View Full Version : Shemaleyum Up To $35 A Month Now?
fitz207
07-20-2008, 06:18 AM
Seanchai what's with the increase in the membership fee? More girls? No more pesky split sets? If it's because of some of the things i mentioned above it would be worth it. But if nothing has changed, it sounds a lot like greed.
saifan
07-20-2008, 06:27 AM
Over 10 years of content. It's a huge archive and a great value if you haven't been a member. Too much for me to go month to month but I sign up as more models that I am looking for have new sets.
fitz207
07-20-2008, 06:40 AM
Over 10 years of content. It's a huge archive and a great value if you haven't been a member. Too much for me to go month to month but I sign up as more models that I am looking for have new sets.
I've been a member for years until a few months ago. I've seen all of the old sets. So there would be no reason for me to join again for a long time, unless he's made changes to the site.
GroobySteven
07-20-2008, 07:00 AM
1. Model costs rising rapidly.
2. Servers more expensive due to weak dollar + more bandwidth needed because of the larger videos and images.
3. Buying HD cameras for all photographers.
4. Related expenses rising for shipping, office bills, etc.
5. Software to combat piracy.
blah, blah, blah.
We split ONE set a month, the Girl of the Month. We show at least 8 full sets a week + video in HD or HQ.
Why did you feel the need to bring what seems like a personal message into a public forum? It sounds like a pathetic whine to embarrass me? If you had a question you could easily have emailed me?
Business is business, we don't do it to lose money but we do believe in producing excellent value for money, alongside a product that we're proud of. There is no other transsexual website that offers the value for money that we do.
Many members are grandfathered in at the cheaper rate, some even at $19.99 a month - their cost will NEVER rise.
You can shove that "sounds like greed" comment up your arse also! :-)
seanchai
Hostile
07-20-2008, 07:03 AM
Why do you say "arse and not ass"?
I think he should shove it up your ass sounds more like go fuck yourself than if you say it they way you did.
GroobySteven
07-20-2008, 07:04 AM
Why do you say "arse and not ass"?
I think he should shove it up your ass sounds more like go fuck yourself than if you say it they way you did.
The word is "arse" where I come from. "Ass" kinda like a donkey and I'm against animal cruely.
PatrickFromNYC
07-20-2008, 07:26 AM
well explained Seanchai to the typical "Globally Challenged" American.....
cam22001
07-20-2008, 07:37 AM
well explained Seanchai to the typical "Globally Challenged" American.....
Leave your snide remarks out of the Forum.
PatrickFromNYC
07-20-2008, 07:41 AM
go piss up a rope cam22001
El Nino
07-20-2008, 08:05 AM
The Grand Pecking Order is alive and well.
GroobySteven
07-20-2008, 08:09 AM
Seanchai, you make a living off of PORN...this is a PORN forum..................
I think the guy had a right to make a thread asking about your price increase, which you, in turn, had a right to address with your response...
you get your ass kissed so much on this forum, it's pathetic...but so many of your posts are so negative, and you are probably biting the hand that feeds you...
It's a porn forum for the celebration of SHEMALE PORN. not for calling us greedy for increasing the price.
He could easily have PM'd me or emailed me - we have incredible customer service and I answer every email addressed to me.
My post wasn't negative, I answered it properly. My response to his accusation of "greed" was to the point though, if the question was just about the price increase and not needing to make an attack like that, then it would have been answered, without telling him where to stick that comment.
I fail to see any asskissing of mine here? I don't ask for it - and I don't want it - even if it was true, why do you think it's pathetic?
Bunzee
07-20-2008, 08:24 AM
seanchai has no idea about customer service its a surprise he can run a business....
a customer asks him about price increase, he responds by INSULTING him and cussing him out along with every other potential customer that reads it...
imagine how he responds to private emails, if this is how he responds on a public forum
that is extremely dumb...extremely, and i mean this is coming from the OWNER not an employee
GroobySteven
07-20-2008, 08:56 AM
seanchai has no idea about customer service its a surprise he can run a business....
a customer asks him about price increase, he responds by INSULTING him and cussing him out along with every other potential customer that reads it...
imagine how he responds to private emails, if this is how he responds on a public forum
that is extremely dumb...extremely, and i mean this is coming from the OWNER not an employee
Whom else did I "cuss" out? Nobody, I answered the question - I even answered the original question but told him where he could stick his insult.
