Hedonism II, Desire Resort and Spa, and Yolo Cruise. These are the vacations that most people only dream about. You've watched the movies where the stars have wild and crazy sex at a luxurious tropical resort -- with these vacations you can be the star of your own wildest fantasy. Five lucky winners and the partners of their choice will be off for the vacation of a lifetime.

Gary Booth, director of communication and club/resort relations for Dream Pleasure Tours, said, "The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is going to be a great event. It's the perfect place for us to showcase our adult oriented vacations. This is a great opportunity for us to reach people whom traditionally may not be aware of the wonderful exotic vacation packages we can put together for our customers. Our target audience is open minded fun loving and non-judgmental people looking to take their sensual experiences to a new high. Come on and check out the show -- you might be the lucky winner of one of these dream vacations!"

For more information on the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo go to www.adultentertainmentexpo.com.

About Dream Pleasure Tours

Dream Pleasure Tours is a tour and travel company specializing in tours and travel designed to entice the senses and stimulate our guests' deepest desires. Our guests are seeking to combine the ambience of luxury with the enchantment of a dreamscape. They throw off the constraints of everyday life and enter a world unlike anything they've ever experienced. Setting passion and sensuality free they leave the labels behind. Dream Pleasure Tours -- making fantasy a reality for open minded fun loving people, and world leaders in couples only travel, adult travel, swingers travel, erotic travel and lifestyles travel to the hottest sexiest resorts on the planet. To find out more about Dream Pleasure Tours, visit us at www.dreampleasuretours.com or call 888-660-9733.

For Media Communications Contact:
Gary Booth
Director Communications and Club/Resort Relations
Dream Pleasure Tours?
949-698-3652

Benicia 'gentlemen's club' proposal sparks uproar

2008-11-23T07:00:00.001-05:00

11/23/2008

Times-Herald

By JESSICA A. YORK

BENICIA - Taking a page from Benicia's history books, a man looking to bring a "gentlemen's club" to the city is causing a public uproar in the process.

St. Helena resident Robert Amatrone has sued the Benicia council and staff, claiming the city stiff-armed him before he had a chance to bare it all in what he claims would be an upscale affair.........
read more

Disney Site Recommends 'New York's Last Grindhouse' For Kids

2008-11-23T03:48:00.000-05:00

November 23, 2008
NYPOST.COM

The Fair Theatre in East Elmhurst, Queens is "good-for-kids'' as young as infants, insists a page on Disneyfamilytravel.com, which includes it on a long list of NYC tourist attractions like Rockefeller Center and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The wacky things you come up with on a Google search! I guess they didn't read my 2007 article on the 67-year-old Fair, which I dubbed "New York's last grindhouse.'' I reported that the theatre's main business was showing gay male porn, complete with private booths, though it offers other types of movies -- currently, Bollywood fare -- to comply with New York City's 60/40 adult business law. Or maybe a bored, gay employee at Disney Family Travel put it on the list as a joke...SEE THE ARTICLE

Adult bookstore in River Falls?

2008-11-20T08:50:00.000-05:00

November 20, 2008
Debbie Griffin
River Falls Journal

In an attempt to separate rumor and reality, the Journal followed up on an anonymous tip that arrived via U.S. mail last week asserting that the “new owners of the Super 8 Motel (now the Highland Inn) are planning to put a pornography/adult store in River Falls…” ............READ MORE

Destin to review 'adult entertainment' ordinances

2008-11-17T08:38:00.000-05:00

November 17, 2008

Fraser Sherman

Now that Destin has received its first request in at least a decade to open a topless bar, the city must review the rules governing "adult entertainment," City Councilor Dewey Destin says.

“We probably need to review those to bring them up to snuff on what the current status of the law is," the councilor said at Monday's council meeting. The council endorsed the idea unanimously.

Rocky Griffith, who owns the Oasis in Destin/Thai Delights property on Mountain Drive, has applied for a business license to open a topless bar there. City officials say the zoning at that spot doesn't allow adult entertainment, though Griffith could request a zoning change.

Section 3-2 of Destin's ordinances, which governs adult entertainment, is 20 years old. It prohibits nudity in bars, night clubs and any business "which sells alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises." The ban includes showing the female breast "below the top of the areola" and any exposure of genitals or buttocks.

City Manager Greg Kisela said the city would review the rules and report back.

For a play-by-play from Monday night's meeting, click here.

Topless bar application puts Destin in uncharted territory

2008-11-15T08:35:00.001-05:00

November 15, 2008
Fraser Sherman

In the 10 years he’s been at Destin City Hall, nobody has proposed opening a topless bar in town, Deputy City Manager John Paton says.

That’s no longer the case. Ricky Griffith, who owns the Oasis and Thai Delights property on Mountain Drive, recently filed a business-license application to turn the Oasis into a topless bar, but it’s an idea that isn’t finding many supporters.

“The board hasn’t discussed it and rarely takes specific positions on individual businesses,” President/CEO Shane Moody of the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce told The Log, “but with us trying to turn the harbor into a destination and festive marketplace for families, a strip club is not what we want to see there.”

Thursday afternoon, four women working at Harmon Insurance and Bonding, in the Destin Business Center next to Griffith’s property, said to put them down as “Four no’s ... totally against.”

A half-dozen men playing pool at Oasis that afternoon declined to answer The Log’s questions.

“I’m not going there,” one of them said.

Still, City Manager Greg Kisela said, it’s not surprising Griffith has applied: “If it’s commercially viable you’re going to have adult entertainment wanting to be here ... We’ve got 40 to 60,000 tourists during the 100 days of summer.”

Community Development Director Ken Gallander said the Commercial Trades and Services zoning on the north side of Mountain doesn’t allow for topless waitresses. The only zoning in Destin that would allow them is Industrial, which is found in two areas off Airport Road.
If the city turns down Griffith’s application over the zoning, he has the option to appeal to the Board of Adjustments, and to take a refusal to circuit court. Alternatively, he could ask the council to rezone his land to Industrial or to redefine Commercial Trades and Services.

Griffith signed the business-license application, but he told The Log that the topless bar is his lessee’s idea.

Norma Calhoun, the former manager of the Oasis, told The Log that Terry Stephenson of the Georgia strip club Pin-ups, had leased the property. The Log wasn’t able to reach Stephenson for confirmation or comment.

Decision of the Day: A Mixed Day For the Adult Industry

2008-11-06T13:56:00.000-05:00

Decision of the Day: A Mixed Day For the Adult Industry

1st Amendment and Free Speech: 1st amendment violations, amendment violations, first amendment

2008-11-06T12:52:00.000-05:00

1st Amendment and Free Speech: 1st amendment violations, amendment violations, first amendment

Porn and the Presidency

2008-11-03T23:42:00.006-05:00

November 3rd, 2008
By: Luke Gilkerson
Under: Porn Industry

Question: Which candidate has the porn industry concerned about their profits?

Answer: John McCain.

In a recent article from Adult Video News (AVN), major adult industry analyst Jack Morrison explains what is at stake for pornographers in tomorrow’s elections. According to Morrison, there are only two things holding back the law from curtailing the availability of online porn: (1) the Supreme Court’s current interpretation of the First Amendment, and (2) the Department of Justice’s willingness to focus on enforcing such laws at the federal level.

Morrison further says, “Both of those barriers to revenue-killing legislation are currently hanging by a thread, and the November election will determine whether the thread breaks, and whether the online erotica industry suffers as a result.”

There will be at least one vacancy on the Supreme Court (nearly inevitable) in the next four years, and the new administration will probably appoint a new Attorney General to head up the Department of Justice. Morrison concludes that if McCain is elected today, he could very well appoint judges that will begin letting anti-porn legislation stand. This, he says, “will create a blank check for either Congress or state legislatures to pass more anti-porn laws by removing the ‘political cover’ of unconstitutionality.” McCain could also appoint an Attorney General who will enforce these laws. “And that could be absolutely fatal to the adult erotica industry,” Morrison contends.

He counsels the adult industry profiteers, “unless you want to risk laws and regulations that could clobber your revenue and profit, you’ll do everything you can to see that McCain loses.” He also quotes adult industry lawyer Lawrence G. Walters:

“There’s absolutely no question in my mind that this is the most important election for the industry in decades. If things go the wrong way, the industry could be in for a period of suppression that could last for decades.”

The Business of Porn

I assume for most readers, porn is not one of those make-it-or-break-it issues when it comes to decisions made in the voting booth. It isn’t for me. I assume porn will find a way, as it always does, to wiggle its way into people’s lives, despite all the legislation in the world.

