AVN Issues Statement: (from www.avn.com)

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - Darren Roberts, president of Internext Expo, issued the following statement this morning, addressing recent trepidation and speculation concerning Internext’s attendee and exhibitor database:

Over the past couple of weeks, many adult industry Webmasters have received demand letters from Acacia Media Technologies Corporation, with regard to its controversial charges of infringement of its Internet streaming patents. Some individuals suspected that Acacia was receiving its contact leads from the industry trade show Internext. This accusation was backed by these individuals indicating that the names and addresses used by Acacia were identical to those used to register for Internext.

Many trade shows, including Internext, offer “badge scanners” to their exhibitors for the purpose of simplifying the process of capturing leads. Without this process in place, it’s very difficult for exhibitors and attendees alike to maximize their presence. It is unfortunate that someone has abused this system and chosen to use the data for another purpose. However, making unfounded accusations and allowing this to create havoc is not the solution.

Internext has never and will never use its attendee or exhibitor lists for any reason other than for promoting Internext-associated events. Internext and its affiliated companies rely on the adult entertainment industry to survive and has fought many difficult battles to preserve the integrity of the adult industry, both online and off, and will continue to do so in the future.

No sooner had this statement been released than people on gofuckyourself.com, the huge webmaster resource forum started responding that they had registered but never actually been on the show floor, therefore couldnt have had their badges scanned.

Lee Noga, a highly respected web entreprenuer had this to say:

“We believe Acacia got their list from multiple sources, and the Internext attendees list was one of many surrendered, er stolen :-)))”

Mark kernes Responds to Cookie Guy:

Cookie Guy writes:

<< In the first paragraph Mr. Kernes seems to think I’m a lawyer correspondent>>

No, my point was that a lot of fans (and even a few pros) in this industry seem to THINK they’re lawyers — or at least they have the same sort of
paranoid mentality as many lawyers I’ve met.

<< I can’t believe Paul Fishbein told his leviathan of letters, Mr. Kernes, to reply to my email.>>

Hmmm… that must be because he didn’t.

<< AVN just doesn’t get it, do they? A quick poll of my Internet friends and associates finds that most now think AVN has something to hide, because of how they reacted to the revelations that Acacia may have acquired their mailing list.>>

Hmmm… that must have been what the words “lawyerly” and “paranoia” referred to!

Kernes

Mark kernes responds to XXX:

XXX writes:

<< 2. It seems to me that AVN’s first and only reaction is to deny anything and everything and threaten legal action against those who even dare to
bring up its name with regard to Acacia, and will resort to bully boy tactics calling those who do liars and defamers.>>

Fer Chris’sake — Cookie Guy claimed he was “ninety-five percent” sure Acacia got his name and address from AVN/InterneXt, yet had no actual
evidence to back that up! And sadly, there are some idiots who read these websites who may put actual credence in such assumptions! That’s why AVN, to preserve its reputation, reacts to such things. If Cookie Guy and XXX don’t like it, perhaps they’ll think twice before assuming that AVN isn’t concerned enough about its reputation to respond when someone attacks it, even if in a half-hearted manner.

<< Anybody who arrives at the conclusion that Acacia’s information on them originated from AVN is lying and malicious.>>

No, simply wrong — and now, having been informed that AVN does not sell or rent its lists, to further claim that it does would be lying and/or
malicious.

<< Why didn’t Mr. Kernes or Mr. Cambria address the scanning of badges at last January’s Internext? Is it that they are embarassed that a certain
company was allowed to invade the privacy of the attendees and gather information on them from the badges? Where was AVN’s security to stop this practice? Why won’t they even allow for the possibility that’s where the leak occurred? >>

That may very well be where the “leak” occurred — but the scanning was not done by AVN, and anyone was free to stop the scanning of his/her own badge. Coding of information on convention badges has been going on for several years, and for those who want their information to be given to a particular scanner — and by extension, anyone to whom that scanner gives/sells such information — the technology is a great time-saver. Those who don’t want such information to go to a particular recipient should not allow their badges to be scanned, and those who don’t want such information to go farther than the particular recipient should do whatever they need to do to assure themselves that it doesn’t.

<< Are Mr. Kernes and Mr. Cambria, on behalf of AVN ready to respond to this quote by Kristin - “I said, “hell no, I said one company has my last name and that’s AVN for InterNext for booth consulting” - or are we going to be subjected to more threats and avoidance of the real issue at hand?>>

Well, since AVN doesn’t sell or rent its attendance lists, Acacia didn’t get Kristen’s name from AVN. What further would you or Kristen like to know from us? If Kristen allowed her badge to be scanned at the convention, that would be one possibility. That Kristen may have forgotten that she supplied her last name to someone else is another. What ISN’T a possibility is that AVN gave/sold her name to Acacia or anyone else.

Kernes

AVN has promised me an official statement, they are investigating this matter. I think that the treatment of Kristen reflects Acacias lack of any concern whatsoever for professionalism and integrity, they are simply leeches looking for a host to feed off of.

AVN Online Editor Ken Michaels Responds as Well:

Hi Mike,

I’m not going to get in the middle of the Mark Kernes/Cookie Guy exchange — they seem like smart fellows, and I’m sure they’ll work it out. And before anyone asks, I don’t have the answers as to where or how Acacia came up with the names that people say came from Internext registrations; if true, “badge scanning” seems as reasonable an explanation to me as any. But I do want to respond to a couple of things CG had to say, specifically:

“As far as I (and many others) are concerned, AVN should do some real reporting on the Acacia issues. Perhaps they could show some leadership… [P]erhaps they could do some investigative reporting (admittedly more effort than reprinting press releases) on how Acacia operates, and the story behind the dramatic rise (and slow fall) in their stock price this summer, despite posting a big loss at the end of June? What about it, Mr. Fishbein? Something? Anything? Leadership?”