You've obviously never emailed me or had anything to do with my company. Your right about one thing, I wouldn't let an employee talk that way to a customer, it's my prerogative. That why unlike most company owners in this industry, I spend more time on boards like this and talking to customers, surfers, tgirls and arseholes.
When I want to know how to run my business, I'll be sure to ask you Bunzy
fitz207
07-20-2008, 10:29 AM
1. Model costs rising rapidly.
2. Servers more expensive due to weak dollar + more bandwidth needed because of the larger videos and images.
3. Buying HD cameras for all photographers.
4. Related expenses rising for shipping, office bills, etc.
5. Software to combat piracy.
blah, blah, blah.
We split ONE set a month, the Girl of the Month. We show at least 8 full sets a week + video in HD or HQ.
Why did you feel the need to bring what seems like a personal message into a public forum? It sounds like a pathetic whine to embarrass me? If you had a question you could easily have emailed me?
Business is business, we don't do it to lose money but we do believe in producing excellent value for money, alongside a product that we're proud of. There is no other transsexual website that offers the value for money that we do.
Many members are grandfathered in at the cheaper rate, some even at $19.99 a month - their cost will NEVER rise.
You can shove that "sounds like greed" comment up your arse also! :-)
seanchai
Well the fact is a lot of webmasters ARE greedy. It seems you don't understand that upping the price because you think your content is worth it sounds arrogant. I'm sure a lot of other webmasters think the same way about their content as well, but they make changes that the member can see.
I can't see you anti piracy software, or how much you are paying the models. ECT. No need to people whinny because they're asking about an increase in price.
I know you can't believe but other people besides the high and mighty seanchai work hard for their money.
arepa01
07-20-2008, 10:32 AM
Supply and Demand... its a free market. Plenty shemale porn websites charging between $2.99 and $49.99 a month to choose from. If a site is not priced properly it will fail. If a customer is not happy to pay for the market price, he can try: 1) negotiate with the business via proper venues 2) move to another site. Being whiners and assholes don`t solve anything.
fitz207
07-20-2008, 10:34 AM
well explained Seanchai to the typical "Globally Challenged" American.....
Hey i hear they are looking for help over at the McCain camp. I'm sure republicans will be happy that a tranny lover is on board.
fitz207
07-20-2008, 10:38 AM
Supply and Demand... its a free market. Plenty shemale porn websites charging between $2.99 and $49.99 a month to choose from. If a site is not priced properly it will fail. If a customer is not happy to pay for the market price, he can try: 1) negotiate with the business via proper venues 2) move to another site. Being whiners and assholes don`t solve anything.
Who the hell was whining? It's not whining to ask why a site increased it's fee. Membership will decline on month by month basis. With nothing new being added.
AllanahStarrNYC
07-20-2008, 10:41 AM
People have no clue how much it costs to run sites, especially a huge site like Yum.
Bunzee
07-20-2008, 10:47 AM
[quote=seanchai]
I know you can't believe but other people besides the high and mighty seanchai work hard for their money.
LOOOOL
kaientai
07-20-2008, 11:03 AM
i have been an of and on member on some of seanchia sites. And even then when i asked questions in the forums he responded and $35 is not that much for a site like yum i mean you pay like 29.95 for a dvd wich is at best 180 min.
plus seanchia posts updates here for his sites wich is much apreciated btw. And he doesn't complain when people post al sorts of pics from his site here.
And he was not rude at all he answered the question like he said and he responded to being called greedy (wich even if he is is human nature in the western world)
But hey what do i know
werwt22
07-20-2008, 07:27 PM
People have no clue how much it costs to run sites, especially a huge site like Yum.
Doesnt matter. they are the consumer and they have a right to ask those questions, and regardless of whether it could have been answered in a pm, a lot of us prefer it be answered in public. It keeps us informed without 1000 people having to pm as opposed to one speaking out in public.
TS DANIELLE FOXXX
07-20-2008, 08:00 PM
1. Model costs rising rapidly.
2. Servers more expensive due to weak dollar + more bandwidth needed because of the larger videos and images.
3. Buying HD cameras for all photographers.
4. Related expenses rising for shipping, office bills, etc.
5. Software to combat piracy.
blah, blah, blah.
We split ONE set a month, the Girl of the Month. We show at least 8 full sets a week + video in HD or HQ.
