US: Joe Francis, GGW Pornographer, Adds to His Rap Sheet

Girls Gone Wild founder, Joe Francis, "mugging" for the camera

Joe Francis, famous for exploiting Spring Break exhibitionism on film, then distributing myriad Girls Gone Wild videos via the internet and late-night television ads, has gone and got himself in even more trouble following his arrest for contempt of court earlier this month.

He now adds the following felonies to his rap sheet: tax evasion, bribing a prison guard and having drugs and large amounts of cash in his prison cell.

KLTV 7 reports on the tax evasion charges:

"Joe Francis, the creator of the video series "Girls Gone Wild," has been indicted for federal tax evasion for deducting more than $20 million in false business expenses.

The "Girls Gone Wild" series has been hugely successful for Francis and his companies, Sands Media Inc. and Mantra Films Inc. Francis has raked in millions from the videos, which showcase alcohol-fueled binges and intoxicated coeds exposing themselves at popular spring break destinations and Mardi Gras.

A federal grand jury in Reno, Nev., returned the indictment against Francis for allegedly using offshore bank accounts to conceal his earnings in 2002 and 2003. Francis is believed to make more than $25 million a year from the videos.

According to the Justice Department, in addition to deducting $20 million in fraudulent business expenses, Francis allegedly transferred more than $15 million from a U.S.- based brokerage account to Rothwell Ltd., a Cayman Islands corporation that was established by Francis."

The Houston Chronicle reports on the bribery & contraband charges:

The millionaire founder of the Girls Gone Wild video empire was charged Thursday with bribing a jail guard for a bottle of water and having prescription sleeping pills in his cell, authorities said.

When he learned of the new charges, Joe Francis waived his right to a bond hearing for the contempt of court charge that had led to his being jailed. Francis cried as his mother blew him a kiss while he was led from a federal court room back to his cell.

"I didn't do anything," he told his parents as he was led away, the News Herald of Panama City reported.

Francis, 34, was charged with bribing a public servant, three counts of possessing a controlled substance and five counts of introducing contraband — cash and drugs — into a detention facility. The charges are third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.

Francis offered a jail guard $100 for a bottled water Wednesday evening, court records said. When the guard refused, Francis showed him $500, investigators said. Inmates are not allowed to have cash in the jail.

When supervisors searched Francis' cell, they found 16 prescription pills, including the sleeping medication Lunesta and the anti-anxiety pill lorazepam, according to court records.

UK: Jane Austen Invoked as Porn Defense

WWJ(ane)D? Probably not condone violent & pornographic
images of women being raped and murdered

UNITED KINGDOM -- Jane Austen seems an unlikely standard-bearer for those who defend the right to look at images depicting women being tortured and raped.

The novelist was quoted during a conference at Durham University this week, which debated proposed legislation that would make possession of “extreme pornography” a criminal offence carrying a three-year prison sentence.

The decision to introduce a new law followed a long campaign by a mother whose daughter was killed in 2003 by a man who was said to have been a obsessive viewer of violent porn sites.

Supporters of the new sanction, part of the Criminal Justice Bill that is due to be brought before the Commons in the next few months, see it as a logical extension of laws against child pornography.

The proposed offence covers explicit images of bestiality, necrophilia and serious violence, defined as “acts that appear to be life-threatening or are likely to result in serious, disabling injury”. Such material must have been created solely or primarily for the purpose of sexual arousal, and must show real scenes “or depictions which appear to be real acts”.

It is already illegal to publish or distribute such images in Britain. The Home Office argues that making their possession illegal will give added protection to the young and vulnerable. Opposition among politicians to the new law is likely to be muted. Brave or foolish would be the MP prepared to defend publicly the material shown on a website such as Necrobabes. The site promises users “tastefully erotic death scenes through asphyxia, shooting, knives and more”.

A sister website, Asphyxia, lures browers with the slogan: “Sexy strangled, suffocated, hanged and drowned babes. It takes your breath away.” What sane person could defend the rights of someone who gains arousal from the sight of women being humiliated, degraded and — apparently — murdered?

Step forward Austen, or rather the eponymous heroine of Emma as she remarks to her father: “One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.” Those words went to the heart of the debate during the conference at Durham, “Positions on the Politics of Porn”, which drew together a range of groups — from law professors to bondage aficionados — with a special interest in the proposed new offence.

