Pornstar News: The Ron Jeremy Collection

Pornstar Ron Jeremy just signed an exclusive deal with Pipedream Products for his own signature line of toys. Pipedream bought out the company - Las Vegas Novelties - that Jeremy used to endorse toys for. I did a search in my affiliate store for “The Ron Jeremy Collection”. It turns out that he only has 4-5 toys that he made with his old company. Not much of a collection. I would have thought Jeremy, arguably one of the top 3 pornstars of all time (you could argue that either he, Jenna Jameson, or John Holmes is the best) would have more signature toys. Much more.

On a lighter note, I thought that the set of over 1700 movies he’s received film credit for in his career was the “The Ron Jeremy Collection"? Or aren’t the over 5000 women that he’s had sex with on-screen “The Ron Jeremy Collection"? No?

Shifting gears, are you sure that no one’s interested in my Who Wants to be a Pornstar reality gameshow idea? I think Ron Jeremy would make a great host. I heard Jeremy was recently in England shooting some sort of celebrity reality show (similar to The Mole and The Surreal Life) and he was first runner-up. The show had something to do with life on a farm. Apparently, he took fondly to some of the animals, and while he’s not a vegetarian, he avowed not to eat the flesh of an animal who he’s met or whose face he's seen. Since he met with a lot of animals while on that gig, maybe they can be the “The Ron Jeremy Collection"? :)

Porn Info: "The good news is..."

So I, like a lot of expectant porn webmasters, heard late Wednesday that some good news was expected to come down on Thursday in regards to the Temporary Restraining Order that the Free Speech Coalition filed against the Department of Justice. For those who don’t know, the TRO was supposed to temporarily prevent the DOJ from enforcing the revised version of Title 18 U.S.C. §2257, the statute that calls (now) for secondary porn producers as well as primary producers to retain records on models who appear in sexually explicit photos and banners on their domain.

Thursday arrives, and what is this “good news” that us webmasters (and for that matter most of the people that have more than a passing interest in what happens in the adult industry) receive? The TRO was indeed successful. Sort of. Apparently, the FSC and the DOJ reached an agreement wherein for a set period of time (until early September I believe) the Dept would not seek to prosecute any member of the coalition that proves lacking in their record-keeping requirements.

What? Are you kidding me? Weren’t they supposed to be fighting for the whole adult industry? That’s like sending your lawyer to court to sue your ex-employer for your old job back. Only to find out that, not only did he not get you your job back, he also brokered a deal to get himself a great job of his own at your former work place. That’s like sending your best buddy to beg your old girlfriend to take you back. And surprise, surprise, they’re dating now!

As of today (Friday) the coalition’s phone lines, faxes, and e-mail boxes have been blowing up with requests for membership (Ya think?). I’m not going to lie: the moment I heard of the decision, the first thing that came to my mind was, “If only I were a member…” But then common sense prevailed. I figured that sooner or later I would have to tow the line and submit to the new regulations. And since I was so close to conforming anyway, I might as well just comply right now.

I’m thinking that the majority of these people (if not all) who are suddenly hankering to join the FSC are just stalling for time to get their records in order. Everyone will have to comply eventually. Which begs the question, what’s going to happen to all these new members when the date for everyone to comply (coalition member or not) has come and gone? All I will say is that, especially if there is a fee involved with membership in the FSC, I’m expecting said membership numbers to go right back down again.

For anyone who wants to join the FSC their toll-free number is 800-681-0403. There website address is freespeechcoalition.com. But you might want to hurry: the deadline to join and be safe under their 2257-free umbrella is, oh, tomorrow, 5pm EDT.

2much.net Announces Dynamic 2257 Compliancy

(Montreal) June 20, 2005 - Live video chat site creator 2much.net has "with great reluctance" adjusted its LiveCamNetwork 1.9 platform to comply with new revisions to the 2257 regulations which were introduced by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last month.

"We say with great reluctance because this version of the regulations is obviously meant to harrass and annoy the adult industry rather than ferret out child pornography," said Mark Prince, 2much.net president.

The problem is particularly onerous for the Canadian company which would be violating that country's personal privacy laws by distributing the identities of its performers to the webmasters who operate a LiveCamNetwork 1.9 platform.

"We had to resolve that by getting the European and Canadian performers to sign a permission to use their identities to allow them to appear on American sites," said Prince.

