Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican from Arizona, joined eight other Republicans last Tuesday in introducing a new bill (S3499), the Stop Adults’ Facilitation of the Exploitation of Youth Act, or Internet Safety Act. If passed the law will impose serious penalties on ISPs and commercial web sites.

While the exact language of the bill has not yet been published, a copy of the bill was reviewed by CNET News.com sister site silicon.com. Their subsequent report reveals the following details.

ISPs will be fined $150,000 for the first offence and $300,000 thereafter for failing to report to authorities any CP sightings on their networks.

Commercial web site owners, with sexually explicit content, must place “clearly identifiable marks or notices” in either the site’s code or on the pages themselves. The specifications for these labels are to be defined by the US government. Failure to comply could land a site owner in prison for up to 15 years!

The bill also makes it a crime for “using misleading domain names to direct children to harmful material on the Internet”. The proposed legislation also delivers penalties for knowingly embedding words or images in a site’s source code with the intention of deceiving minors into viewing harmful content. Violators will be subject to as much as 20 years in prison!

The bill uses existing federal law for its definition of sexually explicit materials - all types of sexual intercourse: bestiality, masturbation, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person. It is important to note that in one case the courts ruled “lascivious exhibition” of the pubic area could extend to images of people wearing clothing, such as bikini bathing suits, leotards, or underwear.

Criticism has already been expressed over the impact this proposed law would have on artistic, educational, and news sites. In addition, non-commercial sites are apparently exempt under the proposed law, raising questions as to the definition of commercial.

The confusion continues, as the law would exempt large web sites from the labeling requirement if sexual depictions represent a “small and insignificant part” of the overall site. What guidelines should a web site owner use in determining the definitions of large, small, or insignificant?

In all probability this bill will never make it into the law books, as written. However, in today’s political climate one can never assume. If it does make it into law, there is no question mainstream and adult entertainment interests will mount a vigorous challenge in the courts.

Last week GAYVN News ran an article on their web site announcing a strategic alliance between Lucas Entertainment and Pjur Group. This week, GAYVN deleted the June 8 article and published a new article - apparently driven by the following Lucas Entertainment statement.

June 13, 2006
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

We do not have a deal with Pjur. Lucas Distribution distributes Lucas Entertainment movies to stores or distributors in Europe and Worldwide directly. We do not use Lucom nor do we have any special dealings with Pjur whatsoever. The only truth about this is that we use Pjur in our movies.

Lucom formerly had an exclusive deal to distribute our product in Europe, but no longer does. We greatly appreciate their business as a non-exclusive buyer of our products, but they get the same deal and pricing as every other distributor.

All U.S. and Worldwide Distribution inquiries should be directed to Richard Munguia, Sales Director; Lucas Distribution. Richard((at))LucasEntertainment.com, 212 924 5892 x 17

Below is a copy of the now deleted GAYVN News article, still available in Google cache.

2006-06-08

Lucas Entertainment and Pjur to Co-Market
By: Rick Richards
Posted: 2:21 pm PDT 6-8-2006

NEW YORK - Lucas Entertainment, a leading gay production company and Pjur Group, a global leader in personal lubricants, have entered into a new strategic alliance, which they announced this week.

According to a press release from Pjur, Lucas Entertainment will be using and showing Pjur Group’s products in all of its productions and on its websites. Lucas Entertainment DVDs will soon include a sample of one of the Pjur formulations.

Pjur Group’s sister company, Luxembourg-based Lucom, SA, will be distributing Lucas Entertainment DVD’s on its USA gay website, www.erosusa.com.
With the addition of Lucas Entertainment to its roster, Lucom, SA is now a leader in the distribution of gay videos in the European Union and other countries outside the U.S.

This is one of many articles I’ll post for those of you interested in producing your own content. My focus will be more on working with the models and equipment, than dealing with the legal (2257) stuff.

I thought I’d toss out a few tidbits about shooting outdoors. While the sun is your ideal light source, it can cause problems, because it is so harsh. Digital cameras often have difficulty dealing with the extreme contrasts sun light produces. And models typically squint their eyes in the bright conditions of a sunny day.

Shooting on a bright but overcast day is ideal, because you don’t have to deal with harsh shadows, and the model won’t squint from the bright light.

If you are working in full sun conditions, the ideal times of day to shoot are when the sun is midway in the sky. Too low and you get an orange cast. Too high and you can get shadows on the model’s face that make him look like a raccoon.

Don’t let your models come to an outdoor shoot wearing sunglasses. You want their eyes to adjust to the bright light as much as possible before starting the shoot.