Why did you feel the need to bring what seems like a personal message into a public forum? It sounds like a pathetic whine to embarrass me? If you had a question you could easily have emailed me?
Business is business, we don't do it to lose money but we do believe in producing excellent value for money, alongside a product that we're proud of. There is no other transsexual website that offers the value for money that we do.
Many members are grandfathered in at the cheaper rate, some even at $19.99 a month - their cost will NEVER rise.
You can shove that "sounds like greed" comment up your arse also! :-)
seanchai
I don't think he was trying to embarrass you, but one must understand that things do go up in price, like my ass...too bad the 99 cent store doesn't sell porn huh?
Dinand
07-20-2008, 08:32 PM
For me it's very simple, the bigger the archive and the most time the site updates the more it can charge so I see no problem shemaleyum increasing their membership.
NYBURBS
07-20-2008, 08:47 PM
Well, free market. He doesn't really have to explain anything but then a customer always has the chance to cancel their membership. The OP did come off a little bit rude, and that probably crawled up Senachi's bad side. Although, I also don't see anything wrong with asking about the price increase on a public forum (just could have done without some of the snide comments).
Alyssa87
07-20-2008, 08:48 PM
1. Model costs rising rapidly.
how much is the going rate these days? :wink:
jimbobw2
07-20-2008, 09:42 PM
Due to all the free porn profits are not what they used to be
http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/arts/2007/10/15/YouPorn-Vivid-Entertainment-Profile
ARMANIXXX
07-20-2008, 09:55 PM
1. Model costs rising rapidly.
2. Servers more expensive due to weak dollar + more bandwidth needed because of the larger videos and images.
3. Buying HD cameras for all photographers.
4. Related expenses rising for shipping, office bills, etc.
5. Software to combat piracy.
blah, blah, blah.
We split ONE set a month, the Girl of the Month. We show at least 8 full sets a week + video in HD or HQ.
Why did you feel the need to bring what seems like a personal message into a public forum? It sounds like a pathetic whine to embarrass me? If you had a question you could easily have emailed me?
Business is business, we don't do it to lose money but we do believe in producing excellent value for money, alongside a product that we're proud of. There is no other transsexual website that offers the value for money that we do.
Many members are grandfathered in at the cheaper rate, some even at $19.99 a month - their cost will NEVER rise.
You can shove that "sounds like greed" comment up your arse also! :-)
seanchai
I don't think he was trying to embarrass you, but one must understand that things do go up in price, like my ass...too bad the 99 cent store doesn't sell porn huh?
Pfft.
rising costs in a recession my ass.......and I didn't say arse.
You stop payin those inflated fee's and trust me, they'll drop back down in a hurry........
bank on that.
Willie Escalade
07-20-2008, 10:10 PM
People have no clue how much it costs to run sites, especially a huge site like Yum.
Believe me, I do. Seanchai's right; the price of other factors that contribute to the site is increasing. So I really can't fault him.
Steve-Oh
07-20-2008, 10:36 PM
What's the big deal?
Yum has every right to raise its prices; it's called the cost of doing business.
I can imagine Seanchai is busy enough with all his ventures and he's heard enough complaints about price increases already.
ARMANIXXX - You stop payin those inflated fee's and trust me, they'll drop back down in a hurry........
Maybe true, but if the SMY sites continue to flourish, the increase is justified. THAT, is the free market at work!
Racer X
07-21-2008, 04:24 AM
Hmmm 35 a month does not sound too bad really. Look at a more mainstream site like Scoreland. 30 a month. Updates every day with 1 maybe 2 photosets. That is about 8 or so a week.
Shemale Yum updates weekly, with about 8 or so updates so equal. Not every score update is video nor do most of the photosets come with video. Shemale yum tends to have video as well as photo with the update.
So . . . sounds good to me, has been really cheap for a long time, but prices are going up all over man.
Plus if you are a cheap bastard you could join one of the grooby sites that has the alternate join Shemale yum for discounted price as a bonus. ;)
fitz207
07-21-2008, 07:15 AM
Plus if you are a cheap bastard you could join one of the grooby sites that has the alternate join Shemale yum for discounted price as a bonus. ;)
Oh I'm not being cheap. I'm currently a member of the following sites:
Shemale-Club.com (Soon to be ex-member) (Sucks because you can only DL 3G in a 24hr period!)