What I find so fascinating is the language used by Morrison in this article. He uses the language of business: distribution, industry, revenue, profit. This is not surprising because this is exactly what AVN, the trade journal of the porn world, is all about. Contrary to what some may think, you don’t find many articles on AVN by perverts talking about sexual deviancy. What you do find is one article after another about the technology and business models that will help make the pornographer successful at his trade.

Andrew Edmond, President and CEO of the $20 million Internet porn business, Flying Crocodile, stated, “a lot of people [outside the adult industry], get distracted from the business model by [the sex]. It is just as sophisticated and multilayered as any other marketplace. We operate just like any Fortune 500 company.”

What do YOU think about Porn?

2008-11-03T23:35:00.002-05:00

Sewer arguments pump up Milton’s legal bills

2008-11-02T22:57:00.000-05:00

Divisive issue of extension keeps lawyers logging hours

By Doug Nurse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, November 02, 2008

The city of Milton has blown through its budget for legal fees by more than $100,000.

The biggest money-eater wasn’t its fight against billboards, although that consumed a chunk of change; and it wasn’t a drawn-out battle with an adult business —- because there aren’t any in Milton.

The biggest legal cost was the City Council’s protracted and contentious efforts to sort out a sewer policy, which ate up $52,200 of the $180,000 set aside for lawyerly consultations. By Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, the overall tab for legal fees was $281,400.

Mayor Joe Lockwood said the council, which was bitterly divided 4-3 on what the policy should be, frequently sought the opinion and assurance of the city’s lawyers.

“It was a very heated topic,” Lockwood said. “We had people running absolutely everything by the city attorneys rather than relying on staff. Some City Council members copy the city attorneys on every e-mail they send.”

There are a couple of reasons why developing the sewer policy has cost so much.

First, it was a complicated issue involving confusing or imprecise maps over where sewer could go, vested rights issues by property owners, and Fulton County’s inconsistent sewer policies for the area.

Second, sewer has been used as a growth management tool in Milton.

Sewer extension was the issue, with one faction of the City Council saying that if anybody new received sewer service, it was “sewer extension,” hence pro-growth and an enemy of Milton. The other faction defined sewer extension as adding sewer outside the area served by county sewer.

The argument was long and bitter. With a divided council, it was a legal and political minefield.

City Attorney Ken Jarrard said the demands of the council required him to spend a lot of time researching past policies of Fulton County, how they were applied, how they fit into law and state policies, and what the city could and couldn’t do.

“I knew a thousand set of eyes would check this research, and this analysis would be picked apart by a lot of very intelligent people,” Jarrard said.

“The City Council lives and breathes this stuff. You leave a loose end at your peril.”

An analysis of Jarrard’s records shows that Councilwoman Julie Zahner Bailey, an avid opponent of sewer, polled the lawyers with more sewer-related queries than anyone else on the council. Between October 2007 and September 2008, Zahner Bailey e-mailed Jarrard’s law firm, Jarrard & Davis, 16 times with sewer questions. She also called 17 times.

Councilwoman Tina D’Aversa was next with eight e-mails on sewer and six telephone calls.

Jarrard said his Cumming law firm, which provides legal advice to Forsyth, Cherokee, Barrow and Franklin counties, doesn’t normally get any more calls or e-mails from Milton than from the other governments it advises.

But Jarrard acknowledged a spike in e-mails as the sewer issue heated up over the summer. He said it seems to be settling down now.

Mark Scott, former Milton city attorney, said the discord on the City Council played a role in the outsized legal bills.

“People had different visions of the city and what it was all about,” said Scott. “There was conflict on the council, and people wanted legal advice to support their arguments. It drags you into the middle, but that’s part of the job.”

CITY COMPARISONS

MILTON

> Population: 20,000

> 2007-2008 total budget: $17.78 million

> 2007-2008 legal budget: $180,000

> 2007-2008 legal expenses: $281,000

ACWORTH

> Population: 20,700

> 2008 total budget: $11.37 million

> 2008 legal services budget: $107,500

> 2008 legal expenditures to date: $62,900

DULUTH

> Population: 27,000

> 2007-2008 total budget: $45.39 million

> 2007-2008 legal services budget: $85,000

> 2007-2008 legal expenses: $80,950

JOHNS CREEK

> Population: 65,000

> 2007-2008 total budget: $44.15 million

> 2007-2008 legal services budget: $729,000

> 2007-2008 legal expenses: $569,000

Ordinance aims to regulate adult businesses

2008-11-01T00:57:00.001-05:00

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November 1, 2008
By Stuart Peck - bio | email
Posted by Melissa Greathouse - email

OWENSBORO, KY (WFIE) - Local leaders in Daviess County Kentucky are working on an ordinance that would put strict regulations on those adult oriented businesses.

Daviess County is crafting this ordinance to be proactive about adult businesses. "We want to do it before we have a problem, rather than try to deal with it after the problem," said County Commissioner Jim Lambert.

County Judge Executive Reid Haire says he doesn't know of any adult businesses that are planning to locate in the county right now.

"There's not a problem with sexually-oriented businesses wanting to set up shop in the county," Haire said. "While most strip clubs, adult book stores and toy stores are legal, the county doesn't want to dance around the issue. They're not really welcome."

In November, the county fiscal court hopes to put an ordinance into place regulating adult businesses.

County Judge Executive Reid Haire says right now, "You will get a lot of people, elected officials, who will say we don't want those types of businesses here, we don't need those kinds of businesses here. That's almost a personal decision that an individual makes."

County leaders say with adult businesses there are usually negative consequences. "They find a decline in value of properties, they find increased prostitution, they find increased drugs, they find increased numbers of thefts," Lambert said.

Included in the ordinance will be guidelines specifying where an adult business can locate. It will also include a requirement for employees to have a license to work for one of these businesses.

"We want to make sure that those other issues that often surround those other businesses such as drug abuse, prostitution aren't in an environment in which they can flourish," said Haire.

Haire says a first reading of the ordinance will likely go before the County Fiscal Court in mid-November. An ordinance could be adopted by the beginning of December.

Porn 101: College Campuses Using Porn in the Classroom

2008-10-31T23:20:00.001-05:00

October 31st, 2008
By: Luke Gilkerson

Porn is popular on the college campus . . . and I’m not simply talking about the dorm rooms or the fraternity houses. I’m talking about the classroom.

It is not surprising that college courses would feature pornography as a topic. Considering how influential and widespread pornography has become in the world, to ignore it in academic settings would be like ignoring a major voice in the world of economics, law, media and popular culture.

But what happens when porn is not merely discussed but viewed in the classroom?

Some Examples

Not all courses that deal with the subject of pornography actually require students to view pornographic material. Reviewing a course catalog for a university will probably not tell you whether viewing porn is “par for the course.” Examples of these courses abound:

UCLA has a course called “Pornography and Evolution,” which discusses why pornography exists and how its existence supports evolutionary theory in the social sciences.
Vanderbilt offers several courses, one entitled “Human Sexuality.” This course looks at the history of sexuality, gender roles, sex in human relationships, pornography, rape, AIDS, and homosexuality.
UC Berkley offers “Moving Image Pornographies, Off and On/Scene.” This course discusses the nature of pornography, and concentrates particularly on the changing of cultural norms and attitudes about pornography.
Bates College offers the course, “Doing It, Getting It, Seeing It, Reading It,” which focuses on, among other sexual topics, “distinctions between pornography and erotica.”
New York University offers several courses. One sociology course, “Sexual Diversity in Society,” explores the social nature of sexual expression, and discusses many topics including heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, transvestism, transgenderism, incest, sadomasochism, rape, prostitution, and pornography.
NYU also offers “Free Speech, Media Law, and Democracy,” which examines, among other things, important Supreme Court decisions that have shaped First Amendment rights in regard to hate speech, pornography, mass media, and the rights of journalists.
San Francisco State offers “Sex, Power and Politics.” This class examines how the state and social institutions define gender roles, regulate sexual practices, and police sex as a means of social control. They also offer “History of Love and Sexuality,” which covers topics such as courtship, unions, sexual identity, pornography, sex and science, and sex and religion.

“So you Want to Teach Porn”

Some professors and educators feel that in order to really teach about pornography, it needs to be seen and studied in the classroom.

In 1998, Professor Hope Weissman at Wesleyan University offered a course simply called, “Pornography.” The primary focus was on pornography as “radical representations of sexuality,” with the purpose of extending knowledge of sexuality and aggression—two extreme human passions depicted by pornography.

Students were asked to “reveal their understanding of pornography” as a final project. Students submitted projects which included videos, some fiction writing, and photography: essentially making their own works of pornography. “I push people over the line, whatever their line is,” Weissman said, “but only when I think they can go there and come back.”

Constance Penley, Professor and Chair of Film Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara, has shown her own classes pornography “as another genre of film, like Westerns or science fiction,” since 1993. Penley has spoken at several conferences about teaching pornography in the classroom (such as the Conference on Censorship and Silencing, Society for Cinema Studies, and the Symposium on American Media Communities).