Obviously, CG’s unaware that AVN Online has been doing quite a bit more than “reprinting press releases” regarding the Acacia situation, and doing it since the beginning of the year. Feel free to post any or all of the links below (I included so many to make a point — I don’t really expect you to post every single one), but the November feature article specifically answers his challenge, and more.

Ken Michaels

Technical Editor

AVN Online

P.S. Let me know if the links don’t work. Your e-mail needs to be HTML-enabled to see them.

November 2003:

1) Acacia’s Media Patents: The Size And Shape Of The - 200311, features
As many in the adult industry already know, a company called Acacia Media Technologies (Newport Beach, Calif.) owns a series of patents (the oldest da…

October 2003:

1) Acacia at Internext: Saying ”No” - 200310, events
INTERNEXT EXPO DAY 1 GFY Warm Up Party The College Kegger The Internext Welcome Party Traffic Management Seminar The Gay…Roundtable The VIP Martini …

3) Acacia Reaching To Affiliate Sites - 200310, newsarchive
October 24, 2003CYBERSPACE - Acacia Media Technologies may have begun reaching toward adult Internet companies affiliated with or linking to sites tha…

4) Estimate +$1 Million A Year From DMT Licenses: Aca - 200310, newsarchive
October 23, 2003NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Acacia is estimating between $1.1 million and $1.5 million in annual revenues from licensing deals already mad…

5) FightThePatent Raising Money For Patent Battle Non - 200310, newsarchive
October 10, 2003AUSTIN, Texas - He launched FightThePatent.com in August to become an information provider and activism stirrer in the current battle …

6) Hustler, Vivid, Wicked Sign Acacia Patent Licenses - 200310, newsarchive
October 7, 2003LOS ANGELES - Hustler, Vivid Video, and Wicked Pictures have signed licensing deals with Acacia Media Technologies to stream media onli…

7) Matrix President Denies Giving Acacia Member Names - 200310, newsarchive
October 23, 2003VAN NUYS - The president of Matrix Content rejects speculation on adult Webmaster discussion boards that, when his company signed a li…

September 2003:

1) Acacia Allowed To Add Conspiracy Charges - 200309, newsarchive
IRVINE, Calif. - Acacia Media Research won another round in federal court this week. A federal judge agreed the Newport Beach firm, which claims a gro…

2) Acacia Counter-sued For Unfair Trade, Judicial Abu - 200309, newsarchive
LOS ANGELES - Lashing back at what they call Acacia Media Technologies’ “predatory and abusive” tactics in litigating its streaming media patent claim…

3) Acacia Finalizes Licenses With Two Adult Net Playe - 200309, newsarchive
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Acacia Media Technolgies has finalized two licensing deals for its claimed streaming media patents, with New Frontier Media th…

4) Acacia Stops Waivers, Raises Royalties After Nov. - 200309, newsarchive
September 26, 2003NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Acacia Media Technologies says November 30 will be their deadline for offering waviers for past due royalty …

5) Acacia Waiver Offer For “Past Due Royalties” Expir - 200309, newsarchive
NEW YORK - Acacia Media Technologies will not continue offering waivers for claims of past due fees or royalties over its claimed streaming media pate…

6) Web Veteran Joins Patent Suit Information Battle - 200309, newsarchive
AUSTIN, Tx. - With a small number of companies - Acacia Media Research, USA Video, SightSound - making broad patent claims of one or another kind agai…

August 2003:

2) CECash Files For Injunction Against Acacia - 200308, newsarchive
LOS ANGELES - An industry source says Trade News Corporation, which operates adult Webmaster affiliate program CECash, filed August 1 for a preliminar…

3) CECash Preliminary Injunction Against Acacia Denie - 200308, newsarchive
LOS ANGELES - Trade News Corporation (TNC) has lost one round against Acacia Media Technologies. A federal judge on August 15 rejected TNC’s bid for a…

4) David Lace Sites Closed Over Acacia Patent Claim - 200308, newsarchive
LOS ANGELES - The David Lace Productions and David Lace Theater Websites have been shut down, after they made no response to a July federal court inju…

July 2003:

1) The Rise of Civil Litigation, et al, vs. the Adult - 200307, features
Attorney Jonathan Hangartner of San Diego-based Sheppard, Mullin, Richter Indeed, litigants are coming out of the proverbial woodwork, and the Web has…

2) Anyone Streaming Video Will Hear From Us: Acacia - 200307, newsarchive
LOS ANGELES - Anyone streaming video- not just adult entertainment - will hear from Acacia Media Technologies about its streaming media patent claims,…

3) Five Injunctions, Plus A New Target For Acacia: AV - 200307, newsarchive
IRVINE, Calif. - Earlier this week Acacia Research Corp. scored a least a nominal victory when a federal judge handed down preliminary injunctions aga…

4) New Filings: Is Acacia Charging Conspiracy? - 200307, newsarchive
IRVINE, CA - Angered by adult Internet chat board comments challenging their streaming media patent claims, and perhaps riled further by the fact of s…

