As you may now from
my previous post, gay porn giant Corbin Fisher is finally starting to sue some BitTorrent users for distributing their videos.
Being the good blogger that I am (try not to laugh too hard), I contacted Corbin Fisher about some of the allegations against them. Mainly, that they are being crass and unfeeling ass-hats. Corbin Fisher did not deign to respond. Now, none of my sources are solid enough for me to feel comfortable saying
this is how it is, but I can't help but feel like Corbin Fisher didn't get back to me because the alleged emails do exist. That or I'm not important enough. The lawsuit can be viewed in full
here.
As I said before, this issue is more than just a hot button because the word "porn" is used. It has relevance across the board -
what are our responsibilities regarding protecting closeted queer youth?
Queerty released a blog post from an alleged victim of the suit who
will kill himself if his parents find out. One of the founders of Unicorn Booty, Kevin Farrell, posted a
vlog (video blog) where he talked about almost killing himself because his parents found his porn on his computer (at age 12). A week later, they kicked him out of the home. He moved to his aunt's house. At 16, he got beat up by his best friend (and cousin) because the cousin found gay porn on the computer. Later, his aunt kicked him out, and then he tried to kill himself. Corbin Fisher even said that they have been contacted by people
afraid of being outed.
According to Unicorn Booty
(yes, that's the real name of the blog), Corbin Fisher has been unimaginably callous in regards to their current lawsuit. According to
Unicorn Booty, the porn company's lawyer (Marc J. Randazza) called underage defendants "thieving little shits." That same link will show you an unscientific guess by an unnamed nationally renowned sex educator that there is only, like, 1 in 100,000 chances that a kid will commit suicide from the lawsuit. In my less-than-humble opinion, any chance is too much. Randazza is quoted in another article as saying that the mudslinging about teens killing themselves is "
laughable." The company allegedly sent an email to a Unicorn Booty reader who contacted Corbin Fisher saying that they are "
liberating" gay teens from the closet by outing them.
So, we've established that he's a bad public liaison. Who cares?
Regardless of what is true or not here, it makes me think about the implications of lawsuits, the power of the porn industry, and the hidden dangers to queer youth. So maybe no one will kill themselves...but what if? Then again, if we are always crying wolf, nothing can ever get done. When do the risks outweigh the benefits? When is it okay to say, "yeah, someone could kill themselves, but I doubt it, so let's keep going."
To cap it off, Corbin Fisher's legal team seems just plain silly:
"But it’s the the fourth charge — negligence — that is the most ridiculous. The suit alleges Internet service customers (like most anyone reading this website right now!) who don’t properly secure their wifi networks through password encryption are guilty of facilitating infringement, because these customers let anyone hop on their connection to distribute illegal content" (
Queerty).
I'm going to try to pick up our moods now that we've read about suicide among some of our most vulnerable community members. I had to check the Terms of Service (TOS) on the Corbin Fisher main page before accessing the site to email them. I wanted to contact them (or Liberty Media Holdings, their parent company), but I didn't want to deal with any shoddy lawsuits about freedom of the press. Plus, it's not worth it for me to be the self-righteous victim when getting a lawyer would be a huge stretch of my pocketbook.
Sooo...duh duh duh duuuuuuuh!...the legalese from their TOS. I've highlighted my favorite parts. I like the part where "especially no
fucking U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees may be members." "Fucking" is a legal term frequently used in legal term places. It generally means, "I don't take this seriously, so let's see if someone has read this far."
The text is tiny, but you can enlarge it in a few ways. PC users can hold the CTRL key and spin that wheely thing on their mouse. Or hold CTRL and use the up arrow and down arrow keys. Mac users with a touchpad can zoom in with the touchpad (generally by moving two fingers apart from each other).