Henry Jenkins, professor at MIT, has had his classes analyze photos from Hustler and clips from X-rated movies. Jenkins also contributed to the book, More Dirty Looks: Women, Pornography and Power. His chapter, “So You Want to Teach Porn,” is all about a contextual approach to teaching about pornography and erotica in the classroom.

Porn University

One might argue that putting porn in an academic setting will really help college students to look at it critically rather than just experience it for pleasure. Unlikely. Rather, these types of courses only put a university’s rubber stamp of approval on an already common use of porn among students.

A study conducted in 2007 by researchers at Brigham Young University found that 21% of male college students view pornography “every day or almost every day” and another 27% view pornography “1 or 2 days a week.”

We are seeing a major cultural shift in attitudes about porn on the college campus. James Weaver III, a professor in the Department of Communications at Virginia Tech, taught a course on pornography for years. Professor Weaver explains:

“Young men in my classroom today don’t even understand why we should be talking about it. They see it as harmless entertainment. Their attitude is, ‘It’s a free country and I’ve been watching porn since middle school on the Internet and there’s nothing wrong with it.’ Most recently, students have become radical supporters of pornography. I didn’t used to see that at all from young men. It’s a huge shift in attitude” (quoted in Pamela Paul’s Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, p.181-82).

Michael Leahy, author of Porn Nation, states,

“Porn is now the norm in our culture, and no one understands that better than today’s college students. From the rapid rise of cyber porn addiction among male and female college students to its role in influencing the high incidence of rapes and prevalence of eating disorders among college co-eds, the growing influence of porn in the midst of an already sexually charged campus culture is taking a very real toll on students’ lives.”

Leahy has traveled to over 200 college campuses and shared his personal porn addiction story to over 100,000 students. In that time he has heard from many students, receiving much praise and criticism.

For example, when Leahy visited McMaster University to discuss his devastating pornography addiction and offer a message of hope to the students, one student started his own pro-porn campaign. He set up his own booth in the student centre with a sign that read, “Porn is Fun” and handed out candy to students passing by. This student said, “The Porn Nation campaign heavily insinuates that pornography is a sign of a sick society. My belief is that a society without pornography is a sick society.”

Nearly 30,000 students took Leahy’s sexual addiction survey. He will be publishing the findings from this survey in his upcoming book, Porn University. He promises to give his readers some eye-opening insights into the sexual attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of today’s college student. Porn University will be released in May of 2009.

Should We Study Porn

Richard Burt, an English professor at the University of Massachusetts, was accused of melding his personal interests in porn with his role as an educator. Burt commented, “It’s not that you should study [porn], but why shouldn’t you? Sometimes the argument is that porn is bad, therefore it shouldn’t be studied. That’s like saying Nazism was bad, so we shouldn’t study it.”

So should we study porn at the university? Of course. The question is not whether we should, but how we should.

The problem with Burt’s argument is that while both the Nazis and pornography should be studied, there are healthy and unhealthy ways to study them. I may be required to read Mein Kampf or listen to testimonies of Holocaust survivors, but I’m not going to build a gas chamber and get

into it so I can experience it firsthand. Similarly, when studying porn I may read biographies of Hugh Hefner and interview sexual addiction counselors, but I’m not going to lock myself in a room to watch porn for a week and see how it affects me.

How Porn Effects Our Sexuality

According to a study of first-year college students published in The Journal Adolescent Health, there are many risks associated with frequent exposure to pornography. Students who watch porn often can develop a tolerance toward explicit sexual material, thereby requiring more novel or bizarre material la

ter on to achieve the same level of sexual arousal.

Porn really sets men and women up for sexual and relational failure. Therapist Douglas Weiss says that porn gives them a “very strong chemical hit,” and alters ways of thinking about sex, somewhat like the classic “ring the bell, feed the dog” stimulus-response mechanism. Addicts thus learn to become sexually attached to objects and have trouble getting the same kind of satisfaction from sex in a relationship.

Researchers have seen noticeable attitude changes associated with frequent porn use: developing cynical attitudes about love; a diminished trust between intimate partners; belief that marriage is sexually confining; belief that raising children and having a family is as an unattractive prospect; and exaggerated expectations of sexuality.

When pixels and well-placed camera angles and sculpted bodies become a guy’s standard of a good sexual experience, it is no wonder when real relationships can’t measure up.

Feminist author and speaker Naomi Wolf travels to college campuses all over the country. Her observations are noteworthy:

Here is what young women tell me on college campuses when the subject comes up: They can’t compete, and they know it. For how can a real woman—with pores and her own breasts and even sexual needs of her own . . . possibly compete with a cybervision of perfection, downloadable and extinguishable at will, who comes, so to speak, utterly submissive and tailored to the consumer’s least specification?
For most of human history, erotic images have been reflections of, or celebrations of, or substitutes for, real naked women. For the first time in human history, the images’ power and allure have supplanted that of real naked women. Today, real naked women are just bad porn. . . .
The young women who talk to me on campuses about the effect of pornography on their intimate lives speak of feeling that they can never measure up, that they can never ask for what they want; and that if they do not offer what porn offers, they cannot expect to hold a guy. The young men talk about what it is like to grow up learning about sex from porn, and how it is not helpful to them in trying to figure out how to be with a real woman. Mostly, when I ask about loneliness, a deep, sad silence descends on audiences of young men and young women alike. They know they are lonely together, even when conjoined, and that this imagery is a big part of that loneliness.

The Indonesian parliament adopts anti-pornography bill

2008-10-30T23:11:00.001-05:00

10/30/2008
INDONESIA
by Mathias Hariyadi

MPs present voted unanimously for the bill. Opposition parties did not however participate in the vote. Dissent explodes in online forums. A Jakarta court sentences an Islamic fundamentalist leader to jail for fomenting clashes last June.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – With opposition MPs absent, Indonesia’s parliament approved an anti-porn bill that was welcomed by supporters who loudly rejoiced with prayers to Allah. In online newspaper forums many ordinary citizens reacted angrily however, slamming what they consider a step backward for Indonesia and an “obscurantist” decision.

Today the lower house in Indonesia’s parliament approved the controversial anti-pornography bill, known in Bahasa Indonesia as Undang-undang Pornografi, Uu App. Since it was tabled it has been at the centre of intense discussions because it is seen as a step towards introducing Sharia law into the country’s legal system along the lines of Saudi Arabia.
In recent weeks human rights activists and representatives of political and religious minorities, including the Catholic Church, have strenuously objected to the law.

According to its critics, the law eliminates “cultural” differences and undermines “national unity”. As it stands it is all but an attempt by Muslim fundamentalists to introduce Islamic law into the country’s legal system.
The anti-porn law was approved almost unanimously but MPs for the Indonesian Democracy Struggle Party (PDIP) and the Christian-based Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) were not in the house in protest against the bill.
A supporter of the new law named Lasmiantini, a member of a group called Salima or Muslim Sisters, felt great about it.

“Inshallah, God willing, Indonesia shall finally see the rebirth of morality,” she said.
“We are happy,” she added, “because we won the battle to defend our children and it [the law] will also protect women.”
“Educational TV programmes” will be promoted “to improve moral values as the basis of society.

Pro-law activists said that the legislation can be improved to “avoid excesses”, denying at the same time that negative views were expressed “against the bill in some provinces.”
Meuthia Hatta, daughter of Mohammad Hatta, one of Indonesia’s founding fathers, noted that the law “does not violate the principles of freedom of expression” but instead protects people from the harm done by pornography.

“Our focus was on this aspect rather than on political squabbles with nationalist groups and NGOs,” said the minister of for Woman Empowerment.
In the meantime a court in Jakarta issued an important ruling in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism.

Judge Panusunan Harahap sentenced Habib Rizieq Shihab, head of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), to 18 months in jail for “fomenting clashes in Jakarta last 1 June between radical Muslims and moderates, who were demonstrating in favour of religious freedom in the country.”

At that time Muslim fundamentalists attacked moderate Muslims from the National Alliance for Religious Freedom (AKKBB), who were peacefully demonstrating in support of the Ahmadis, a small Muslim community (about half a million) who are considered heretical in several Muslim countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Porno-politics: a logical conclusion of historical processes

2008-10-30T23:05:00.000-05:00

By Ben Wright
October 30, 2008
Politics has become porn. Negative campaigning is its biggest star.

“Not your finest hour,”
“Is this really the feature story?”

These were two of the comments that greeted Newspaper Tree’s treatment of the release of a pornographic movie starring a Sarah Palin look-alike.