Latina-Shemales.com
Private-transsexual.com
Brazilianshemalesclub.com
Lb69.com
Extreme-ladyboys.com
Shemalestrokers.com
Jbvideo.com
And soon Piladyboy.com
$35 is not bad for new members because of the archives on yum. But for a member who has been there for years, $35 is too much for weekly teaser clips. I would have no problem paying $40 a month if seanchai would post the entire set of the girls.
I have no problem spending money when i feel it's worth it.
And how long have you been a member of shemaleyum anyway Mr. Big Spender??
GroobySteven
07-21-2008, 07:37 AM
I would have no problem paying $40 a month if seanchai would post the entire set of the girls.
I have no problem spending money when i feel it's worth it.
Fitz, I'm a little confused by the above comment. What do you mean the entire set of the girls? Every time an update goes up, every set is entire - which is usually 80-120 images and 7-15 mins of video for each set. The only set that gets "split" is the Girl of the Month - which goes up once a month, we do half the set at the first update of the month - and the second half at the mid-way point (usually 2 weeks later) in the month.
Your going to have to explain what you mean when you say "the entire sets of the girls". PLEASE.
There are some good sites in the ones you mention but some of them charge more than we do, for less material (or cheaper material?).
Sincerely, please let me know on the above, as I really don't know what you mean.
seanchai
Ecstatic
07-22-2008, 04:11 PM
And soon Piladyboy.com
That's music to my ears! :)
Our membership fee is indeed much lower than Yum's, but then again we can't offer either the HUGE archive that they have (who can?) or the number of updates they do, not to mention often introducing girls for the first time who then go on to be very popular. I think it's value for the money, and Seanchai definitely is offering outstanding value. I don't think there's better value for the dollar to be had.
At Piladyboy we're offering value in the form of a niche that's under-represented and with many models you won't see elsewhere. Our inventory is growing (currently over 70 models) but we've a long way to go. We did celebrate our one year anniversary last month though!
MonsieurValentine
07-22-2008, 06:46 PM
1. Model costs rising rapidly.
2. Servers more expensive due to weak dollar + more bandwidth needed because of the larger videos and images.
3. Buying HD cameras for all photographers.
4. Related expenses rising for shipping, office bills, etc.
5. Software to combat piracy.
blah, blah, blah.
We split ONE set a month, the Girl of the Month. We show at least 8 full sets a week + video in HD or HQ.
Why did you feel the need to bring what seems like a personal message into a public forum? It sounds like a pathetic whine to embarrass me? If you had a question you could easily have emailed me?
Business is business, we don't do it to lose money but we do believe in producing excellent value for money, alongside a product that we're proud of. There is no other transsexual website that offers the value for money that we do.
Many members are grandfathered in at the cheaper rate, some even at $19.99 a month - their cost will NEVER rise.
You can shove that "sounds like greed" comment up your arse also! :-)
seanchai
I personally did not find the question out of line. The "greed" comment, yes.
I think every business today is having to explain the rise in costs to their buyers and consumers and a public forum is an ideal means to do so. Everyone from Puma to Borden's is raising their wholesale costs. So, it's not unusual for someone else to ask why.
FiremanforTS
07-22-2008, 08:28 PM
As an old-school member Seanchai I say charge what you need to keep up the great work and make a fair buck as the guy that started it all.
Thanks, and I have enjoyed every penny I have paid.
GroobySteven
07-22-2008, 09:44 PM
Actually if anyone really wants to save some money and get the sites for as little as $16.66 per month !!!!
http://grooby.com/paybymail.html
Dinand
07-22-2008, 11:21 PM
Will you guys shoot Kimber James soon?
GroobySteven
07-22-2008, 11:32 PM
Will you guys shoot Kimber James soon?
Buddy has shot a number of Kimber scenes for Shemale Yum
Goldenguinea
07-23-2008, 01:43 AM
The only problem I ever had with the site was when you got rid of the lower monthly fee for old customers.
GroobySteven
07-23-2008, 01:53 AM
The only problem I ever had with the site was when you got rid of the lower monthly fee for old customers.
We never got rid of any lower monthly fees - anybody who'd stayed a customer was grandfathered in at those prices - with the exception of maybe the $10 for three months price, which is the cost when we started. If members credit cards expired and they were unable to join at the old price, we sorted it out directly with them by either giving them extra months or time on other sites to compensate them. customerservice@grooby.com
Take a look at the link above to see how little you can get it for.