5) No One Pressured Us On Acacia: BestAdultContent.co - 200307, newsarchive
LAS VEGAS - Acacia Media Technologies believes the Internet Media Protection Association (IMPA) pressured at least three adult entertainment companies…

May 2003:

1) Acacia Lawsuits InspireAdult Net Interest Group - 200305, newsarchive
CHATSWORTH, Calif. - With Acacia Media Technologies suing a number of Internet operators over Digital Media Transmission patents, 15 adult companies h…

2) Acacia Wins ”Adult Language” Point, Licenses Lod - 200305, newsarchive
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - The language of adult entertainment won’t be stricken from court documents or testimony, as a number of adult Internet compani…

April 2003:

1) Prestigious Intellectual Property Guns Join Adult - 200304, newsarchive
NEW YORK - When HomegrownVideo.com decided they weren’t going to take Acacia Research’s patent-infringement litigation against adult entertainment com…

February 2003:

1) The Patent Infringement Industry - 200302, legal
So, how did you read the title to this article? An industry that infringes patents? Or, an industry that attacks infringers of patents? Therein lies t…

2) Stream This: Acacia, Net Companies at Odds Over Pa - 200302, newsarchive
Feb. 24, 2003NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - If your Internet entertainment includes time spent viewing streaming video, you could be helping to make a pile o…

3) Acacia Announces DMT Licenses, Files Patent Infrin - 200302, pressreleases
Feb. 14, 2003NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq:ACTG)(Nasdaq:CBMX) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Acacia M…

Time Wounds all Heals:

About a year and a half ago I was emailed through classmates.com by a chick I used to hang out with in high school. Her name was Delisa, I had always liked her, she was cool and she was, at least as I remembered her, a hottie. Her email alluded to the fact that she was trying to reach me to inform me of the death of a mutual friend. I had not heard from Delisa in over 25 years.

I immediately emailed her back but never got a response, I tried a few more times, still never got a response. I figured she saw my sig and wanted nothing to do with me now that I’m in porn, That happens sometimes but I wouldn’t have figured it from Delisa, we were always the counter culture type, thats why we hung out. Who knows. I quit trying to email her.

Until last night, when on a lark and over 18 months later I tried one last time. This time she answered. Somehow she had never gotten the original emails I had sent. We had a zillion questions for each other.

It’s weird to speak with someone who you knew as a teen, over twenty five years after you last spoke with them. Old memories flood back. I found out that one of my high school friends, Russell, had been found hanging from a tree in the woods by two deer hunters about 2 years ago, it was a suicide. It brought back a flood of memories of Russell, an avid outdoorsman who went into the army right out of high school. He loved camping and being outdoors. It seems in the end depression got the better of him.

Delisa married another of my high school pals, a guy we all called Odie, Odie was a genuine badass, hell most of us were, we fought for sport and I don’t mean boxing, I’m talking drag racing and gang fights. At least Odie and I grew out of it, or so it seems.

Odie and Delisa live near where we all went to school, they certainly seem happy and Delisa was surprised at my choice of vocation but was not judgemental. I never thought that she would be, she just wasn’t the type, but I had no idea why she never answered my emails…now I know she never got them.

Some days you wake up and your life just plods along with all the days blending together each one, more or less just like the last. Then somedays something very small happens and it ends up having a big impact on your life, if for no other reason than it reminds you of so many things long forgotten, so many people that had just slipped from memory, yet at the time they all seemed so important.

I expect to have dinner with them soon, I expect to become re-aquanted with others whom I have long forgotten, including Carla…my high school sweetheart who now lives down the street from Delisa.

Whats weird is that some of them, like Carla, I am apprehensive about seeing again, because it will forever change the way that I remember her and maybe that shouldn’t be changed, whats weird is that at the time she was 3 years younger than I, and that seemed to be a huge huge difference, I was 18 I could drink or anything else I wanted back then, I was an adult. she was 15, it was almost scandalous. Now I am almost 46 and dating two absolutely beautiful girls who are 19 on a regular basis. Carla doesn’t seem so young anymore, but I will lay odds that both the 19 year olds are far more sexually enlightened than Carla is.

My heart goes out to Russell, I just can’t imagine him that way, in my memory he was always happy and laid back.

I guess time really does wound all heals.

Hi Mike,

I just read Mark Kernes’ reply to my email to you, and here are my thoughts.

I’ve always found Mr. Kernes’ prose to be corpulent; with a lot of adipose tissue surrounding very little lean meat. So where’ the beef in this?
There’s not much, I’m afraid. But there is obfuscation, irrelevance, and threats. The fat cats at AVN really want to put a lid on this, don’t they?

In the first paragraph Mr. Kernes seems to think I’m a lawyer correspondent In my original email I didn’t address any legal issues, I just presented my view of the events. I didn’t use any legal terminology, though once I used the word “malice”, but it was not in a specific legal context. Mr. Kernes is hallucinating lawyers here. He also accuses me of paranoia, which is hyperbole on his part. Would I be paranoid if I (like many others) thought MatrixContent (the prime suspect in the Acacia mailing list scandal) had sold my name and address to the enemy?

The second paragraph is a bloated exercise in irrelevance.

In the third paragraph he repeats the paranoia charge, this time marrying it with “lawyerly”. His prose is not just portly, but also turbid and inelegant. He then rambles from the subject of reputation, to oxen being gored, to remedial math. His orotund style seems to smother whatever it is he’s actually trying to communicate. I won’t bore you by reviewing the rest of his reply, but I must ask him a favor: please stop capitalizing words to create emphasis; it’s very annoying.