These comments raise a valid question: What is credible news? Is this it? Surely, is it not too frivolous and distasteful a topic? Are we not giving it unjustified credence and dignity by reporting it? Doesn’t this sort of thing belong on a silly blog instead?

But one could argue that it absolutely is news. First, and most practically, the piece remained the top story for the day, and Newspaper Tree is not the sort of website that idle surfers stumble across. Our readers found this interesting.

I believe that because the event occurred, combined with the interest it generated, much can be said about society and politics in America. But its unimportance lies in the fact that it is a historical marker, not a turning point. It is a glaring example of where things are, not where they are going.

Recently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost a legal battle with a Parisian company that manufactured Voodoo dolls of him in effigy. (They came complete with pins.) Though Sarkozy lost the case, and the look-alike dolls continue to be produced, the issue caused a minor uproar. This side of the Atlantic, the McCain-Palin campaign have made no complaint, have taken no legal action against the porn film’s producer, Hustler....read more

Ministry preaching against porn moving to Vegas

2008-10-26T15:06:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press

Article Launched: 10/26/2008 12:07:28 PM PDT

LAS VEGAS—A pastor who travels the world preaching against pornography is moving his ministry to Sin City with the backing of a growing suburban church.

Craig Gross, a 33-year-old minister who has run the online ministry XXChurch.com from Michigan for seven years, says he decided to move the ministry because of the adult entertainment industry in Las Vegas.

Gross says adult temptations in Las Vegas are "more powerful and strong than any place I've ever been."

Gross says pornography is emotionally harmful and threatens relationships.

Gross has the backing of the Henderson, Nev.-based South Hills Church Community, with about 1,200 active members. The community plans to build a $15 million church, where Gross plans to refer people he meets through his ministry.

———

Information from: Las Vegas Sun, http://www.lasvegassun.com

Attorneys for X-Mart move to open in Augusta

2008-10-25T15:21:00.001-05:00

By NBCAugusta Reporters

Oct 25, 2008 at 11:34 PM EDT

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Attorneys for an adult entertainment store say they're one step closer to re-opening in Augusta.

An attorney for X-Mart tells NBC Augusta 26 News the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a ruling, saying the city cannot use zoning regulations to keep the store from opening.

Attorneys say they'll now move forward with a plan to attain an adult entertainment license and re-open.

Bid to stop strip bar in Glen Eira

2008-10-24T15:31:00.000-05:00

Keith Moor
October 24, 2008 12:00am

A COUNCIL has appealed to the State Government to change the planning laws so a banned brothel owner can be stopped from opening a strip club.

Liquor Licensing Director Sue Maclellan has also indicated she is likely to take steps to try to foil Graham Francis Harvey's sex club bid.

Mr Harvey was barred from operating brothels in Victoria after being convicted of child prostitution offences in 1996.

He is now trying to re-enter the sex industry by turning the former Caesar's Retreat brothel on Nepean Highway, Elsternwick, into a licensed adult entertainment venue offering sexually explicit entertainment....read more

Copyright Lawsuit Against PornoTube Withdrawn

2008-10-24T15:28:00.000-05:00

Written by Janko Roettgers

October 24, 2008

The owners of the X-rated YouTube clone PornoTube.com won’t have to bare it all in court, after all: Porn powerhouse Vivid dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit against PornoTube owner Data Conversions Inc., also known as the Adult Entertainment Broadcasting Network (AEBN), earlier this week.

Vivid sued AEBN back in December of 2007, alleging that PornoTube distributed at least 50 scenes from Vivid’s porn movies without any license to do so. One of the movies mentioned in the original complaint was the sex tape of network TV starlet and B-list personality Kim Kardashian. These movies have all disappeared from the site since then. In fact, users have reported that PornoTube has been removing countless clips in recent days, hinting at an out-of-court agreement. Vivid told us that it has “no comment at this time” on any arrangement between the two companies.

Vivid alleged in its original lawsuit filing (PDF copy) that PornoTube willfully enabled and facilitated the infringement of its works. “(E)ven a cursory review of the PornoTube.com website” would make it clear that users aren’t just uploading their naughty home videos, but commercially produced porn flicks that oftentimes still displayed Vivid’s logos and movie titles, the complaint claimed. The porn maker asked the court for a permanent injunction against AEBN as well as $4.5 million in damages.

The lawsuit against AEBN was widely seen as the porn industry’s first big step against online video piracy, and many people in the industry compared it to Viacom suing YouTube. However, the situation was a little more complex because AEBN is also running a network of pay-per-view video websites that contribute to Vivid’s online revenue. Other porn video sites are less connected to the industry, and also much less susceptible to U.S. court rulings. The popular porn hoster Megarotic, for example, is incorporated in Hong Kong.

Vivid pioneered a new legal strategy with is lawsuit against AEBN because it invoked a law requiring porn producers and distributors to keep detailed documentation abut the age and identity of their performers on record. Vivid alleged that AEBN unfairly competed in the adult entertainment marketplace because it didn’t abide by these requirements. Many porn studios had hoped that this would turn out to be a new weapon in the fight against infringers, but with the lawsuit withdrawn, those hopes are now put on hold.

The adult biz has struggled to come up with a consistent strategy against online video piracy. Some studios have contemplated to sue individual file sharers, but most companies have so far resisted the idea of mass-scale lawsuits and instead concentrated on sending take-down notices to PornoTube-like sites.

Some have however argued that it would be better to monetize infringement than to fight it, and the adult biz has previously shown that it doesn’t shy away from doing business with pirates. One example is the acquisition of the online personals site Adult FriendFinder, which has the reputation of being one of the biggest advertiser on adult torrent sites, by Penthouse in late 2007.

2 adult districts pushed Officials say move would curb spread By Michele Morgan Bolton Globe Correspondent / October 23, 2008

2008-10-23T15:36:00.000-05:00

By Michele Morgan Bolton Globe Correspondent
October 23, 2008

Dedham officials have pressed their case for creating two adult entertainment districts by telling residents that the proposal means the town won't have to repeat what it just did.

At a Planning Board hearing Monday, Town Counsel George Pucci revealed that Dedham this fall settled a four-year-old court case with Amazing.net, the town's sole adult video and book store. The settlement will allow the company, currently located on Route 1, to move to an Eastern Avenue storefront that is near a park.

The company was able to prevail because adult entertainment has free speech protections. Dedham officials say the town's current adult use zone is vulnerable to constitutional challenges, and creating the two districts would at least give the town control over where such businesses are located in the future.

Once Dedham town planners and members of Finance Committee issue recommendations on the new zones, the warrant article goes to a Nov. 17 Town Meeting, where it will need a two-thirds vote to succeed.

Adult use districts aren't easy to talk about, conceded James MacDonald, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and ongoing litigation forced the town to keep quiet about the Amazing.net case.

"Quite frankly, we were afraid," said MacDonald. "We were afraid our current area could be constitutionally challenged, opening up the town to potential lawsuits and excessive legal fees."

Cornetta Closes Love Shack

2008-10-03T14:46:00.000-05:00

Cornetta Closes Love Shack

Love Shack owner John Cornetta has closed the store, saying he will seek $1.7 million in damages from the city of Johns Creek.

Love Shack Closes in Johns Creek, Georgia

2008-10-02T14:44:00.000-05:00

Posted by NPNAdmin
10/2/2008
Ordinances and Regulations,Debate on the Issues,First Amendment,Secondary Effects

Love Shack, a large porn shop that tried to evade the new city's adult zoning regulations, has decided to close. Owner John Cornetta claims he's losing about $40,000 a month. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports today:

“I guess I could say we’re relieved,” said Kitty Garrison, owner of North Atlanta Dance Academy, across the street from the Love Shack.

“It was the issue of a sexually oriented business close to a residential area, a school bus stop, and 400 young dancers that made the community nervous,” Garrison said...

One Johns Creek resident, Don Kennedy, expresses dismay that the city pressured a small business to close. He may not be aware of how adult businesses can depress the economic life of surrounding businesses and stimulate criminal activity. These are called "secondary effects", and they are why proactive cities regulate adult businesses through zoning:

State of Minnesota, Report of the Attorney General’s Working Group on the Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses, Office of the Attorney General (June 6, 1989)
This is a seminal work which investigates the secondary effects of adult businesses from a number of different research perspectives. Not only is the effect on crime included, so is the effect on neighborhood disorganization and disorder, as are the effects on property values addressed. The New York study also concluded that business locations with adult-oriented businesses had a significant loss of sales tax collections (42%) as compared to control areas. Studies of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Los Angeles are cited. RICO and organized criminal elements of the industry are also discussed. It was found that dramatic increases in crime rates were directly associated with the introduction of adult-oriented businesses into any community studied. Evidence is articulated indicating that property crimes were forty to fifty percent higher, and sex-related crimes were found to be seventy to as much as 500 percent higher--depending upon the municipality. Other non-crime community issues are also discussed.