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Terms and Conditions
Liberty Media Holdings
http://www.corbinfisher.com
Effective Date: January 1, 2009
Last Modified: March 24, 2011
1.7.3
You agree to re-visit Our Website(s) on a weekly basis, and to use the “refresh” button on Your browser when doing so. Upon each visit, You agree to note the date of the last revision to this Agreement. If the “last modified” date remains unchanged from the last time You reviewed this Agreement, then You may presume that nothing in the Agreement has been changed since the last time You read it. If the “last modified” date has changed, You can be certain that something in the Agreement has been changed, and You agree that You will re-review the Agreement in its entirety and that You will agree to its terms or immediately cease all use of any or Our Website(s).
5.1.1.
Duplicate any part of the Website(s) or the materials contained therein (except as expressly provided elsewhere in this Agreement)
I hope that doesn't mean copying their TOS in part...and I'm pretty sure they can't do anything about this to a member of the press.
5.2.
Additionally – Use of Our Website(s) is strictly prohibited for any use other than for personal, non-commercial use. This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, the following:
5.2.1.
Competitors are not authorized to access or use LMH’s Websites without express, written permission from LMH in advance of such access. Such permission will be liberally granted.
5.2.2.
Members of the law enforcement community, their agents and employees, are not authorized to access or use LMH’s Websites.
5.2.3.
Employees of the United States government, their agents, and their contractors are not authorized to access or use the Company's Websites.
5.2.4
No employee of the United States Department of Homeland Security and especially no fucking U.S. Transportation Security Administration employees may be members.
Somebody's cranky.
6.6
You agree to take all possible measures to keep your username and password secure.
6.7
You agree that if your password security is breached, you are solely responsible for any damage or liability occurring by this breach.
6.8
You are on notice that you are responsible for safeguarding your account information. You agree that, even if you can prove hacking by clear and convincing evidence, you are still liable for any 3rd party use of your username and password.
6.9
You specifically agree that if your account is used to download any of Our content and that content is later found on a one-click hosting site, a file locker site, a torrent site, a tube site, or any other site, service or server or any other medium used for sharing content, that You will pay liquidated damages of $25,000 to Us. However, if it can be shown that your account was compromised because of a security breach at Corbin Fisher, and not a result of your negligence or intentional sharing of your account, then you will not be responsible for these liquidated damages.
9.2.
In no event shall Our maximum total aggregate liability hereunder for direct damages exceed the total fees, actually paid by You, for use of one of Our Websites for a period of no more than one (1) month from the accrual of the applicable cause or causes of action. Because some jurisdictions prohibit the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to You.
10.4.
You acknowledge and agree that upon transmission of Your complaint to us, You will be considered to have engaged in settlement discussions with Us, and neither party will initiate formal legal action while non-adversarial resolution is in progress. You agree that You will not file suit unless and until We issue a statement to You that We have taken Our final action, and that no further action will be taken without adversarial proceedings. At that point, You may proceed with arbitration as provided for under this Agreement.
10.5.
You acknowledge that once You accept any of Our offers of non-adversarial resolution, that You irrevocably waive any and all possible claims for any allegedly offending material on Our Website(s) and that if You do bring any action against Us that You hereby stipulate that You will bear Your own costs and fees incurred in the action, regardless of the outcome of that action, and that You stipulate that Your damages will be limited to $1, and no more, and that You hereby acknowledge that such amount of $1 is sufficient and adequate.
11.1.1.
Governing Law – This Agreement and all matters arising out of, or otherwise relating to, this Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, excluding its conflict of law provisions. The sum of this paragraph is that any and all disputes between the Parties must be, without exception, brought to court and litigated in San Diego County, California.
11.1.1.1.
All parties to this Agreement agree that all actions or proceedings arising in connection with this Agreement or any services or business interactions between the parties that may be subject to this Agreement shall be tried and/or litigated exclusively in the state and federal courts located in San Diego County, California.
11.1.1.2.
The parties agree to exclusive jurisdiction in, and only in, San Diego County, California.
11.1.1.3.
The parties agree to exclusive venue in, and only in, San Diego County, California.
11.1.1.4.
The parties additionally agree that this choice of venue and forum is mandatory and not permissive in nature, thereby precluding any possibility of litigation between the parties with respect to, or arising out of, this Agreement in a jurisdiction other than that specified in this paragraph.