I can’t believe Paul Fishbein told his leviathan of letters, Mr. Kernes, to reply to my email. I thought their best tactic would be to ignore you and your website, and just let this die down and be forgotten and forgotten quickly as most people in the adult biz have abbreviated attention spans.
But no, AVN themselves are keeping it going. And after setting their counsel, Mr. Cambria, into action, they move their journalistic heavyweight, Mr. Kernes, off his steatopygic rump to keep this ball in play. Do they need the publicity, or something?

AVN just doesn’t get it, do they? A quick poll of my Internet friends and associates finds that most now think AVN has something to hide, because of how they reacted to the revelations that Acacia may have acquired their mailing list. Most people I spoke to (and you and I) don’t believe AVN would willingly cooperate with Acacia, which reveals a lot of goodwill towards AVN. But having Mr. Cambria come out swinging, and having Mr. Kernes follow up in his typical swagbellied style was just fatuous.

I’m now finished with this subject. I’m too busy to be constantly trade barbs with gargantuan talents like Mr. Kernes, so this will be my last email about this matter. As far as I (and many others) are concerned, AVN should do some real reporting on the Acacia issues. Perhaps they could show some leadership. What about sponsoring a seminar where the companies involved in litigation with Acacia could share information with the people who recently received the “final notice” letters? Or perhaps they could do some investigative reporting (admittedly more effort than reprinting press releases) on how Acacia operates, and the story behind the dramatic rise (and slow fall) in their stock price this summer, despite posting a big loss at the end of June? What about it, Mr. Fishbein? Something? Anything?
Leadership?

Cookie Guy

Ok this guy has a vocabulary…and a valid point, I too would like to see AVN pick up the ball and take a stand on this.

Dirty Bob Writes:

Mike:

I think you really OOPSED on this one. You posted this comment today:

“First I find it highly unlikely that AVN would choose to sue anyone over all of this. The fact is Cookie Man and others came to the same conclusion independently, to say the information came from AVN is not any more a lie than it is to say it didn’t come from AVN. I am sure that AVN protects this list but the possiblity that it leaked out covertly is certainly within the realm of believability.”

The OOPS has to be this part: “to say the information came from AVN is not any more a lie than it is to say it didn’t come from AVN.”

C’mon, Michael. It either is a lie or it isn’t. You can’t say both. It either did or did not come from AVN. There is no middle ground. If it leaked out from someone at AVN, as you suggest the possibility, then it did indeed come from AVN - although not officially. If not, the same goes. Period.

For the record, AVN is very possessive of it’s property and name. I personally doubt that this information was released on purpose, and I see no way it could have been accidental.

Dirty Bob

Actually it isnt an oops.

HEY MR.SOUTHPOLE,
A few of us traveled about 2 hrs to go see Felicia Fox dance at a club in Columbus ,OH.Let me tell you we weren’t disappointed at all by her performance.There was about 12-15 of us Caravan from Hustler Ohio to go see her.I have seen her dance many times and never seen such energy put in a performance as I seen hers.The main reason i’m writing about this that i’m not a 100% sure of what category’s are nominated at AVN awards in Jan,but I would like to Nominate Felicia Fox for Feature performer of the year.I know I don’t have a say so as to what is nominated but as an employee of industry for a few years now and a consumer as well ,I would like to some how start a petition to get her nominated if there is such a category.Well I waisted enough of Mr.Flynts time{I’m on salary I dont care} keep up the good work and just to let you know I have gotten alot of people to read your website and get the latest in the JIZ BIZ gossip from you.

Jaime Romero
Hustler-Ohio

I would second that nomination but there is no such category. AVN doesn’t much cover the feature dancing things.

Exotic Dancer Magazine DOES however.

Mark Kernes responds to Cookie Man:

Cookie Guy wrote:

<< As I plainly state in the email, I think that Acacia probably obtained names and addresses from InterNext registrations, but doubt (like you do)
that AVN would cooperate with Acacia. What is suspicious is AVN’s heavy-handed response to the dissemination of this news.>>

What’s fascinating to me is how many “lawyer” correspondents apparently exist in the porn fan letter-writing base who’ve never been to law school but who nonetheless have that peculiar brand of paranoia that allows actual lawyers to create lawsuits out of ephemera and to enter heaven by squeezing camels through the eye of a needle.

(Of particular recent interest to me was Rodger Jacobs’ attempt to “correct” my use of the word “slander” in connection with Luke Ford’s near-defamation of Eddie Wedelstedt’s Eddie’s Kids program and his comparison of the situation to Jerry Falwell’s defamation suit against Hustler back in the ’80s, when anyone who had any legal training and who’s familiar with that case would know that the primary differences between the two are that
Falwell is/was a public figure and Wedelstedt is not, and that Ford implied that Wedelstedt was using donated funds to buy cocaine for some claimed
addiction — a fiduciary fraud — while Falwell was “accused” of fucking his own mother; not even a crime in many states.)

But be that as it may, the reason lawyers like Cambria write letters like the one reprinted in your column is because Internet porn gossip, as exemplified by Ford (setgo), GFY and some others, is in roughly the same state as was Hollywood gossip in the ’50s: Full of innuendo and personal
grudge airings, both of which are bandied about and expounded upon, using the above-mentioned “lawyerly” paranoia, until they are blown wildly out of proportion — and, of course, very short on facts.

The point is, a letter like Cambria’s is necessary to put these paranoia mavens on notice that people whose reputations are at stake (like AVN) take
such allegations pretty seriously.