Springfield, MA is quite familiar with secondary effects, as discussed in Capital Video's Springfield Porn Shop Repels Sought-After Businesses and Springfield Police Commissioner: "...it is fair to say that 'Amazing' constitutes an attractive nuisance that contributes to blighted conditions there".

That secondary effects occur is no surprise when you consider the attitude of many porn shop operators to their communities. Here is Mr. Cornetta in 2007:

Aspen Newspapers: "Johns Creek takes another crack at Shack", 6/27/07
Johns Creek filed a petition last week in the Superior Court of Fulton County to declare Love Shack in violation of city ordinances and order it to comply or close...

Cornetta said the petition is 'no big deal,' citing his more than 15 years of traveling down this road. This is just another day, he said.

"This is what I do for a living. I chew up and spit out local municipalities like Popeye chewed spinach," said Cornetta.

See also:

Struggle Over "Love Shack" in Georgia; New City Adopts State-of-the-Art Adult-Use Ordinance (12/22/06)
The Johns Creek SOB ordinance ( PDF, 5.9 MB ) was adopted this month. In many aspects it appears to be the 'state of the art' in adult-use regulations. It cites the latest relevant court cases and many recent secondary effects studies, and addresses some of the dodges adult businesses have used to try to get around ordinances elsewhere (see "Spanish Popeye").

SEE ARTICLE

Johns Creek Adult Novelty Store Closes

2008-10-02T14:43:00.000-05:00

Public Broadcasting
Odette Yousef
2008-10-02

ATLANTA, GA - Yesterday a controversial adult entertainment store in Johns Creek closed. The Love Shack has been entangled in a 2-year-long legal battle with the city to get a business license for its chosen location.

John Cornetta, head of Cornetta Enterprises which manages the Love Shack chain, claims he lost 40 to 60 thousand dollars a month because the city wouldn't let him put up a store sign. But he says it's not over til it's over:CORNETTA: It's gonna look like the city is the winner here, when, in fact, the city is not the winner. The winner is going to be when these cases are finalized and we see who has to pay these bills.

Cornetta is suing Johns Creek for $1.7 million in damages.

City manager John Kachmar only verified that the store appeared to have been closed, and in a written statement said the city would not comment further, because it anticipates Cornetta's lawsuit.

The store was opened in November 2006, shortly before Johns Creek incorporated and took over its own zoning functions.

LISTEN HERE

John Cornetta Closes Controversial Love Shack Store

2008-10-01T18:02:00.000-05:00

Love Shack Shuts down in Johns Creek

2008-10-01T16:08:00.000-05:00

Owner says he was losing $40,000 a month because city wouldn’t let him put up a sign

DOUG NURSE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 01, 2008

Adult video store owner John Cornetta has closed the Love Shack in Johns Creek, but he has vowed to seek $1.7 million in damages from the city.

“I couldn’t take the losses any more,” Cornetta said. “I’m still opening new stores in other states, and I still have pending court cases that I’m going to win.”

He said he was losing about $40,000 a month.

The store, located at States Bridge and Jones Bridge roads in the heart of the city, has been the object of scorn and dismay by many residents, and city efforts to regulate the store have generated piles of litigation.

Cornetta blamed the city’s unwillingness to give him a sign for running him out of business. The city has said it won’t give a sign permit or a business license for an adult business in an area not zoned for that.

The Love Shack opened just a couple of days before the city was born Dec. 1, 2006, which Cornetta argued meant he existed before the city and it couldn’t regulate him. After losing in Fulton Superior Court, Cornetta cleaned out all but a few of his adult items to become a non-adult store.
Cornetta said the city gave signs to other businesses that didn’t have business licenses.

“If the judge finds that they illegally caused a business to fail, they’re facing huge fines,” he said.

Cornetta and the city have cases pending in federal and state appeals courts.

Love Shack closes in Johns Creek

2008-10-01T14:41:00.002-05:00

by Jennifer Chapman
October 01, 2008

JOHNS CREEK - "Closed for inventory." That's what the sign read on the front door of the Love Shack Oct. 1.

But according to John Cornetta, owner of the Love Shack, the adult video store on State Bridge Road is closed for good.
"We weren't ordered to close," said Cornetta. "The one thing we counted on didn't come and that was a sign."
Since its opening almost two years ago, the Love Shack and the city of Johns Creek have met in court over a variety of issues.

The 10,000 square-foot store was denied a sign permit and business license by the city because the adult video store is in a location not zoned for such a business.

"Not having a sign, being in the location that we were in - we were losing $30,000 to $60,000 a month," said Cornetta. "Had we had a sign permit and had a sign put up we would not be closed today - we would be open."

While Cornetta said the store at 10950 State Bridge Road would not reopen, he did say he would be looking into potential Love Shack locations in Johns Creek.

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Cornetta also said he will seek damages from the city - totaling around $1.5 million.

He said the other nine Love Shack locations around the Atlanta area are doing "extremely well." He added that he's opening stores out-of-state as well.

"Honestly, I'm saddened that I had to close the store...I'm saddened for the people who lost their jobs and for the people who were getting their products there," said Cornetta. "It will not go down in vain and I have lots of resources to fight this and I will continue to fight it." Stay tuned.

SEE ARTICLE

Love Shack closes in Johns Creek, but suits continue

2008-10-01T14:41:00.000-05:00

Owner says he was losing $40,000 a month because city wouldn’t let him put up a sign

Love Shack Shuttered

2008-10-01T14:38:00.000-05:00

WSB News
Jeff Dantre
October 1, 2008 3:41 PM

(WSB Radio) -- The owner of the Love Shack says he's calling it quits in Johns Creek. John Cornetta says he was losing $40,000 a month because the city refused to allow him to put up a sign. Cornetta is vowing to seek $1.7 million in damages from the city.

The store, which opened just before Johns Creek became a city, has been the source of what seems like endless litigation.

WSB talks with Love Shack owner John Cornetta

Cornetta blamed the city's unwillingness to give him a sign for running him out of business. The city has said it won't give a sign permit or a business license for an adult business in an area not zoned for that.

After the Love Shack was ruled against in Fulton Superior Court, Cornetta cleaned out all but a few of his adult items to become a non-adult store.

Cornetta and the city have cases pending in federal and state appeals courts.

Woman applies for adult video business; neighboring businessman opposes application at City Council meeting

2008-09-29T12:55:00.000-05:00

Iva Butler
The Daily Times Staff

A woman has applied to locate a sexually-oriented business at 2642 U.S. 411 South in the city of Maryville, a move an adjacent business owner opposes.This would be the first such business within the city limits.Deborah Yantis wants to locate her business, Sunshine Video, closer to town, said Maryville Development Services Director John Jagger. Sunshine Video was previously located at the intersection of U.S. 411 South, Clover Hill Mill Road and Calderwood Highway in Blount County. David Church, operator of Tae Kwan Do America, 2640 U.S. 411 South, voiced his objections to the business locating near his at a Maryville City Council meeting Tuesday night.Church said his business is located in a building that also houses an insurance agency. Yantis wants to open the sexually-oriented business in a separate building behind his which also houses a pet grooming business.Church said 85 percent of his students are age 4 to 16. "My families are pretty concerned and upset with this. You don't want to bring your children to that location," he said. Church said he has told 10 families who have children enrolled at his school of the issue. He plans to hold a meeting at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at the school to inform the rest of the families.Church said opening the business at that location is against the city code, which requires it be 1,000 feet from a family-oriented business.However, city attorney Melanie Davis said, "Our quandary is that this type of business is protected by the federal constitution and free expression. We cannot tell them they cannot locate in the city of Maryville."Ordinance has problemsThe city's sexually-oriented business ordinance was adopted in 1999 and is problematic in that there are too few potential locations, she said.The current law permits the use only in the Business/Transportation Zone, which runs along Lamar Alexander Parkway and U.S. 411 South.Such businesses have to be at least 1,000 feet from churches, schools and residences, she said. She said additional protections, such as banning what can go in windows and on the sign, may be added. She expects several follow-up ordinances to be considered."The city is going to have to open more areas," Davis said. She expects the 1,000-foot rule to be cut to 500 feet. The issue will have to come before Maryville Planning Commission and then Maryville City Council for any changes to be made.In further action, council:� Approved on second and final reading annexation of Camellia Trace Drive, which is located off West Lamar Alexander Parkway. The property was rezoned from County Suburbanizing to City High Density Residential and will include a Parkway District Overlay Zone.

WAR ON PORN WILL HEAT UP… GUARANTEED!!!!What this VP Is All About and How It Will Effect YOU! The Adult Industry

2008-09-12T22:02:00.005-05:00

Sarah Palin: A Dominionist: As Ultra Right Wing As They Get!

