Joe Francis finds new lawyers, targets 'Girls Gone Mobile'

By Eriq Gardner

Joe Francis obviously loves wild girls. Perhaps as much as he adores lawsuits.

We love bizarre legal filings too, so we were saddened by the news last January that the softcore porn mogul and his lawyer had separated from each other. 

That divorce offered its own entertainment—who fired whom—but without a lawyer, Francis couldn't file lawsuits like the one alleging a conspiracy between a U.S. district judge, the parents of underage women, and the judge's former law partners in a plot to entrap him in a $70 million legal heist in Panama City. 

Where to go for our legal kicks if not for ol' Joe?

No fear. Evidently, Francis has hired a new legal team at Keats McFarland & Wilson, and it hasn't taken long for Francis to put his new lawyers to work.

Francis' Mantra Films has filed a lawsuit against several mobile content businesses and wireless providers, including giants AT&T and Verizon, for allegedly distributing content under a "Girls Gone Mobile" banner that allegedly violates Mantra's trademark on "Girls Gone Wild." 

The complaint is sketchy on the details of the business arrangements, but we'll give it some points for including the NC-17-rated trademark applications as evidentiary exhibits.

Court allows Germans to see cannibalism movie

By Eriq Gardner

We're not sure what's more surprising — that a German court once considered the personal feelings of a cannibal so sacrosanct that it stopped the release a movie that was said to hurt the confessed man-eater's feelings, or that a German court has now reconsidered its stance.

In 2006, convicted cannibal Armin Meiwes successfully sued to prevent the release of "Butterfly, A Grimm Love Story," starring Keri Russell as an exchange student studying criminal psychology in Germany who meets a cannibal inspired by Meiwes. At the time, the court ruled that the movie, otherwise known as "Rohtenburg" and produced by L.A.-based Atlantic Streamline, too closely mirrored real life events and violated his personal rights.

Nothing like a banned movie about cannibalism to whet people's appetites. Or maybe Germans wanted to hear music by German metal legends Rammstein, who Meiwes also threatened to sue after creating a hit song based on the cannibal.

Whatever the case, demand for the movie hasn't ebbed, and now Germans can see the movie in all ts fleshy glory. Or gory? The court has just ruled that public interest outweighs the convict's personal rights. 

Rules changed for sex in Second Life

By Eriq Gardner

The virtual world Second Life enjoyed a meteoric rise after it was launched in 2003. In addition to meeting others and trading virtual property, companies started advertising within the digital environment, bands started rocking there to win fans, and HBO even bought the rights to a series that was created inside the virtual world.

But let's face it: Most people go to Second Life to have virtual sex.

At first, finding virtual sex was easy enough. But some avatars then demanded a bit more reality and less men-posing-as-women. Not surprisingly, the marketplace answered the call, with cyber-brothels and a cyber-prostitution ring offering their services. Soon enough, finding virtual sex became as easy as paying a couple dollars and being whisked to some private "skybox" where an avatar could enjoy pretty much anything he or she wanted, including S&M, a virtual child, etc.

In 2007, German authorities started looking into crimes on the network and there was a bit of buzz that the U.S. Justice department would soon follow.

Linden Lab, the owner of "Second Life," figuring it might be liable for some of the uncouth behavior in the virtual world, promised a "zero tolerance" policy for depictions of child pornography within its borders and threatened to terminate the accounts of any users who were found guilty.

Did the threats work? Maybe a bit. The illicit sex trade became much more discreet, which could explain why the growth of Second Life perhaps stalled and the real estate market within Second Life crashed.

Now, Linden Lab has decided to change its policing of this virtual world. Today, Duane Morris partner Eric Sinrod writes a column on FindLaw describing the new measures, which including a geographical separation of adult content. The move is being seen in some quarters as a serious step to address some of the problems with the virtual sex trade while also allowing those who are into that sort of thing to still find it in Second Life. And while some might cheer the development, and others might complain that Linden Labs has violated some virtual First Amendment by censoring its users and requiring them to verify their age, we can't help but be a little more cynical.

Is it possible that illicit sex in Second Life is being tacitly blessed in the interests of growing the business?

Playboy learns the hard way not to let lawyers pose nude

By Eriq Gardner

A magazine column titled "Lawyer of Love" couldn't possibly last. Sadly, the affair between Chicago attorney Corri Fetman and Playboy Enterprises has ended--appropriately, perhaps--with a lawsuit. 

Fetman has filed a $4.5 million lawsuit against Playboy alleging that Thomas Hagopian, an executive in the digital branch of the company, bombarded her with sexually explicit e-mails and phone calls, groped her, and killed her "Lawyer of Love" column when she rebuffed his advances.