Now, many people consider the Internet to be the modern-day equivalent of the wild and wooly Old West, where anything goes, especially in the area of defamation and character assassination, because “Hey, just try and find me — and if you do, try and find my assets, because they’re either well hidden or (and this is the more common problem) I HAVEN’T GOT ANY!”

And yet, reputation still counts for something in modern society — and believe me, you wouldn’t want to live in a society where it didn’t, though the way things in America are going, you may get your chance — and hence, people (like AVN) who’ve spent a few years delivering on what they say they’re going to deliver on and not fucking people over unnecessarily and generally being honest in their business dealings, have to protect said reputation when outright lies are told about it.

The fact is, AVN doesn’t sell or rent its mailing lists or lists of attendees at conventions, period. So when somebody says, “Well, they MUST have gotten my name from AVN,” that has to be a lie. Now, the person saying it may well believe that what he says is true… but that doesn’t make it any less of a lie. And after having been informed that it IS a lie, to keep saying it is defamatory in the common use of the term, though whether it meets the legal standard of “defamation” would be a matter for the court.

What I find fascinating is the mindset of people who apparently DON’T take reputations seriously — though one has to wonder if their attitude depends on whose ox is being gored. As I suspect you already know, you DON’T want to be around people who have no respect for your reputation, because that means they have no respect for you as a person. And my experience with people like that is that they have no respect for ANYONE’s reputation, often not even their own. To them, reputations are just another mental construct to bandy about while they play out their own power trips, apparently unconscious of the harm they’re causing, and certainly in complete disregard of it. And whether “unconscious” or “in complete disregard” is the stuff of which defamation trials are made — and a certain amount of that determination is based on the history — the “reputation,” if you will — of the person who continues to tell lies about the plaintiff.

For instance, Cookie Guy writes:

<< I received a letter from Acacia this past Wednesday. One of the first things I considered was where they could have acquired the name and address where the letter was sent. After some thought, the way the letter was addressed, the person it was addressed to (not me, but someone no longer with my company), and the address it was sent to, led me to the conclusion that the only correspondence received that fit the above criteria was the InterNext registration materials sent by AVN. I am not one hundred percent sure about this, as we’ve used this address for a few years and had dealings with a few correspondents using it. I would, however, describe myself as being greater than ninety-five percent sure.>>

Now, on what POSSIBLE basis does this guy, who admits that he’s given out his contact info to “a few correspondents,” get to be “ninety-five percent sure” that Acacia got it from AVN? I mean, can you IMAGINE a basis for him saying that? All it takes is one of his correspondents even inadvertently passing his address on to some other party — if in fact the correspondent didn’t itself give the address to Acacia! But no, he’s “ninety-five percent sure” it was AVN.

Well, guess what, buddy: You may get your chance to expound on the reasoning behind that “ninety-five percent sure” in court, so I hope you’re prepared to do it — but Cambria’s letter is giving you the opportunity to avoid spending all that time and money by encouraging you to re-examine your position. Because your claim that you’re “ninety-five percent sure” that AVN/InterneXt is the source is 95 percent *damaging* to AVN’s reputation. And damage means bucks, and AVN is going to be looking for somebody to pay those bucks.

I mean, I could take Cookie Guy’s letter apart sentence by sentence and show you how it adds up to defamation — the sentence “But we came to our
conclusion not out of malice, but because of the facts as we saw them.” is particularly revealing — and I’ve never been to law school either; just been hanging around lawyers for 35 years in one profession or another, and paying attention to what I heard. But let me just deal with this:

<< For AVN to take this post so seriously as to set legal heavyweight Paul Cambria into action poses more questions than it answers. The world class spin doctoring makes it obvious that AVN is very concerned, perhaps embarrassed, perhaps frightened, about these allegations. Why is that?>>

“Why” is because AVN has a reputation to protect in the business community for fair dealing and for keeping its word. And only someone who DIDN’T have respect for that reputation (even though he claims he does) would think that Cambria’s letter “poses more questions than it answers.” AVN intends to protect its reputation not only from people who deliberately lie about it, but also from those add 2+2 and manage to get 5. Try to think of Cambria’s letter as “Remedial Math 101.”

Kernes

Because it’s a slow day in porn news, at least untill someones office ignites into a blazing inferno I am going to pose some thoughts on this.

First I find it highly unlikely that AVN would choose to sue anyone over all of this. The fact is Cookie Man and others came to the same conclusion independently, to say the information came from AVN is not any more a lie than it is to say it didn’t come from AVN. I am sure that AVN protects this list but the possiblity that it leaked out covertly is certainly within the realm of believability.

I choose the example I did because “Dallas” CODES his registrations so that he knows exactly where the address originated, he never uses the same one twice and it is clearly coded as to its origination. This one clearly implicated last years Internext Show.

Kernes is correct in that AVNs reputation is of the utmost importance, he is wrong in any speculation that legal action against those pointing a finger at AVN would do anything other than to damage that reputation. I don’t believe for a second that AVN sold or gave away this info. I KNOW for fact that AVN has some degree of damage control to do here because it is widely percieved that AVN was the source, and the people that hold that perception factor into AVN’s medium and long term plans.

I suspect AVN will come out of this just fine, if AVN is upset they might want to start asking questions of Acacia, lets face it Acacia has shown no compunction about using subversive methods in the past, it could be that AVN is, in fact, a victim of Acacia way moreso than gofuckyourself.com.