Also completely re-written and updated were performer registration pages.

The company's problems were further compounded by the fact that they create live video chat sites - whose each and every private, pay-chat session must be recorded and preserved in an indexable format for up to seven years.

"We solved that, actually all our problems. Thanks to our upgrade, LiveCamNetwork 2.0, actually, we were able to resolve all of the challenges posed by 2257," Prince said.

The company had to once again stop construction of their oft-delayed software upgrade in order to strip portions of it out and integrate them to LiveCamNetwork 1.9.

"Now, we can dynamically upload the 2257 information of any performer from any site to any site should those webmasters choose to enable performers from our MBase," said Prince.

The MBase is the company's innovative live content pool, which is formed by the performers of its various client-sites being shared out and made available to appear on any of the other sites the company has built.

"That way, you can start a new site with no performers, no studios, but a fully populated chat-hostess selection menu," said Prince. "It's more of a plug-out feed, rather than a plug-in."

2much has announced that it will be fully compliant and back to business as usual by deadline, June 23rd.

"We did all this knowing that it will probably be for nothing," said a company spokesperson. "Within a year or a little longer most of these regs will be removed or the whole 2257 section stricken by the Supreme Court, whose job it is to protect the Constitution of the United States. It's a question of time."

###

About the author:
Jones is Media And Communications manager for www.2much.net and Editor in Chief of iSN News - The Link To Live Video Chat.

Porn Reviews: Hammer Time

The Thrillhammer. It sounds either like a new roller coaster (maybe it is depending on your perspective) or some kind of kinky superhero. Actually, it’s a website that showcases women getting off on what I can only describe as elaborate fucking machine contraptions. A whole series of them. The Thrillhammer is also a name that applies to the machines themselves. More on that later.

If you enjoy seeing beautiful women getting off - male presence optional - then this is the site for you. Is there anything more grander than a beautiful woman orgasming? Make no mistake about it, these women are hot. When you play the movies you want to make sure that you have the sound on loud: because when these women cum, they cum fast and furious. They even drown out the sound of the machines. And that’s no mean feat, considering that most of the machines featured in the videos emit a noise that would make a lawnmower or twin-engine Cessna plane jealous.

If there’s one thing I like in a paysite is a trial period for a nominal fee, because:
1. It gives me a chance to really review the site for a song;
2. It instills some measure of confidence in the content on the site in that the owner would allow you to preview the site with a good probability that you will like what you see.
The site gives the subscriber a 3 day trial period for about 5 bucks. And the customer service, which is another thing about a paysite that I think must be up to par, seems good,.

There are over 2700 pics and close to 20 hours worth of video on site. Homegrownvideo.com provides some video content for the site. And from what I’ve seen of the homegrown video content, you owe it to yourself to go on over to homegrownvideo.com and sign up for membership there as well. They also have an introductory period offer ($4.95 for 3 days).

Too cheap for even a trial run? Go on over anyway for the free content (under Previews), anyway. They have some free videos in their forum. Here’s a sample video from the forum. I know that some women are good at faking the big O. So is the model in the video faking it? Who knows? Who cares? It was as good for me as it was for her.

And if you like this orgasm-producing contraption, there’s a link for you to get your very own; custom-made, of course. And not cheap, (of course).

But, just as I would advise a man looking for an expensive life-like sex doll: Ladies, you can get a great lover for a much cheaper price. All it will cost you is your time and effort. And he’ll cuddle with you when he’s done. Let’s see the Thrillhammer do that. :)

Porn News: Show and Sale

It seems that the recently concluded Erotica LA Expo was a rousing success - and yes the pun was intended. Over 40,000 folks attended, half of whom I hear were waiting on line to get an autograph from The Jenna (Miss Jameson if you’re nasty :-)).

I saw footage that was taken at the NY Erotica Expo (which was last month) on the Howard Stern show earlier today on the E! entertainment channel. If you didn’t see the episode, you don’t know what you missed (or knowing what kind of show Stern usually puts on, you have some idea): Tera Patrick flashed both breasts; Britney Rears got spanked in her schoolgirl outfit; Taylor Wane rode one of Stern’s flunkies on a sex swing like she was a cowgirl in heat; Rears and Danish nude model Malou sucked face; and then things got raunchy. And to anyone that did see the program, who was the damsel in the chain-metal bikini? I didn’t quite catch her name...