IF SHE GETS IN, THE WAR ON PORN WILL HEAT UP… GUARANTEED!!!

Sorry to have to get SO political, but, “morally. as a member of the “Adult Industry” and a believer in the First Amendment and all personal rights that ar FOR NOW granted to us in the Constitution I feel VERY STRONGLY that this MUST be brought into the forefront.

Religion, especially in this country, gets a free ride, a “Get Out Of Jail Free Card” when it comes to scrutiny, Many times the “Main Stream” media will stay away from any story regarding the religion of a candidate ESPECIALLY for those running for Vice President or President.

But this is different….. this is not “RELIGION” as most people know it. This is ULTRA RIGHT WING, and very Dangerous. I laughed and oohed and aaahed with everyone about the sex scandals, But to find out that Sahah Palin is even REMOTELY involved with the DOMINIONISTS … quite frankly...read more

VIVID ENTERTAINMENT WINS "ADULT FILM STUDIO OF THE YEAR" AWARD AT STOREROTICA CONVENTION AND TRADE SHOW IN LAS VEGAS

2008-09-12T02:39:00.001-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information or interviews contact:
jackie@vivid.com
or
800-762-4761

VIVID ENTERTAINMENT WINS "ADULT FILM STUDIO OF THE YEAR" AWARD AT STOREROTICA CONVENTION AND TRADE SHOW IN LAS VEGAS

LAS VEGAS – (September 3, 2008) – Vivid Entertainment Group was chosen as "Adult Film Studio of the Year" during the recent StorErotica Convention and Trade Show at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas from August 24-27.

Vivid is the world's leading adult film company that is best known for its elite corps of adult actresses known as the Vivid Girls. The firm has won more AVN Awards (adult entertainment's "Oscar") than any other studio in the industry, has an archive of almost 2000 movies, and is recognized as the pioneer in taking the adult industry into the mainstream.

In accepting the award on behalf of Vivid, veteran adult store entrepreneur John Cornetta recalled, "Steven Hirsch and Bill Asher run a thriving Vivid today, but when Steven started the company 25 years ago, he had only borrowed money and tremendous determination."

Cornetta noted that Vivid "started by revolutionizing video box cover design with Vivid's very first movie the landmark 'Ginger' starring Ginger Lynn. Instead of the gritty and low-end look that had prevailed, the company's designs resembled sexy magazine covers. The idea was that that retailers would display them boldly, and they did. Vivid was inspired by the old Hollywood studio system to create the Vivid Girls concept whereby actresses would sign contracts to make movies exclusively for the studio.

This was only the beginning for this innovative company which is now at work on its third mainstream reality TV series "Deeper Throat" which will be seen on the Showtime cable network. In addition to its core line of movies starring the Vivid Girls, the studio has expanded with edgier Vivid-Alt movies headed by the founder of the alt-porn movement Eon McKai; with Vivid-Ed, entertaining sex education movies for today's generation run by award-winning author, lecturer and newspaper columnist Tristan Taormino and the release of tapes starring mainstream celebrities having sex such as Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, Kim Kardashian and Jimi Hendrix.

Vivid competed with seven other top studios for the award at the convention which is the largest showcase for adult industry products and services. Other award categories included Accessory Manufacturer of the Year, Chain Retailer of the Year and Adult Manufacturer of the Year.

About Vivid:
Founded in 1984, Vivid Entertainment Group is the world's leading adult film company. Vivid has always placed heavy emphasis on high quality erotic film entertainment and has created wide brand-name awareness through its films and through a licensing and marketing program that extends to advertising, apparel, book publishing and other products. For more information contact jackie@vivid.com.

Strippers take aim at Tories

2008-09-05T20:38:00.001-05:00

By: John Stewart

September 5, 2008

- At a press conference outside a Mississauga strip club yesterday, adult entertainment industry leaders said they think a law that essentially bans foreign strippers should be an issue during the next federal election campaign.
It seems the unlikeliest of federal election issues, but adult entertainment industry representatives insist that the Conservative legislation should be on the public's radar as the election campaign begins.
"I am completely appalled that Diane Finley (federal immigration minister), as a woman, is not supporting women," said Sheena De Janeiro, a former dancer and now co-owner of the Airport Strip Club on Torbram Rd. in Malton. "What is she trying to say? That this is not a good opportunity for women?"
The Adult Entertainment Association of Canada, which hosted the conference outside the Treasures strip club on Atlantic Dr., denounced the new legislation, which they say is killing their business...read more

Moncton mayor calls for more control of strip clubs

2008-09-05T08:05:00.000-05:00

September 5, 2008
The Canadian Press

MONCTON, N.B. — The City of Moncton is taking action to try to gain some control over strip clubs.
The city has passed a resolution it hopes will be backed by the Cities of New Brunswick Association that calls on the province to make legislative changes that will put more power in the hands of municipalities when it comes to exotic entertainment.
"We find that municipalities have very limited ability or authority to deal with these kinds of businesses, particularly if they are pre-existing," said Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc.
"We are asking government to give municipalities more authority and more flexibility to deal with this kind of business right through the province."
Municipalities are not allowed to ban strip clubs outright, but can create zoning bylaws to keep them out of certain areas or restrict them to particular areas....read more

The Porn Business Goes Public

2008-09-04T07:56:00.001-05:00

September 4, 2008
Tom Johansmeyer

Is porn really growing up? There’s no shortage of talk about the mainstreaming of the skin trade, but most of it misses the mark. Instead of ogling the Vivid Video billboard on 7th Ave, check out the OTC listings instead. Adult entertainment just got a new publicly traded player, Adult Entertainment Capital, Inc., and the flesh biz just moved a step closer to legitimacy.

...read more

Adult Entertainment Capital Takes Porn Public

2008-09-04T07:49:00.000-05:00

September 4, 2008
DigitalJournal.com

Adult Entertainment Capital, Inc. has launched the first publicly traded and licensed investment option. Investors can put their money into all types of adult business—from gentlemen's clubs to lifestyle resorts, content and emerging technology platforms. This groundbreaking development changes the porn finance landscape.

Milton "Todd" Ault III, President and CEO of Adult Entertainment Capital, recognizes that the adult industry has suffered from a lack of strong financial investment opportunities, particularly in public capital markets. Adult Entertainment Capital, Inc. plans to meet that need by offering business development funds, financial management and full or partial buyout options to progressive adult oriented companies across all stages of the business cycle...read more

Boynton Beach strip club owner declares his business a public nuisance

2008-09-03T22:17:00.001-05:00

By SUSAN SPENCER-WENDEL
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 03, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — Norman Goddard, owner of the Boynton Beach strip club Platinum Gold, pleaded guilty to a felony charge Wednesday in a deal which included having Goddard declare his business - situated at the gateway to the city - a public nuisance.

Prosecutors dropped the hefty original charges Goddard faced after his arrest a year ago: trafficking in oxycodone and deriving proceeds from prostitution. Goddard, 54, instead pleaded guilty to the rarely-prosecuted felony of operating a public nuisance where controlled substances are illegally kept or sold...read more

Penthouse Denies Every Claim in Broadstream Adult FriendFinder Suit

2008-08-31T13:14:00.000-05:00

Penthouse Denies Every Claim in Broadstream Adult FriendFinder Suit

The plaintiff in Broadstream Capital Partners vs. Penthouse Media Group recently filed an amended complaint in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, and the defendant has replied with a 22-page response filed Aug. 4 that essentially denies every claim made by the plaintiff.

Free Speech Coalition Releases 1st Annual Report

2008-08-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

Free Speech Coalition Releases 1st Annual Report

The report has been distributed to FSC members and will be available for public view on the FSC website on Wednesday.

Veoh Porn Case Judge Rules in Favor of Tube Sites

2008-08-28T13:20:00.001-05:00

Veoh Porn Case Judge Rules in Favor of Tube Sites

In a decision that will affect every video-sharing site on the Internet, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that just because a tube site encodes videos doesn't mean they control those videos.

Adult Patent Law Case Settled Out of Court

2008-08-28T13:17:00.000-05:00

Adult Patent Law Case Settled Out of Court

A patent law court case that ensnared a prominent adult industry figure has come to a quiet close.

Saved by a loophole

2008-08-22T16:44:00.000-05:00

August 22, 2008

Our view: Howard County porn shop is legal, but it's still a blight
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was hailed as The Man after he cleaned up New York's Times Square by chasing out the seedy adult bookstores and X-rated theaters that blighted the area.

But even Rudy might have been stumped by the Pack Shack, a Howard County smut shop that authorities have been trying to get rid of for years, and that keeps popping back like a Whack-a-Mole.