It’s Getting Hot in Porn Valley: Time for a Little Insensitivity:

Y’all know all those fires ripping through California….Apparently now sections of Porn Valley are being threatened. There is an upside to this though. Whether it sinks into the ocean, burns to the ground (That would give the Right Wing Conservatives an analogy wouldnt it?). Anyhow however it goes, when it goes…..I am in the catbirds seat, as we say down here in the south (where we don’t have a worry of sinking into the ocean, or rampaging brush fires….hell its raining here.)

Does this look like her to you?

Yes it does to me too, and Trixie is one of my VERY best friends. The image above is from the New “Elektra” Comic Book from Marvel, Elektra as a comic has been around since 1980 ( about 5 years longer than Trixie Kelly has been alive) but this is a new incarnation of the character. The eyes, lips and hair are unmistakeably Trixie.

Trixie had this to say: “Ya it’s weird it’s definitely a mirror image of me, right down to my big feet. They never contacted me or anything so I don’t know for sure but I guess I am flattered.”

Indeed, modeled after Trixie or not this is a porn first. Lots of pornchacks have had comics but none anything as mainstream as a Marvel Comic.

Andrew Takes Me to Task for Disagreeing with his top 50:

Thanks for your most generous deconstruction of my porn power 50 for Arena. Obviously, I do know about porn, as I work for one of the largest US porn magazines, but what you have to understand is that the list was aimed at a young British readership, and had no pretensions to accuracy in terms of ‘who can make or break you’, Instead, it was a subjective list meant to entertain, and wasn’t nearly as tediously American-centric as you would have it. For the Arena readers, Paul Raymond has had much more sway over their porn consumption than Berth Milton or Paul Fishbein. If I’d been writing it for AVN - god forbid, I’m a real journalist as well - the list would have been different, but instead it was a lively mix of unknown Americans, rising Brits and a few old hands.

Cheers
Andrew

Hey thanks for writing I will definitely post your response. Yours are of course your opinions and mine are mine, and the beauty is that if everyone thought the same….this would be a bloody boring world…as you Brits would say.

You know that guy that Went Over Niagra Falls Last Week? Here’s his Picture:

OK, now who gave Ron Jeremy the hair coloring?

Even more suspicious is when he told reporters moments after this photo was taken that he fell into the Niagra River when he dropped his box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and tried to retrieve them.

Thanks to my buddy Beater for this one!

Hi Mike,

I just read your the item on your website about AVN and Acacia. I’m one of the guys that the original poster (on the GFY message board) was referring to when he posted that we thought Acacia had somehow obtained contact information from InterNext registration data–data controlled by AVN.

Below is a copy of an email I sent earlier today to DUC (aka Luke Ford) at SetGo.com.

As I plainly state in the email, I think that Acacia probably obtained names and addresses from InterNext registrations, but doubt (like you do) that AVN would cooperate with Acacia. What is suspicious is AVN”s heavy-handed response to the dissemination of this news.

Thank you for publishing information on the Acacia extortion. I wish more of the adult biz gossip and news sites would inform the general public about this. Instead we get reports on karaoke, Jim Holliday baiting, and Taylor Rain’s drug problems.

Cookie Guy

Hi DUC,

I just read the item on SetGo titled, AVN Denies Acacia Uses Its List, and was intrigued by Paul Cambria’s response to the original post on GFY.

I’m one of the people that Mutt spoke to regarding the matter, and one of the people he was referring to in his GFY post. Contrary to Mr. Cambria’s assertion that “the information is blatantly false, and clearly an intentional and malicious act aimed at discrediting AVN” the information is completely true as reported by Mutt.

I received a letter from Acacia this past Wednesday. One of the first things I considered was where they could have acquired the name and address where the letter was sent. After some thought, the way the letter was addressed, the person it was addressed to (not me, but someone no longer with my company), and the address it was sent to, led me to the conclusion that the only correspondence received that fit the above criteria was the InterNext registration materials sent by AVN. I am not one hundred percent sure about this, as we’ve used this address for a few years and had dealings with a few correspondents using it. I would, however, describe myself as being greater than ninety-five percent sure.

The same day I called a business associate, and told him about the Acacia letter. He called me back the next day to tell me he’d just received the same letter. We discussed where they might have got his details, and he determined that because of how the letter was addressed, and where it was sent, the most likely source was also from his InterNext registration.

We both agreed that it was extremely unlikely that AVN was cooperating with Acacia, and that somehow Acacia had come into possession of the InterNext attendees through a third party. When I spoke to Mutt, we also came to that same conclusion that AVN was probably the source of the mailing list, but that perhaps AVN sold a mailing list to a third party that was surreptitiously associated with Acacia. These are the facts.

What was intriguing about Mr. Cambria’s reply was the force of it, and his strong assertion that someone was deliberately being malicious and attempting to discredit AVN. Does he protest too much?

Also, Mr. Cambria assumes that the information posted is “blatantly false.” What information exactly? The information about me receiving the Acacia letter, my determining that the InterNext registration was the probable source of the address, and my reasons for doing so are, in fact, completely true. Perhaps the source of our (my business associate and I) mailing addresses was not the InterNext registration. But we came to our conclusion not out of malice, but because of the facts as we saw them.