Yes, it’s expo season for the adult industry. For those of you who are interested, the Cybernet Expo is currently underway in San Diego. But if the imminent Title 18 Section 2257 law and the proposed .xxx top level domain (which are the main topics of discussion there) don’t exactly get you excited, you might want to wait for the AVN Adult Novelty Expo (ANE) 2005. That’s from July 18th to the 20th in Pasadena, CA (like I’ve said before, most events in the adult industry have a west coast bias). But please don’t show up with a hundred dollar bill looking for a couple of vibrators and a cockring. The convention is a showcase for retailers and wholesalers who buy in bulk.

20 Questions

Pornstar Mary Carey is attending a Republican fundraiser in honor of President Bush. From the moment that I first heard about it, I started to wonder aloud and wanted to ask the reader the following:

How many of you would like to see what Ms. Carey wears to the dinner? Who hopes she wears the exact same dress that she wears in the photo featured with the article?

Who among you would not have gone to such an event - even if they’d paid you to - but would now go if given the chance?

How many of you just hope that she doesn’t embarrass herself? Conversely, how many of you hope that she falls flat on her face (shame on you!)?

Who wishes that it was a shindig hosted by President Clinton (and not President Bush) that Mary Carey was going to instead?

How many of you are thinking, “A female porn star who is Republican? Is that possible?”

Who hopes that she becomes lieutenant governor of California? As a state denizen, would you vote for her? Did you vote for her in the recall election?

Do you think she has a snowball’s chance in you-know-where to make lieutenant governor? Who thinks that she’d just be running for office (along with all her other political forays) as a publicity stunt, despite her quips about having political aspirations?

How many of you want her to eventually become a politician so that your stash of Mary Carey porn goes up in value?

Does anyone else (guilty, I must admit) think that this sounds like a plot for a sitcom or romantic comedy: porn star gets dressed up (literally) to look “respectable” enough to mingle with rich Republicans?

Who wonders how a porn company exec got on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Business Advisory Council in the first place? (*raises hand*)

Who hopes that she goes to the dinner and gets it on with some political bigwig? Who would like to see that in her next video?

If she does make it in politics, who thinks that would be a bigger cultural cross-over phenomenon than Jenna Jameson and Traci Lords put together?

Who couldn’t care less about fundraisers or politics, and would just like to see Mary Carey with as little clothing as possible?

How many of you would actually like to see Ms. Carey and her boss show up with coke spoons around their necks?

R.I.P

AVN.com is reporting that Chloe Jones has died. For someone who did not do that many adult films during her four years in the industry, she seemed to be very popular. She will be missed.

You can read more of her biography here.


Chloe Jones
June 17, 1975 - June 4, 2005

What's in a (TLD) name?

They're pushing for a top level domain (TLD) exclusively for porn sites. I’m quoting from this article: “There is also concern that the existence of .xxx will lead to legislation making its use mandatory for sexually explicit material, leading to legal conflicts over the definition of "sexually explicit", free speech rights, and jurisdiction.”

That’s like saying that the Louisville Slugger company in Kentucky shouldn’t make bats anymore because they can be used as weapons. Just because something can be dangerous when placed in the hands of one intent on doing harm, doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t exist. And to tell you the truth, the adult industry and the government are already - and always - at loggerheads with each other when it comes to the First Amendment.

Let me start off by saying I agree with the article in this respect: the existence of an .xxx TLD would be a God-send to parents trying to prevent their children from accessing pornographic sites.

But the reason ".xxx" is not for me has nothing to do with the above-mentioned quote. Not that everyone thinks along the same lines that I do, but, according to the article, in order to use the .xxx TLD, you’d have to download certain internet explorer plugins; plugins that are categorized as spyware and adware. Spyware and adware? No thanks. Lord knows how many hours I've spent trying to rid my computer of popup-inducing software and applications.

And $60 to register a domain (I hear that in the UK that it‘ll cost about 40 pounds)? Unless you as a webmaster are trying to cover all your bases (e.g. you currently own mypornsite.com, my-porn-site.com, mypornsite.net, etc, and would like to own mypornsite.xxx), why bother paying that much? If you’re not purchasing a popular, high-traffic domain directly from another webmaster, any decent domain can be had for less than $20.