Paladin
07-23-2008, 05:36 AM
It's called supply and demand folks, Econ 101
cam22001
07-23-2008, 06:42 AM
these lowlife wall street scumbags. these motherfuckers are not satisfied being millionaires they want every last penny on this earth. bunch of lowlife punk cowards that dont even have a decent bone in their body. Not 1 ounce of decency in their body
I'm sure your kind and civil name-callings will entice them to change their evil ways and join the path of righteousness that only you know.
tsmandy
07-23-2008, 06:44 AM
The price of everything is rising and if porn companies don't follow suit profits will quickly diminish.
I know from my end of things, I have to charge more for my services because my monthly expenses are skyrocketing (food and fuel). It's not even an issue of greed, its a basic issue of paying bills and continuing to operate. 29.95 is just not worth what it was 1 year ago. Especially not for a global company like Grooby that is suffering from a crashing dollar.
GroobySteven
07-23-2008, 07:28 AM
also 5 dollars increase is what a 15 to 17 percent price increase, I think thats not fair and a lot of business will be lost with this increase.
Hasn't made a difference in joins in the 4 weeks that it's been up with the exception of a few more people taking 1 year joins.
My costs in Thailand, UK and Europe have risen 25% at least in the last two years, I don't think that's fair either. I've never been to business school, never worked on Wall St and dislike the establishment more than most - but this is business.
Send me your username and I'll have a look at your account on our sites Worthy and I'll see what I can do to ease the burden for you.
seanchai
SarahG
07-23-2008, 08:14 AM
I'm not in the industry myself, so I can be entirely off base with what I am about to say (someone correct me if I am mistaken) but with the executive in the US going after porn the way it has in recent years, I would think it would make sense for anyone in the industry as a company to go beyond what it costs to get by to ensure they have the assets to survive any baseless attempt at a crack down.
Even when the gov loses its cases, it still takes a lot of resources out of their targets. I would imagine anyone whose business is international in nature will have the potential for headaches if they can't immediately on the spot produce enough convincing documentation to get past any idiots at the various customs checkpoints.
As but a single example-
This has been in the news in recent years with the American customs officials detaining (forcing people entering the country to surrender their digital data storage for duplication & screening) laptops, hard drive, cell phone memory cards and digital cameras even when they contain otherwise privileged information (diaries, medical records etc). At times these devices are just screened for porn (some reports are saying child porn exclusive, but not all indicate it is that specific) and in the case of some laptops there has been confiscations where the devices were sent out for data duplication and then sent back anywhere up to 3 months down the line. I can't imagine the frustration of going overseas to do a shoot, getting it all finished, returning only to have some undereducated crank on a power trip in customs go "wait, I want your computer so I can send it out, maybe you'll get it in 3 months..." and not be able to use anything from that gig until the gov "kindly returns it."
I also found this BBC article, albeit from 1998, talking about the same practices in the UK so its not just an American thing:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/150465.stm
I am unaware of what other countries may engage in this type of behavior, I wouldn't be surprised if there were others out there.
Then hitting closer to home than international security checkpoints:
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/09/local/me-obscene9
The text from above:
[b]Fetish porn on trial in obscenity case
Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times
By Scott Glover
June 09, 2008
If all goes according to plan, an otherwise stately federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles will be converted into a makeshift movie theater this week, screening a series of graphic – many would say vulgar – sexual fetish videos.
At issue is how a jury will define obscenity in a region that boasts its status as the capital of the pornography industry and at a time when technology has made the taboo adult flicks of a generation ago available to a mainstream audience.
Hollywood filmmaker Ira Isaacs says the videos he sells are works of art, protected under the Constitution. Federal prosecutors contend the movies are criminally obscene.
The prosecution is the first in Southern California by a U.S. Department of Justice task force formed in 2005 after influential Christian conservative groups appealed to the Bush administration to crack down on smut.
For jurors to determine whether Isaacs’ work is obscene, they will have to view hours of hard-core pornography so degrading that in one film, an actress cries throughout, prosecutors said in court papers.
But if jurors find that any of the four videos at issue in the case have any “literary, scientific or artistic value,” the work is not legally obscene, according to a 1973 Supreme Court ruling.
“All they’re going to do is turn on a DVD machine and hope the jury is going to be so shocked and disgusted and offended that they’re going to throw me in prison,” said Isaacs, 57, a native of the Bronx. He said he hopes that jurors will be shocked – he’s a self-described “shock artist” – but also that they will see artistic value in the work.