Unlike others in the adult business community, I’ve always held AVN in fairly high regard. Because of this, my initial reaction upon realizing the source of Acacia’s mailing list was AVN, was to doubt that AVN would ever work with Acacia, and that Acacia must have obtained the list covertly.
However, AVN’s over-reaction to the post on GFY (which is a message board renown for it’s immaturity), and their unfounded accusations of malice, falsehoods, and fictitious persons (made through Mr. Cambria), now make me wonder about AVN’s motivations.

For AVN to take this post so seriously as to set legal heavyweight Paul Cambria into action poses more questions than it answers. The world class spin doctoring makes it obvious that AVN is very concerned, perhaps embarrassed, perhaps frightened, about these allegations. Why is that?

I have no ax to grind with AVN, and merely wanted others on GFY who were reporting receiving letters from Acacia to have my input. I don’t post on GFY, and don’t intend to, which was why I asked Mutt to post my conclusions. Since the original post on Friday, it seems that other GFY posters have arrived at the same conclusion as me: that some of the names and addresses where Acacia letters were received this week, came from data captured during the InterNext registration process.

One more point: At the last AVN show there was a booth where the people running it were scanning registration badges. I can’t remember who the booth belonged to, but I do remember that the booth bunnies were very aggressive about scanning everyone who walked past; they took me by surprise and scanned my badge. What is the point of AVN having mailing lists that “are carefully guarded under security measures” when they allow anyone with a booth to scan badges?

CookieGuy

I am going to speculate on Cookie Guy’s specific comments about AVN bringing out the big guns (Cambria). I suspect my speculation is spot on. You see, like it or not video tape as we know it is dying off, same as wax did when CD arrived. DVD is the future but the delivery method now in place is a dinosaur. The days is very near indeed when you will order your DVD off the Internet, you will burn it real time on your DVD burner and you will buy it directly from the manufacturer. The middlemen like the three letter distributors will be gone, the complexion of Porn Valley as we know it will change, drastically. Smart companies are anticipating these changes.

AVN is a smart company, they know that the future of AVN lies with the internet and thatis a big factor in AVN’s medium and long term strategic planning. AVN can ill afford to alienate the people that they may have to depend on to make these goals a reality. This is a very serious allegation and a huge problem for AVN regardless of whether they actually had anything at all to do with it.

There’s an old saying that “perception is reality” it’s true of course and the reality for AVN right now is that the perception is that the list leaked from them. They cannot ignore this reality. I expect strong statements from AVN on this matter in the coming days.

Personally I would like to see AVN and the Free Speech Coalition get behind the movement to fight Acacia, a fight that will take considerable resources, but it’s a fight that every adult company, specially the independent websites, can ill afford to lose. I would like to see AVN, Paul Cambria, Bill Lyon and others get behind this. It would be a good move for them, it might just make heroes out of them to the very part of the adult industry that they need the most.

Did AVN Sell Out to Acacia?

This is a story that is brewing and promises to get bigger, I will try to lay it all out here.

Acacia has claimed that it purchased a patent that covers the transmission of video and audio over the internet, no matter what the file type or size or whatever. If it’s video or audio Acacia claims to own the patent. Acacia has choosen to attack porn companies first, particularly those offering streaming video, MPEGS and MP3 downloads on their websites. Some companies that are big and high profile like AEBN, Hustler and others are easily identified and targeted by Acacia, who sent everyone they could find a letter demanding that they pay royalties to Acacia based on how much the website earns ( the minimum is about 800.00/year)

Some companies have banded together to fight this, AEBN, Homegrown, Video Secrets and others have formed a group that is fightig the validity of this patent, the reasons being outside the scope of this article.

Among the companies who are NOT fighting is Hustler, who was reportedly offered a sweetheart deal to sign up.

Now the biggies are easy to find but Acacia is operating at a huge loss every month while they fight this battle. and they need more people, the easiest to target are the small mom and pop type websites but how does acacia find them all.

Apparently they somehow got their hands in the list of all the antendees at the last few Internext shows. Internext is an adult website show held twice a year by AVN. This list is RICH with small website owners, several of whom sign up for things like this with bogus names and companies in order to protect their real identities.

One such person is my friend Dallas who wrote me last week:

“Hey Bro,
Here is a battle for ya if you haven’t already starting preparing for it…
I got my Acacia notice today and it was addressed to a fake company name
that I only have out ONCE (to avoid junk mail and spam)… to AVN at the
show. Those cock suckers are selling (or giving but I doubt it) our info to
Acacia.

Hope all is well,
Dallas”

Around the same time this topic got VERY hot on the high profile adult webmaster forums like www.gofuckyourself.com. It seems Dallas wasn’t the only one who had this happen, and deducted that AVN had to be the source.

AVN responded swiftly by calling out none other than Paul Cambria to issue a stern statement/warning to the folks on GFY. Here is Cambrias response:

“Gentlemen:

We represent AVN.

It has just come to our attention that you have posted an Internet column at <www.gofuckyourself.com> for October 24, 2003, entitled: “Confirmation That Acacia Using AVN List.” In said column, you assert that two unnamed “people I know” received packets from the notorious Acacia [Information Technologies Corporation] so addressed that they can only be traced to registration at AVN’s Internext. In addition, you assert therein that: “AVN either sold it to them or somebody who bought AVN’s list resold it to Acacia.”

In your column, we assume that by a “list,” you mean AVN’s attendee list to the Internext Exposition, to be held in Las Vegas in January, 2004.

This information is blatantly false, and clearly an intentional and malicious act aimed at discrediting AVN. AVN has two lists that it uses in its business - a list of its subscribers and an attendees list for the Internext Expo. Both of these lists are treated as highly confidential and proprietary by AVN. They are not sold - or given - to anybody, either inside or outside of the adult entertainment industry.

