Gay Porn News: XXX Raids in Times Square
Gay porn producers don’t normally view the federal government as allies. In the past year, nearly a dozen adult companies have been subjected to raids by the FBI looking for record-keeping violations. So on Saturday morning when I got an text message from Owen Hawk with a pic featuring US Marshalls outside a run-down XXX store, I suspected the worst. Who would have guessed that they were there as a team?
Hawk and partner Matthias von Fistenberg from Dark Alley Media, along with the boys at Pitbull Productions, raided a series of adult video stores in Times Square (no doubt sandwiched between ESPN Zone and the Disney Store). The stores were selling counterfeit DVDs from studios including Hot House, Falcon, Raging Stallion, Titan and Jet Set.
With all the hullabaloo about file-sharing — as well as the Orwellian sirens-and-flashing-lights “do not share this DVD” segments at the beginning of certain movies — it’s easy to forget that one of the biggest incursions into gay porn producers sales somes from a guy in a back room with a DVD duplicator. It’s a good thing Dark Alley got them this month — you have to wonder if the US Marshalls are going to be as sympathetic when Gaytanamo comes out.
(Note: Michael Lucas has informed me that his company — Lucas Entertainment — was actually behind the legal dispute that led to the raid. Due to the contentious relationship and competiting claims between the companies involved, I can’t say who’s right but felt I should note it.)
— Mike
riddlemethis February 11th, 2007 at 11:58 PM
Hmm, this may, at first glance, seem like an “Oh wow, great!” story but there’s a dual purpose being served here. It’s fair to assume that the patrons of this adult store did not stick around to find out the nature of the raid, nor will it be openly publicized that a XXX store was raided for selling illegally copied videos. It’s highly unlikely that a new XXX store will open in its place.
No, it will just look like one more casualty of that Nazi bastard aka presidential hopeful (heaven help us!) Rudolph Guiliani’s legacy of bowdlerization. “America’s Mayor”(give me a break!) is remembered by those of us who don’t suffer from cultural amnesia, as a fourth rate burgermeister who used a city’s financial and social problems as an excuse to turn it into a grazing field for torpid middle-American cattle.
Incidentally, there isn’t a Disney Store in Times Square anymore, thank god.
Jeff February 12th, 2007 at 2:58 PM
Uhhh – wrong. The lawsuit was initiated by the companies named in the suit. Stop playing the overly persecuted gay boy at the drop of a hat.
vincent February 12th, 2007 at 3:49 PM
While I do not condone bootlegging of any sort… It is hard to feel sorry for an industry that generates millions upon millions of dollars every year.
riddlemethis February 13th, 2007 at 7:24 AM
Jeffy,
Um, try reading my post AGAIN. I didn’t say it WAS a raid initiated by the gestapo, fool. I said that given the precedence and the absence of any real journalistic coverage it would probably appear that way thus essentially having the same effect.
Work on your reading comprehension skills, stupid hick.
Jeff February 13th, 2007 at 9:34 AM
Vincent. you apparently have no idea what you are talking about. Let me put it this way. Bootlegging is probably the thing way before the government regulations on adult material that will shut down the porn industry.
What happens then when companies cannot afford to make porn, because they are getting their profit margins destroyed?
I will tell you… no more porn. What will you do then? Sorry kids, that’s the way it is.
Anonymous February 16th, 2007 at 6:58 AM
Hey Jeff, care for a game of basketball?
Let me call Tim Hardaway.