The complaint was filed in Illinois civic court.

Fetman posed nude for Playboy in the February 2008 issue, which included a feature story on her. Later, Hagopian approached Fetman about writing an advice column, and he allegedly told her that he had the ability to "make her a star."

We can't say we're shocked this relationship ended in litigation. But it raises an interesting issue about what level of conduct is acceptable in a work environment like Playboy.

A few years ago, a former assistant on the show "Friends" filed a sexual harassment complaint against producers, and the case made it all the way up to the California Supreme Court. In that case, the Supreme Court determined that there should be some leeway in the lewd and crude behavior used in the production of bawdy entertainment.

"Friends" isn't nearly as explicit as Playboy, but the writers room on a sitcom is arguably a forum in which creative exchange is more necessary than the offices of a magazine, however racy. It will be interesting to see whether Playboy and Hagopian try to justify a little naughty, off-color behavior in the operations of an adult empire.

Supreme Court has seen enough porn

By Eriq Gardner

Free speech activists got a victory today when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously and without comment declined to review a lower court's decision that the Child Online Protection Act of 1998 was unconstitutional and couldn't be enforced. 

The law went onto the books during the Clinton Administration in an attempt to punish websites that published sexually explicit material without verifying that minors wouldn't be seeing it. Since then, the law has been road-blocked by the courts, including the Supreme Court. The justices previously affirmed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit enjoining COPA's enforcement and issued two rulings in 2002 and 2004 also preventing COPA from being used.

The Department of Justice has relentlessly pushed to change the judicial branch's mind on COPA, but as the case of Max Hardcore showed, the government has other criminal tools to pursue alleged smut peddlers. Paul Little, aka Max Hardcore, was charged with using a computer server to sell obscene matter, and was sentenced to four years in prison. 

With the transfer of power in the executive branch, and the Supreme Court's refusal to reconsider COPA, prosecutors will probably back off being too aggressive on the war against hardcore porn online.

Now Verne Troyer Sues Ex-Girlfriend Over Sex Tape

By Eriq Gardner

The Verne Troyer sex tape scandal isn't over. Troyer settled with the porn distributor who got ahold of the tape and and successfully got the U.S. District Court to block the tape's release.

But then the woman on the tape, Troyer's ex-girlfriend Ranae Shrider, started making trouble. So now Troyer is suing her for $20 million, claiming she's abusive and has inflicted emotional distress on the "Austin Powers" actor. Troyer also claims a copyright on the tape, though it's not exactly clear why he's entitled to it. Here's a copy of the complaint.

Did 'Girls Gone Wild' Exploit Spitzer Call Girl? Or the Woman She Claimed to Be?

Posted by Eriq Gardner

The whole Elliot Spitzer affair was strange enough. When Ashley Dupre, the call girl at the center of the sex scandal with Spitzer, tangled with "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis for exploiting her in a video, the episode got even weirder.

Hard to believe there's any room to increase the surreality of the situation, but now a New Jersey woman named Amber Arpaio is suing both Durpre and Francis because in the infamous video, Dupre claimed to be Arpaio, flashing Arpaio's driver's license as a way to convince "Girls Gone Wild" employees that she was old enough to be filmed naked.

There's enough Pirandello-like role-playing here to make one's head spin, but what it comes down to is this: If Dupre presents herself as Arpaio on film and subsequently claims exploitation by the filmmakers, doesn't that mean that Arpaio is really the exploited one? So says Arpaio's claim in New Jersey district court, where she alleges invasion of privacy, defamation, unauthorized use of name for advertisement, injury to reputation, and a conspiracy to commit a tort.

This strange, little twist now makes Ashley Dupre and Joe Francis co-defendents together. How nice.

TMZ Can Repost Sex Tape Thanks to Verne Troyer's Ex

Posted by Eriq Gardner

With all the attention paid to Verne Troyer, has anybody bothered to focus on the woman involved in the infamous sex tape?

Casting no stone unturned, TMZ has, and they now get a sweet reward.

A judge has allowed TMZ to repost portions of the Troyer sex tape after the woman, Ranae Shrider, signed a declaration filed in federal court in Los Angeles granting her permission. Turns out that the tape was created with her video camera.

TMZ Can't Get Comment From TMZ

Posted by Eriq Gardner

We just can't get our minds off that Verne Troyer sex tape (as hard as we try).

But forgetting the legal issuues for a moment, there was a bit of funny in the TMZ article that reported that TMZ was being sued.

"In addition to damages, Troyer wants an injunction prohibiting further dissemination of the video.

Calls to TMZ were not returned."

Stupid busy signal.