The Pack Shack has thwarted every effort to shut it down. No one even knows who owns it. It's been to business development along Route 40 near Ellicott City what crab grass is to a golf green.

The latest assault on this embarrassment involved pelting it with zoning ordinances that define adult stores as devoting at least 20 percent of their space and 20 percent of their stock to sexual materials. The Pack Shack was chock-a-block with the stuff, so the zoning gambit seemed like an easy win for the county.

But the store's owners, whoever they are, struck back by finding a loophole wide enough to drive a truckload of porn through. They filled every spare inch of the building's basement and entrance with inoffensive used paperback books, T-shirts and the like. The smut's still there, brazen as ever, but it's swamped by the sheer volume of other junk, allowing the store to evade the 20 percent rule on a narrow technicality.

Let no one mistake this outcome as a blow against censorship, as the attorney representing Pack Shack had the gall to suggest Wednesday. It's the unrepentant gloating of a vile commerce that degrades women and poisons the minds of everyone exposed to it. And it's all perfectly legal.

Adult book store raids net drug, lewdness, prostitution busts

2008-08-22T16:39:00.000-05:00

August 22, 2008
By Jeff McShan / 11 News

HOUSTON -- For months, the Houston Police Department’s vice squad has been raiding adult bookstores and arcades across the city. The raids, including the latest at the Houston 420-Talk of the Town on Thursday night, netted plenty of arrests of those patronizing the stores.

What are the police finding inside these places? It’s a lot more than adult videos and magazines.

Often, the arrests are for illegal drugs. But more often the busts are for public lewdness, indecent exposure and prostitution.

And that’s just the customers.

At every bust so far, detectives have found the owners of the sexually-oriented bookstores are operating illegally because they don’t have the proper city license.

That’s the main reason police are conducting the raids.

Thursday night’s raid uncovered that Talk of the Town has not only not complied with the city’s sexually-oriented business ordinance; it hasn’t even applied for the proper license.

Since April, the HPD vice squad visited eight adult bookstores and arcades.

It’s not easy catching the illegal activity during these raids, though.

At one raid location, the clerk at the store’s cash register was able to push a button to change all the pornographic movies that were showing in the back into a live feed of the security cameras outside the store.

Luckily, vice officers were already staking out the place and knew what was going on inside.

Police Investigate Porn Shop Robberies

2008-08-20T07:18:00.000-05:00

8/20/2008
11 ALIVE

ATLANTA -- The Fulton County Police Department is looking for a man they suspect may be responsible for as many as three robberies of adult video stores.

On August 10, a man entered the Starship store on Old National Highway. After browsing around the store, the man approached the counter where he appeared to be paying for several DVDs. Police say the man raised his shirt to reveal a gun tucked in his waistband and demanded money from the cashier. The man was not able to get any money, but did getaway with several stolen DVDs.

Thirty minutes later, the same man showed up at the Starship store on Fulton Industrial Boulevard and robbed that store in a similar fashion, police said. In that robbery, the man got away with cash and DVDs.

In both robberies the suspect is wearing the same clothes and follows a similar patter, police said. He was seen driving away from the robberies in a tan, older model Ford van.

Police believe the man may also be responsible for a robbery of the Love Shack on Fulton Industrial Boulevard in June.

Nobody was injured during the robberies.

Cities study need for adult entertainment laws

2008-07-20T16:56:00.001-05:00

July 20, 2008
By DEB NICKLAY,
deb.nicklay@globegazette.com

MASON CITY — Several North Iowa cities have moved to regulate sexually oriented businesses over the past year — most for no reason other than “to be prepared,” said Alan Kemp, executive director of the Iowa League of Cities.

“Many cities have realized that by the time they have a business that wants to open, it’s almost too late” to place regulatory safeguards, said Kemp.

Kemp said he has not seen any appreciable increase in adult entertainment businesses in the state — from strip clubs to adult bookstores. Cities, he added, are cautious when it comes to such establishments.

“If there is a particular situation in one community, or even the rumor of a business coming, that might trigger a city looking at creating an ordinance,” he said.

The Hampton and Garner City Councils have moved to adopt ordinances in recent months; Clear Lake adopted its ordinance less than a year ago, said City Administrator Scott Flory.

Clear Lake officials have already seen their new law tested. In June, a bar owner opted to have a wet T-shirt contest. City officials said it was in violation of its ordinance and that Alan Slater, owner of The Marina, was operating without a license, required by the ordinance....read more

Judge Strikes Down L.A. Ordinance in Landmark Adult Retail Case

2008-07-18T21:56:00.001-05:00

Judge Strikes Down L.A. Ordinance in Landmark Adult Retail Case

Trial court sides with Alameda Books on 1st Amendment

By: Mark Kernes

Posted: 07/18/2008

LOS ANGELES - It's been just over six years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books, the ground-breaking case that established an adult retailer's right to challenge alleged adverse secondary effects evidence in court. But the opinion in that case included a remand to the trial court to reconsider its previous summary judgment in light of the high court's ruling, and now, it has.

"What the judge said, as I read it," said First Amendment attorney Clyde DeWitt, for plaintiffs Alameda Books and Beverly Books, "is, remember that this was a motion for summary judgment, except now, the Supreme Court has said that for the ordinance to stand requires evidence; it's not just on the face of the ordinance and the studies underlying the ordinance when they first passed it."...read more

New Contraceptives in the United States 2008 Report

2008-07-18T16:39:00.001-05:00

Last update: 11:00 a.m. EDT July 18, 2008

DUBLIN, Ireland, Jul 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2ba8b2contraceptives_in) has announced the addition of the "Contraceptives in the United States 2008" report to their offering.

About this report

The U.S. market for OTC contraceptives is in great demand, thanks to growing populations of young consumers who are the most likely to use contraceptives, but also due to an increased emphasis on pleasure, with personal lubrication and sexual enhancement products showing rapid growth. Mintel explores the current climate in the U.S. with in-depth analysis of the following:

-- How manufacturer emphasis on sensitivity and pleasure has fueled sales, and how merchandising of sexual aids in mainstream drug chains has helped fuel sales of condoms

-- The competitive context provided by advertising for oral prescription contraceptives and the use of OTC Plan B

-- How ambivalence toward pregnancy and decreased fear of STDs are negatively impacting sales

-- The dominance of drug stores in the market

-- Analysis of branding and advertisement from leading suppliers, including conventional outlets, promotions, and online positioning

-- Which condom lines are gaining and which are failing

-- Condom usage in the GBLT community and opportunities for advancing sales in this high-use demographic

-- New product development

There are 91 countries covered in this report.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2ba8b2/contraceptives_in

AT ODDS WITH COUNTY: Adult club fights for its license

2008-07-13T16:53:00.001-05:00

By David Kihara
ReviewJournal.com

It's not hard to see why the Libertine club in Las Vegas has been raising some eyebrows since it opened in February. It's an adult club that boasts, among other things, a bondage studio, various fetish nights and a boutique that sells toys hard to describe in detail in a mainstream newspaper.

The club's owner, Edward Hurt, said the club attracts hundreds of people who are interested in "alternative lifestyles." Hurt said he offers customers a safe haven where they can freely express their sexuality....read more

New Sex Toy Review Blog Launches

2008-07-10T15:01:00.000-05:00

New Sex Toy Review Blog Launches

Promising expertise and a commitment to serious sex toy reviews, the new blog SexToysBuzz.com has launched.

The Medium

2008-07-08T15:23:00.005-05:00

July 6, 2008
The New YorkTimes
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

In 1996, as Hollywood was lionizing the pornographer Larry Flynt as the author of the real sexual revolution, the Internet was trying to decide what to do about porn.

It was not an either-or question. After all, data could instantly be conveyed at low cost across vast distances, from traceless studios to private lairs. Pornography was bound to ride this network. Observers accepted it as axiomatic: technology and pornography — from the printing press, to photography, magazines, film and videotape — always evolve in tandem. “Sometimes the erotic has been a force driving technological innovation,” John Tierney wrote in The Times in 1994. “Virtually always, from Stone Age sculpture to computer bulletin boards, it has been one of the first uses for a new medium.”...read more

Obscenity trial?