Rather, the lists are carefully guarded under security measures. For you to imply that AVN sold such a list to Acacia for money, is to falsely accuse it of being a traitor to its own customers and clients, which is an extremely damaging allegation.

Accordingly, on behalf of AVN, we demand the names of your anonymous - or dare we say fictitious - purported sources, so that we can verify the accuracy of your “information.” Moreover, while AVN categorically denies your accusations, its carefully constructed reputation as the voice of the adult entertainment industry has been tarnished by falsely associating it with Acacia and its highly controversial patent infringement claims for Internet streaming of audiovisual works.

Accordingly, you are advised that AVN will seek to hold you and your principals, as well as others associated in this enterprise, responsible for any damages which may ensue to its reputation for your baseless assertions in your column.

Very truly yours,
Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria, LLP

by: Paul J. Cambria, Jr. “

I do not in any way think that AVN would knowingly supply this list to Acacia for any amount of recompense. But I have seen enough evidence to say that Acacia got this list from AVN. How they got it could be as simple as carelessness. remember I came up with the entire bill for the 2000 (IIRC) AVN Awards show, from the Venetian hotel. I do not know exactly how that information got into my hands but I would bet someone left it laying around someplace it shouldn’t have been laying around. Or maybe Acacia got it from an AVN Insider or even from a third party who bought it from AVN and resold it.

There are now a LOT of webmasters pointing a finger at AVN on this one and AVN is going to have to do some damage control, whether they are culpable or not. I expect to hear from AVN on this issue sometime today, I will keep you updated.

From the Mailbag Sammy Writes:

“Damn South, Why you want to bag on poor old Jimmy D and deny him his 50 bucks and a blowjob? And what’s all this whining from you? All ow me to name a few of the girls I am certain have given YOU a blowjob this year. There’s Trixie Kelly, Cori Love, Felicia Fox, Papillon, that Lisa chick you brough to the Internext show in Vegas, shall I go on? Theres Lisa Sparks, theres Celena Roxx, and Keli Anderson, theres Vandalia.

Now lets talk about the ones I am pretty sure have attched themselves to the South pole. Theres Kiki D’Aire, Layla Jade, Jesse Jane ( That one alone should keep you from whining) Theres Adella, maybe even Sam Phillips and Sam Lewis.

So shut the hell up and let JimmyD enjoy it while the sun shines on his ass.”

Ok he is right about some and very wrong about some, y’all can decide which cuz I ain’t kissing and telling…But he does make a valid point. I live a pretty damned charnmed life so I ain’t complaining. More Power to ya JimmyD.

And notr empty handed. we went out 4 times and caught a limit everytime

heres a few of them, all red snapper and all 18-20 inches long.

After I took that picture I started cleaning them over an hour lateer I was done, all boneless, skinless filets of prime red snapper, over 1000.00 dollars worth.

It was well after dark before we returned for the last time. Something about being 40 miles offshore well after dark, you have no idea how many stars there really are untill you see them in pitch black with no glare from city lights, no noise, no other boats, nothing. It humbles me.

JimmyD is now taking “donations” for his site, www.simplyjimmyd.com. Now! That he has resorted to begging, doesn’t surprise, nor does it suprise me that he had some guy for over 50.00 bucks in cold hard cash (don’t forget to put it on yer tax return JimmyD). What surprises me is that sonme porn chick offered him a blowjob in leui (however ya spell it) of the cash.

OK that irritates me, I mean I had to have Zupko threaten to never talk to a girl again in order for me to get a BJ, I mean thats a deal right….never have to speak to Zupko again in exchange for ten minutes of indignity with the South Pole in yer mouth. (assuming yer a chick) and JimmyD gets this in exchange for his one or two updates a week?

Hell I host Goddess’s site and as far as I know she hasn’t even blown a kiss in my direction.

OK enough is enough I am now taking donations at mikesouth.com…hell 50 bucks donation to my site gets a three month membership to enjoy all my 150,000 PLUS hardcore photos and and hundreds of video clips.

And if you are a female poornchick….I am taking appointments for blowjobs at InterneXt and Adult Expo…..so if Zupko has been buggin you….I can put a stop to it for ya as a bonus to knowing that you are helping to keep this fine site running.

No Fishing Today…Should get out tomorrow.

The tough go fishing. It’s been too damn long since I got the chance to come down here to Mexico Beach and fish. I decided last night at 8pm to just drop everything and do it.

went out 30 Miles today and in 30 minutes we had a limit (4 Each) of big Red Snapper, we continued to fish and just released them, we also got a few Bar Jacks some Squirrelfish and King Mackeral.

About damn time. I am relegated to dial up down here and am writing this as my email downloads. If anything Important happened today I will post more in a bit, otherwise expect more fishing reports tomorrow.

On the weekend edition of USA Today, theres a front page photo of a handfull of porn chicks, the only two who are recognizeable are Fifi and Layla, the others either arent looking at the camera or are obscured. The article is on the mainstream acceptance of porn. Mainstream acceptance, ya right, they are bigger whores than any pornstar I know, if it makes money, most mainstream people I know will sell their children to get it.

Anyway congrats to Fifi and Layla on what I believe to be a first!

The Billboard They Had to Take Down:

Yep this Billboard was actually in several places around Atlanta last week but it is no more, seems people got their boxers in a bunch over it and 96 Rock attorneys advised them to t