Moreover, the “.com” is so entrenched in the layman’s mind, no other TLD comes even close to its popularity. I find that people don’t remember your website URL as well if it doesn’t end in a .com. I think that’s why, with all the television programming out there, .tv is not such a household name as far as TLDs go.

And, not to spread rumors or anything (so remember, you didn‘t hear it from me :-)), I don’t think that the .nets, the .bizs, and the .infos of the world do as well in the search engines. However, the .orgs and the .govs, where the search term is appropriate, seem to have no problems ranking well in SERPs (search engine results pages). That’s just my personal and un-scientific opinion.

Go on and try it: search for popular and generic words on your favorite search engine, and see how many listings come up .tv, .net, .biz, or .info. Or maybe it’s the old “chicken and the egg” puzzle; maybe there are no results to be had because many prospective webmasters fear registering those less popular TLDs in the first place.

Title 18 U.S.C. §2257

I have a bad feeling about this.

My homage to my favorite films of all time (Eps. I - VI) aside, I think the soon-to-take-effect Title 18, Section 2257 laws will hold up in court. Despite the feeling by many adult webmasters that the law is oppressive, unconstitutional, and merely another ploy by the government to harass the adult industry.

If you don’t know, the current statute Title 18 U.S.C. §2257 - in a nutshell - requires that primary producers of pornographic material (those studios and production companies who actually hire the adult talent and film them, and also those entities who run affiliate programs and provide content for resale by porn webmasters) keep detailed and accurate records of all models depicted in an adult manner (read, either nudity or sexual activity is involved). These records should ascertain, most importantly but not solely, that the adult performer is indeed old enough to perform adult work. Up till now, like I said, the onus to retain those records rested only with primary producers.

Enter late June, 2005: 2257 (as it is more commonly known) shall extend to secondary producers, as well. That is, it will soon become incumbent on all porn webmasters to keep such records.

Porn, by its very nature, is a visual medium. It’s very difficult (as I’ve found out time and time again) to promote the material without photographs, because words can only take you so far. In porn - as the advertising cliché goes - you sell the sizzle, not the steak. What I’m trying to do is make a case for the necessity of graphic displays.

Where do I begin to nitpick at Title 18 U.S.C. §2257? We (and I’m including myself in this group) as porn webmasters are expected to keep records on all models portrayed. Including the ones that we’ve never seen before and the ones with barely a body part contained in an image and/or video. The only way we can keep accurate records in such circumstances is if we obtain them directly from the manufacturer of said photos and videos. As much as primary producers need us to sell their wares, I don’t think that they’re ready just yet to share those private adult performer files and make them public. I’ve always maintained that porn studio and production execs are a rather secretive lot.

And to tell you the truth, I think I might be getting off easy (no pun intended, I assure you). I do not host web cams at my site. The reason I mention that is, get this: owner-operators of web cam sites are now required to record and retain, as a file, all live sessions in keeping with the spirit of Title 18 U.S.C. §2257. We’re talking terabytes (and no, that’s not the name of a new porn star) of information storage within the scope of one or two months for the proto-typical site. That web cam site is going to cost a small fortune in extra hosting quotas.

Now a lot of rational-minded legal folk think that there’s no way that this new interpretation of 2257 will weather judiciary appeal.

That being said, my gripe with the law, is not the source of my uneasiness. The “bad feeling” stems from the fact that I don’t expect Title 18 U.S.C. §2257, as it pertains to the average webmaster, to be thrown out or even reasonably modified. Lately, there just seems to be a rash of adult-unfriendly (and Free Speech-assaulting, mind you) bills and decisions that have passed in state and local legislatures all around the country; decisions you wouldn’t have expected to have gone the way that they eventually did:

1. The decision to uphold the ban on the sale of sextoys in the states of Alabama, Texas, and Georgia.
2. The passing of the watered-down-yet-still-onerous version of the original Missouri bill SB 32.
3. The sudden closing of a legal loophole by a New York Appellate Division court; an act that will imminently and without warning shut down a ton of Big Apple adult businesses unless it is repealed.

It seems the Bush administration, with U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales prominently in the foreground, is truly waging a war on pornography. Let’s hope that this war comes to a better resolution than the one in Iraq, so far…(I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. :-))