2008-07-08T15:13:00.002-05:00

Lawrence G. Walters
July 7, 2008

American attorney Lawrence G. Walters explains his revolutionary tactic of using Google Trends to protect a porn site owner from obscenity charges

Since June 2006, prosecutors in and around the southern hamlet town of Milton, Florida, have vigorously pursued obscenity-based criminal racketeering and money laundering charges against Clinton McCowen, based on his ownership and operation of an adult website.
The State of Florida, like many other American states (and the federal government) authorises the use of racketeering or “RICO” laws against businesses profiting from the distribution of allegedly obscene materials....read more

July brings bumper crop of new laws

2008-07-07T15:18:00.000-05:00

By PoliticsInColor News Staff
Mon, 07/07/2008
By Pauline Vu, Stateline.org Staff Writer

As of July 1, Colorado gamblers who are deadbeat parents will see their winnings diverted to pay unpaid child support, drivers in California and Washington state can no longer use hand-held cell phones in transit and people who attend animal fights in Virginia risk felony charges.
This is a sampling of the hundreds of new laws that take effect July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year for 46 states. Among the more widespread issues targeted in these laws are the behavior of young drivers, illegal immigration, registration of sex offenders and the sale of alcohol.
Two states are introducing first-in-the-nation laws to crack down on deadbeat parents and delinquent taxpayers — if they also happen to be lucky gamblers. Several states already have laws to seize lottery winnings from parents delinquent on their child-support payments, but Colorado is the first to take earnings from slots (if winnings reach at least $1,200) and from racetracks (at least $600)....read more

'Swingtown' recap: Free love? Groovy! Free-thinking women? No way!

2008-07-04T12:21:00.000-05:00

By Amanda Hamilton
July 04, 2008

CBS’s new drama "Swingtown" sends us swinging in to the 1970s, where women are free thinkers and there is free love all around.
The series focuses on the lives of three suburban couples. Susan and Bruce Miller (Molly Parker and Jack Davenport) are a typical suburban family who move across town when Bruce lands a new job.
There they meet Trina and Tom Decker (Lana Parrilla and Grant Show), a swinging couple who introduced Susan and Bruce to their lifestyle.
Lastly, are Janet and Roger Thompson (Miriam Shor and Josh Hopkins). The Thompsons are a very close-minded couple. Janet is having a hard time dealing with her best friend’s move and new friends, while Roger can’t believe his best friends are experimenting. ... read more

You Tube - Pro-Porn

2008-06-27T12:11:00.003-05:00

These videos are generally pro-porn and are included in order for people to be able to examine both sides of the issues so that they have the full picture and can decide for themselves.

WIA Profile: Diane Duke

2008-06-26T12:51:00.000-05:00

WIA Profile: Diane Duke

In conjunction with XBIZ, Women in Adult profiles different professional women within the industry. WIA feels that over the years there have been some amazing female professionals in the adult industry, and it is time to spotlight their career accomplishments, demonstrated dedication and great strides in the community.

Under the same gun

2008-06-26T12:49:00.001-05:00

Under the Same Gun

In recent years, adult entertainment and video gaming have exploded into multi-billion dollar business sectors, largely driven by the rapid technological developments that enable both industries. Because of that success and the attention being paid to these two industries as a result, opponents of video games and pornography have been given new cause to fret — and new inspiration to pepper their legislators with letters.

ICANN Relaxes Rules for Top-Level Domain Names

2008-06-26T12:32:00.002-05:00

Ruling could spark domain name boom.
Sherri L. Shaulis
AVN

Posted: 06/26/2008PARIS - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers unanimously agreed Thursday to relax restrictions on domain names, as well as agreed to seek public comment on doing away with language barriers in domain names. ...read more

Beijing's first adult shop is 15

2008-06-26T12:27:00.000-05:00

The Asian Pacific Post

June 26 2008

Fifty-year-old Wen Jingfeng has been interviewed many times by Chinese and foreign media, but he still feels self-conscious posing for pictures.
However, the Beijinger is completely relaxed talking about his shop: Beijing Adam & Eve Health Centre – the first adult shop in the Chinese mainland, founded in 1993.
Located on East Fuchengmen Road in Beijing’s Xicheng district, the 20-square-metre shop sells contraceptives, pregnancy tests, aphrodisiacs and sex toys.
The adult products are displayed in showcases. Two sales women dressed in white gowns are polite, but leave customers to choose products on their own.
In the 1990s, Wen’s shop was described as "a symbol of China’s opening and reforms." He was considered more of a celebrity than a businessman...read more

Calderon Drops Proposed Calif. Porn Tax from 25% to 8.3%

2008-06-24T12:44:00.000-05:00

Calderon Drops Proposed Calif. Porn Tax from 25% to 8.3%

Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-City of Industry) has revised his tax proposal to tax the adult industry in California, dropping the rate from the previous 25 percent to 8.3 percent.

Calderon Reduces Proposed Porn Tax

2008-06-24T12:20:00.003-05:00

Amended bill scales back adult entertainment tax to 8.3 percent
By: David Sullivan

AVN

SACRAMENTO - Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-City of Industry) has reduced his proposed California state tax on adult entertainment to 8.3 percent in the latest version of the bill submitted last Thursday.
The bill originally called for a 25 percent tax on adult entertainment, including porn videos, strip clubs and other goods and services. The proposal met with strong opposition from Republicans as well as adult industry lobbyists who denounced the measure as selective taxation...read more

Don't Let the Free Speech Die!

Flower Tucci Plans to Drop Suit Against Reality Kings, LLL

Ruling Likely to Upset Obscenity Prosecutions

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

New South Wales Adult Film Ban Assailed in Poll

DuPage outlaws BYOB at adult businesses

Store Showing XXX Movies

China Extends Anti-Porn Mobile Device Crackdown Through April

Neighbors Protest Porn Studio

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nominee Has Adult Ties

MySpace Hands Over Names of 90,000 Sex Offenders

XBIZ News Debuts on Twitter

Porn bailout? Unlikely, but sales still down

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.

Porn industry bosses seek bail-out

Sunday, 11 January 2009

Next in bailout line: Porn?

Annual porn convention has a political streak

Smoking-ban legislation lacks accommodation

Stage set for Showgirls

Larry Flynt wants money?

Larry Flynt wants money?

Smoking ban opponents mostly still opposed

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

JOHNS CREEK: Legal fight with adult business costly, ongoing

Lap dancing clubs among job centre advertisers

City smoking ban causes little suffering

New smoke-free law to start today

A look back at 2008

Adult business law ready for City Council

How many sex shops in Queensland? Nobody knows

Net filter 'will spark sex shop boom'

Lincoln: What defines 'special amusement'?

Benicia council to hear public comments about adult entertainment law

Porn Oscars Hosted by Vegas Casino, Linking Sex to Gambling

Adult store plans move forward - Business - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

Adult store plans move forward - Business - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

News: Maleflixxx Donates for World AIDS Day

East Volusia News - newsjournalonline.com

Dirty little Web secret: Porn at work

THE RIGHT TO OFFER NUDE DANCING'? Topless bar applicants sue city of Destin

THE ANATOMY OF A TOPLESS BAR LAWSUIT

Business owner: Erotic dancing ‘viable’ in DestinNovember 29, 2008 - 10:13 AMWilliam Hatfield

The odd crowd slip in for a bit of adult entertainment

Deputies Searching For Adult-Entertainment Venue Bandit

Dream Pleasure Tours to Exhibit at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo

Benicia 'gentlemen's club' proposal sparks uproar

Disney Site Recommends 'New York's Last Grindhouse' For Kids

Adult bookstore in River Falls?

November 20, 2008Debbie GriffinRiver Falls Journal

In an attempt to separate rumor and reality, the Journal followed up on an anonymous tip that arrived via U.S. mail last week asserting that the “new owners of the Super 8 Motel (now the Highland Inn) are planning to put a pornography/adult store in River Falls…” ............READ MORE

Destin to review 'adult entertainment' ordinances

Topless bar application puts Destin in uncharted territory

November 15, 2008Fraser Sherman

Decision of the Day: A Mixed Day For the Adult Industry

1st Amendment and Free Speech: 1st amendment violations, amendment violations, first amendment

Porn and the Presidency

Question: Which candidate has the porn industry concerned about their profits?

Answer: John McCain.

The Business of Porn

What do YOU think about Porn?

Sewer arguments pump up Milton’s legal bills

Divisive issue of extension keeps lawyers logging hours

Ordinance aims to regulate adult businesses

Porn 101: College Campuses Using Porn in the Classroom

Some Examples

“So you Want to Teach Porn”

Porn University

Should We Study Porn

How Porn Effects Our Sexuality

The Indonesian parliament adopts anti-pornography bill

Porno-politics: a logical conclusion of historical processes

Ministry preaching against porn moving to Vegas

Attorneys for X-Mart move to open in Augusta

Bid to stop strip bar in Glen Eira

Copyright Lawsuit Against PornoTube Withdrawn

2 adult districts pushed Officials say move would curb spread By Michele Morgan Bolton Globe Correspondent / October 23, 2008

Cornetta Closes Love Shack

Business owner: Erotic dancing ‘viable’ in Destin
November 29, 2008 - 10:13 AM
William Hatfield

November 20, 2008
Debbie Griffin
River Falls Journal

November 15, 2008
Fraser Sherman