11.1.1.8.
Any final judgment rendered against a party in any action or proceeding shall be conclusive as to the subject of such final judgment and may be enforced in other jurisdictions in any manner provided by law if such enforcement becomes necessary.
11.2.
Assignment – The rights and liabilities of the parties hereto will bind and inure to the benefit of their respective assignees, successors, executors, and administrators, as the case may be.
Can the Executor of my estate take my membership for his/her/ze's personal use?! Whoopie!
11.3.
Severability – If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction or an arbitrator finds any provision of this Agreement, or any portion thereof, to be unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remainder of this Agreement will continue in full force and effect.
11.4.
Attorneys’ Fees – In the event any Party shall commence any claims, actions, formal legal action, or arbitration to interpret and/or enforce any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement, or relating in any way to this Agreement, including without limitation asserted breaches of representations and warranties, all parties shall bear their own costs and fees.
11.7.
Headings – All headings are solely for the convenience of reference and shall not affect the meaning, construction or effect of this Agreement.
Thanks for the clarification there. I thought it was like the Da Vinci code and was running the heading numbers through my scrambler.
11.1
Service - In order to relieve themselves of the cost, hassle, and inconvenience of traditional service of process, the parties hereby stipulate that either party may serve the other with a complaint and summons by mail, Fed-ex, UPS, or by email. The parties both hereby waive their right to traditional process-server delivered complaints and summons. With respect to e-mail service: both parties agree that email shall be sufficient service of process if the e-mail is sent to the e-mail address on record provided by You when initiating Your membership. Personal, physical, or mail service is not required. This stipulation to receive e-mail service extends to any disputes between the parties, whether they are relevant to this Agreement or not.
12.1.
In various provisions in this Agreement, We have outlined liquidated damages amounts to be applied as penalties against You if You violate these specific provisions. You specifically agree to pay these amounts. In agreeing to pay liquidated damages, You acknowledge that this amount is not a penalty and that the actual damages are uncertain and difficult to ascertain, but that this amount represents the parties’ good faith attempt to calculate an appropriate compensation based on anticipated actual damages.
12.2.
For any breach of a portion of this Agreement that does not specifically state a liquidated damages amount, You hereby agree that any breach of this Agreement shall result in liquidated damages of $5,000.00 per occurrence. You specifically agree to pay this $5,000.00 in liquidated damages.
12.3.
For any breach of this Agreement resulting in liquidated damages owed by You, You specifically agree and We expressly reserve the right to assign Our rights to these liquidated damages to a third party.
12.4.
If We are required to enlist the assistance of an Attorney or other person to collect any liquidated damages or any other amount of money from You, or if We are required to seek the assistance of an Attorney to pursue injunctive relief against You, then You additionally agree that You will reimburse Us for all fees incurred in order to collect these liquidated damages or in order to seek injunctive relief from You. You understand that even a nominal amount of damages may require the expenditure of extensive legal fees, travel expenses, costs, and other amounts that may dwarf the liquidated damages themselves. You agree that You will pay all of these fees and costs.
A lawyer would understand that "extensive legal fees, travel expenses, costs, and other amounts" are involved in some cases. But thanks for telling the average person this...who probably hasn't read a damn part of this agreement.
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To the best of my meager knowledge, some of the terms would not hold up in court. If that is true, why are they in Corbin Fisher's Terms of Service in the first place? Many of these terms are probably there to scare people away, serving much the same purpose as the lawsuit and the publicity generated around it. The grabbing of correct IP addresses for Corbin Fisher's suit might not be foolproof enough for court, but the porn company did get lots of publicity and some money from those who turned themselves in.
If nothing else, I'm just as guilty of fear-mongering and sensationalism as Unicorn Booty and Queerty. But behind the keywords and catchy terms, there is the real possibility that we have no idea how to handle suicide and depression among queer youth.
(On another note, it looks like Queerty is coming back. Thank goodness - otherwise many of these links would be useless.)
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