The argument went something like this: I may not understand your sexuality, indeed I may find the images you like to view grotesque and repugnant, but is that sufficient reason to criminalise the act of viewing? All parties agreed that possessing internet footage of, for example, a genuine strangulation should be unlawful.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TimesOnline.co.uk

New Zealand: Inside an Internet Porn Addict's Mind

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND -- He was an ordinary man with an ordinary interest in soft porn. But when Alex began to search online for child pornography, he began a 15-year descent into degradation that ended with a knock on his door from police. He talks to Ruth Laugesen.

Standing in a fish and chip shop a year ago, Alex realised something had changed. When a little girl walked into the shop, Alex glanced at her and felt nothing.

"There was no sexualisation going on, and there was no guilt going on. That was the most amazing feeling I can remember having," Alex says.

Alex is recovering from a 15-year compulsion that began with a hunt for soft core adult porn, but saw him become a paying customer of the global internet child pornography industry. Children, toddlers and even babies are obscenely degraded and exploited on film to feed the cravings of men like Alex, men safe on the other side of the world, gaping at their computers.

In his search for sensation, he built up what he believes could be one of the largest New Zealand collections of sexual images of children, perhaps tens of thousands of images. The pictures ranged from fully clothed teens through to little girls and babies and crossed every sick boundary, including rape, violence and bestiality.

When Alex walks into the meeting room at Wellington sexual offenders treatment centre Wellstop, he could be anyone, in any workplace. He is relaxed, pleasant-looking and talks easily. He is neatly dressed in a business shirt and slacks, with a zip-up knit top.

This is how Alex appeared to the world every day at the office. But he was a man divided. By night he trawled through filth, rolling in the virtual gutter of the internet.

Alex is not his real name. He wants to remain anonymous, but he also wants to tell other men trapped in a cycle of compulsive pornography consumption, including child pornography, that help is available. And while child sex offenders and consumers of child porn are notorious for minimising their actions and refusing to accept responsibility, Alex says he has tried to be as honest as he can.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT Stuff.co.nz

Iceland: Porn Sexpo Canceled

We posted last week that The Icelandic Counseling and Information Center for Survivors of Sexual Violence (Stígamót) was protesting an upcoming pornography conference to be held in Reykjavík by the group Snowgatherers.

We hear that their efforts were successful, as relayed by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW):

Congratulations to Gudrun Jonsdottir and the women of Stígamót in Iceland for their brilliant strategy and work in getting a major pornography event cancelled there. This event, called Snowgathering, was modeled on the sexpos that are taking place in many other countries. The event was organized by 150 of the major global pornography producers, distributors and webmasters.

Gudrun enlisted the city council, police, other organizations and the hotels to stop the event from being held in Reykjavik. The pornographers were enraged and even threatened, on some of their sites, to "do away" with her and her daughter who is on the city council and introduced the motion to prevent the event from happening.

Check out this website to see how the "snowgatherers" are protesting being thwarted:

snowgathering.com

Hungary: Teen Porn May be Legalized

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY -- A bill modifying Hungary's penal code could allow pornographic material involving 14- to 17-year-olds to be made and kept for personal use.

The Justice Ministry said the draft proposal, presented last month by Hungarian Justice Minister Jozsef Petretei, was in line with European Union norms which give members states the right to regulate the issue at national level.

But Opposition lawmakers attacked the proposal as "legalized pedophilia" and a family welfare group described it as "the waiting room of prostitution."

Petretei said Monday that the proposal had taken into account the age in Hungary — 14 — at which consensual sexual relations are allowed.

"If we consider people 14 years of age to be mature enough to consent to sexual acts, then the chance to make picture recordings of this ... can also be allowed," Petretei told lawmakers in parliament.

The minister added that if deputies felt the issue offended their "moral sensitivity," they could propose changes to the bill.

Petretei also said that to bring Hungarian laws in line with EU norms, the ministry was also advocating changes in the same bill which would increase penalties for some other porn-related issues.

The center-right opposition parties strongly criticized the plan.

"This is a scandal," Miklos Soltesz, from the opposition Christian Democratic Peoples Party, told state television. "We initially thought the intention to legalize child pornography was government insanity ... but it seems they're serious."

Idiko Gall Pelcz from Fidesz, the largest center-right opposition party, described the proposal as "legalized pedophilia," calling it "revolting and distressing."

"I can only hope that there will be many of us here in parliament who agree ... that to make pornographic recordings of minors is not part of and not a necessary condition of natural sexual development," Gall Pelcz said in parliament.

A civic group described the plan as "the waiting room of prostitution."

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT USAToday.com