To the extent possible, have your model position his head so he is not looking into harsh sun light. Try shooting up on the model as he is looking down at the camera, and take more profiles to reduce the number of times you have to deal with his squinting in the bright light.

For those unavoidable squinty-eyed shots, have the model close his eyes until you are ready to take the shot. Signal him to open his eyes and quickly take the shot before he squints.

A new site has hit the virtual streets, and its owner is hoping to create a buzz that extends beyond his namesake.

BuzzWest.com offers members a collection of guys from a wide range of genres, suggesting he wants to hit the hot buttons of varied tastes.

The photo sets and videos are a mix of exclusive and nonexclusive, including a collection he shot for Dirk Yates. By my count, there are 79 sets with video. Photographer Buzz West told In Gay Porn that he’s busy shooting more exclusive content and will be posting two new exclusive shoots a week. Videos may be viewed with Windows Media Player as a (Microsoft) DRM protected download or stream, and OSX is not fully supported. Additional viewing options for PSP and iPod are promised. To compensate for the limited volume of content, he’s also included nine leased feeds.

The interior has a slick high-end feel that allows members to view photos and videos in small, medium, or large sizes. Members can also make use of a slide show option while viewing the stills. The newer exclusive sets include a brief write up about the model.

CCBill powers BuzzWest.com, and pays affiliates the standard 50% on all sales and rebills. Promotional materials are limited to a decent collection of mostly tower banners that, in my opinion, are rather poorly done. All of the banners are censored and none are animated. Frankly, I think the promotional side was rushed and he needs to go back and spend some more time on it.

Its difficult to predict how well the site is going to convert, as there’s no sales pitch in the tour. However, the slick interior, and exclusive content, should help with retention, once the site builds up its inventory.

While his promotional materials and volume of content are lacking, I’m impressed with what Buzz is trying to develop here. It was obvious to me that his goal is to produce a high-quality product. With a little bit of refinement, I think that’s exactly what Buzz is going to deliver.

If you are an affiliate webmaster, you’ve probably developed one or more properties to attract consumers. Once there, your goal is up selling them to a variety of sponsors. In today’s market this is a smart strategy, because submitting AVS, free site galleries, or TGP galleries simply doesn’t deliver the sales it use to. To be successful you must now become the hub for consumer activity.

Regardless of your choice, TGP, links site, free site, or blog, the challenge is in generating traffic. All to often webmasters place so much priority on generating traffic they loose sight of what should be an equally important component of their operation - stickiness.

There is an old saying amongst marketers, “Its easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to sell a new one.” How much attention do you pay to retaining consumers you’ve already attracted? What percentage of your traffic bookmarks your sites? And what are you doing to improve on that percentage?

There are a lot of factors to consider in developing stickiness. Certainly design is one of them. Frequent updates, and fresh new materials are essential, as well. The most important, however, is establishing credibility. Does the customer trust you? Are you delivering something of value? If the recommendations you make to consumers end up being disappointments, why would they want to come back for more? Each year consumer surveys confirm the most important factor in making on-line sales is trust.

It is so easy to play that old game of “take the money and run,” but you won’t get them back for future sales. And let’s face it; traffic isn’t getting any easier to come by, so you need to make the most of it.

Developing a loyal following is a long-term approach, but if you plan on being in business five years from now it’s the only strategy to have.

Just in time for the summer slump, IntenseCash has announced the introduction of an alternate tour for their top converting property, BrokeStraightBoys.com. IntenseCash reports tests of the new tour produced “amazing” results. With it comes a completely separate set of promotional materials, including 13 hosted galleries.

IntenseCash.com also has 700 new free hosted galleries in development for BrokeStraightBoys and all their other properties.

Am I Straight
Ass Lick Boys
Gay Boys Feet
Gay Kingdom
Gay Sex Show
His Club
HS Boys
Never Sucked Cock
Spring Break Guys
Straight Boys Jerk Off
Stroke Show
Swallow Boys

I’m always astonished when someone posts the contents of a private text conversation, be it accurate or manufactured, in a public forum. Those that advocate such a practice, regardless of the caveats they tack on, equally amaze me. I have to believe they do so without regard to the consequences.

We work in a global business environment where it is common for close business relationships to develop either in part, or exclusively, in a text only medium. The evolution of these relationships almost always involves being more candid with each other than we might in a public forum. We may also engage in some gossip exchange that would never be said publicly. After all, it’s only human nature. While we all like to think that good relationships go on forever the fact is some do not, and in a breakdown things often get said that are best kept private.

Yet some individuals do air the private contents of both cordial and hostile conversations publicly. To make things worse, some of these postings are, shall we say, a bit embellished. In fact, some would qualify as pure fiction.

Perhaps a lot of people don’t see the harm in this, because they watch so much of it on afternoon TV talk shows. But the TV shows are for entertainment, a far cry from the intent and atmosphere of a business forum.

From my perspective, the conduct of an individual, or the advocacy of that conduct by another individual, is very telling in a business-to-business environment. I’m not comfortable developing a close business relationship with anyone that demonstrates their willingness to air private conversations, regardless of the circumstances. Nor will I warm up to anyone who advocates such practices. And I can assure you I’m not alone in this thinking.

Some would argue it really depends on the circumstances. I would argue that in every case these incidences are driven by the heat of the moment, and therefore are possible in any circumstance. A chance I’m not willing to take.

We all demand that government and big business respect our privacy, yet many of us turn a blind eye when we do it to ourselves. There is no line in the sand when it comes to respecting privacy. Either you do, or you do not.

This is one of many articles I’ll post for those of you interested in producing your own content. My focus will be more on working with the models and equipment, than dealing with the legal (2257) stuff.

I’ve mentioned model drama a few times in previous posts, but never really explained what it is. I suppose I should remind everyone that my experience is with eighteen to twenty something guys, so maybe its different with the mature models. Or maybe it’s a little less of an issue with the older guys. I don’t know. I can tell you every producer I’ve talked to knows exactly what it is. Someone just entering this end of the business may know what it is, but probably has no idea how much impact its going to have on his or her sanity and productivity.

What is model drama? It’s all the baggage and personal problems a model brings with him, and he typically has a lot of it. More over, he wants to dump as much of it as he can square on your shoulders. The longer you work with a model, the worse it gets.

Legal, physical health, mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, love life, family problems, relationship issues, financial crises, and transportation problems drive most of the model drama you will encounter. A typical model will have problems in most of these areas. Perhaps not all at the same time, but don’t bet on it.

You may be thinking this is ridiculous. There is no reason to put up with a model that has so many problems. Just dump him and move on, right? Well, I’m here to tell you its not that simple. Good-looking guys that are willing to shoot porn don’t fall out of trees. Of those you can find, few will be without some sort of drama. And the more you work with a guy, the more that drama comes out.

Obviously you can avoid a lot of the drama by just working with a model one time. This is how a lot of the larger, more established, producers deal with it. For them, model supply isn’t an issue. They are well known and have a steady flow of new guys wanting work. As a small producer, you will not have this luxury. You will find yourself working with the same model for as long as you can hold onto him.

There will be times when you have several models working with you, and times when you have none. Most models don’t stick around for very long, so it’s best to grab as much as you can, when you can. Expect the drama, and deal with it to the best of your ability. If it gets to be too much, then don’t work with him any more. Deciding how long to work with a guy will most likely be driven by how hot he is. Still, you need to know when to let go, or risk sacrificing your own mental health.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Don’t get caught up in the model’s personal life. It will only cause you grief, and probably cost you money.

A friend of mine recently started producing his own content. Before starting, he didn’t take my warnings about model drama seriously. A few weeks into it, he called complaining about all the problems the models were causing. He was frustrated with how much of his time gets eaten up dealing with all the issues. He could not understand how anyone can go through life with so many problems, as these models have. I just laughed.

TakeMyCum.com is the latest in a growing collection of properties at BigCashSociety.com. There are over 80 videos on the site and an average of two new videos will be added each week.

Visitors are free to browse the site and check out the 30 second sample videos. These professionally shot and edited videos average 12 minutes in length. Each video includes up-close and personal commentary on the hunk’s sexual workout and life experiences - in their own words, thoughts and voice. There are no disruptive interviewer questions. Unlike most VOD or PPV video sites, the customer may keep any purchased video for life.

Webmasters pick up $5 on each $14.95 video purchase, and receive $5 for any future purchases made by their referred customers. BigCashSociety.com provides a collection of downloadable banners to promote the new site.

Webmasters have more control by sending surfers directly to a specific episode or model within several of the PrideBucks’ property tours. The new feature is intended to increase conversions by sending surfers directly to a page that features content you are promoting. PrideBucks sees this as an ideal resource for webmasters posting galleries, blogging about a specific scene, or reviewing sites.

Instructions, along with a list of all current episodes and model pages for CircleJerkBoys, MenOver30 and ExtraBigDicks can be found once you log into your account at PrideBucks.com.