The portly defendant, who sports a pony tail and goatee, produced and starred in one of the videos. He contends that the sex in the movie is incidental to the art. It’s merely a marketing tool to drive sales of the videos on the Internet, he said.
In a statistic that some may find every bit as shocking as his work, Isaacs said he was selling about 1,000 videos per month at $30 apiece before being raided by the FBI early last year. The number has since dropped to between 700 and 800 per month, but they still generate enough money to pay the rent on a house with a pool in the Hollywood Hills.
Isaacs predicted that many jurors would not be able to stomach viewing the movies, some of which feature acts of bestiality and defecation.
“It’s going to be a circus,” he said of the upcoming trial. “I think I’d freak out if I had to watch six hours of the stuff.”
Jury selection is expected to begin Monday. Presiding over the trial will be Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Kozinski was assigned the case as part of a rotation in which he and other appeals court judges occasionally oversee criminal trials in addition to deciding appeals.
His involvement in the case may be a stroke of luck for Isaacs. That’s because Kozinski is seen as a staunch defender of free speech. When he learned that there were filters banning pornography and other materials from computers in the appeals court’s Pasadena offices, he led a successful effort to have the filters removed.
“I did some rabble-rousing about it,” Kozinski said in a brief interview last week. He said he was made aware of the issue when a law clerk researching a case was banned from accessing a gay bookstore’s website.
“I didn’t think the bureaucrats in Washington should decide what the federal judiciary should have access to,” the judge said. “I thought that was incredibly arrogant for them to decide on their own.”
Kozinski declined comment on any aspect of the Isaacs case.
Isaacs said he would testify as his own expert witness at trial and planned to lecture jurors on how perceptions of art have changed over the years. There was a time, he said, when the works of authors James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence were called obscene.
The point, Isaacs said, “is do we really want to throw artists in jail in America?”
Kenneth Whitted, the Justice Department prosecutor assigned to the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, declined to be interviewed for this article.
According to the Justice Department’s website, the task force “is dedicated exclusively to the protection of America’s children and families through the enforcement of our Nation’s obscenity laws.”
The task force has won convictions in more than a dozen cases, the vast majority resulting from plea bargains, according to case summaries provided by the department. Only a handful of defendants have elected to fight the charges at trial. Punishment in most cases included some prison time, ranging from one to seven years, as well as stiff fines and forfeiture of proceeds.
At a time when even hard-core pornography is available in major hotels, through cable companies and on the Internet, prosecutors have focused their efforts on particularly outrageous material, often involving sex with animals and defecation.
Most of the cases were brought in relatively conservative areas of the country, five of them in Texas. Whether jurors in Southern California have more lenient views on obscenity will be tested at Isaacs’ trial.
Federal agents raided Isaacs’ Koreatown office in January 2007. Isaacs said he was told by authorities that the investigation was initiated after a local person complained, and was eventually turned over to the task fore in Washington. He is now facing charges related to the importation, transportation and distribution of obscene material in connection with four videos he was selling over the Internet, including the one he produced. Isaacs admits to producing that film and to distributing all four.
But he denies that they’re obscene.
“That’s for the jury to decide,” he said.
He said that prosecutors have made several overtures inviting him to take a plea in the case, but that he has refused every time.
Pleading guilty would be admitting that he was just another pornographer, he said.
“If I get convicted and go to prison now,” Isaacs said, “I go as an artist.”
Of course the ironic part of the whole thing is this ultra conservative reagon appointee judge "maintained a publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos."
The following from the LA Times again:
9th Circuit’s chief judge posted sexually explicit matter on his website
Paul Sakuma / Associated Press
By Scott Glover
June 11, 2008
One of the highest-ranking federal judges in the United States, who is currently presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles, has maintained a publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos.
Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged in an interview with The Times that he had posted the materials, which included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal. Some of the material was inappropriate, he conceded, although he defended other sexually explicit content as “funny.”
Kozinski, 57, said that he thought the site was for his private storage and that he was not aware the images could be seen by the public, although he also said he had shared some material on the site with friends. After the interview Tuesday evening, he blocked public access to the site.
Asked whether the contents of his site should force him to step aside from the pending obscenity trial, Kozinski declined to comment. Opening statements in the trial are scheduled for this morning. In the case, Ira Isaacs, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, is accused of distributing criminally obscene sexual-fetish videos depicting bestiality and defecation.
Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor who specializes in legal ethics, told The Times that Kozinski should recuse himself from the Isaacs case because “the public can reasonably question his objectivity” concerning the issues at hand.
Gillers, who has known Kozinski for years and called him “a treasure of the federal judiciary,” said he took the judge at his word that he did not know the site was publicly available. But he said Kozinski was “seriously negligent” in allowing it to be discovered.
“The phrase ‘sober as a judge’ resonates with the American public,” Gillers said. “We don’t want them to reveal their private selves publicly. This is going to upset a lot of people.”
Gillers said the disclosure would be humiliating for Kozinski and would “harm his reputation in many quarters,” but that the controversy should die there.
He added, however, that if the public concludes the website was intended for the sharing of pornographic material, “that’s a transgression of another order.”
“It would be very hard for him to come back from that,” he said.
Kozinski said he would delete some material from his site, including the photo depicting women as cows, which he said was “degrading … and just gross.” He also said he planned to get rid of a graphic step-by-step pictorial in which a woman is seen shaving her pubic hair.
Kozinski said he must have accidentally uploaded those images to his server while intending to upload something else. “I would not keep those files intentionally,” he said. The judge pointed out that he never used appeals court computers to maintain the site.
The sexually explicit material on Kozinski’s site earlier this week was extensive, including images of masturbation, public sex and contortionist sex. There was a slide show striptease featuring a transsexual, and a folder that contained a series of photos of women’s crotches as seen through snug fitting clothing or underwear. There were also themes of defecation and urination, though they are not presented in a sexual context.
Kozinski, who was named chief judge of the 9th Circuit last year, is considered a judicial conservative on most issues. He was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1985. He has a national reputation for a brilliant legal mind and has developed a reputation as a champion of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression. Several year ago, for example, after learning that appeals court administrators had placed filters on computers that denied access to pornography and other materials, Kozinski led a successful effort to have the filters removed.
The judge said it was strictly by chance that he wound up presiding over the Issacs trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Appeals court judges occasionally hear criminal cases when they have free time on their calendars and the Isaacs case was one of two he was given, the judge said.
Kozinski said he didn’t think any of the material he posted on his website would qualify as obscene.
“Is it prurient? I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “I think it’s odd and interesting. It’s part of life.”
Before the site was taken down, visitors to http://alex.kozinski.com were greeted with the message: “Ain’t nothin’ here. Y’all best be movin’ on, compadre.”
Only those who knew to type in the name of a subdirectory could see the content on the site, which also included some of Kozinski’s essays and legal writings as well as music files and personal photos.
The judge said he began saving the sexually explicit materials and other items of interest years ago.
“People send me stuff like this all the time,” he said.
He keeps the things he finds interesting or funny with the thought that he might later pass them on to friends, he said.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/11/local/me-kozinski12
My commentary: I am sure "I didn't mean to upload it to where the public could see it" argument would never have worked for a defendant accused of porn related crimes in this guy's courtroom. Just another example of where the righties have one set of rules for themselves, and another for the rest of the peons.
But the more important thing here is that it shows our political leadership IS using the judicial system for political gain, conducting an unneeded, unhelpful, for most (I hope most) citizens unwanted attack on civil liberties.
If this is taken to be a trend the important question is what will be next, how far these policies will extend, and what cost it will inflict on businesses related to it. I don't have the answers to any of these questions, but I think they are of grave importance.
Skwisgarr Skwigelf
07-23-2008, 09:54 AM
Will you guys shoot Kimber James soon?
Buddy has shot a number of Kimber scenes for Shemale Yum
nice to hear
rvince
08-01-2008, 09:03 PM
also 5 dollars increase is what a 15 to 17 percent price increase, I think thats not fair and a lot of business will be lost with this increase.
Look at how the US dollar evolved compared to the Euro (situation is the same with most of the other currencies: CAD, YEN, AUD, ...) in the 2 last years:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDEUR=X&t=2y
from being worth 0.80EUR, 1 USD is now only worth 0.64EUR. That's a 20% drop.
I can't talk for Seanchai, but it's clear that the cost of content production for Thai + Brazilian + European models increased by 20% at least.
In these conditions, increasing the site prices of ~15% doesn't seem unfair to me. (but yes, I'm a premium site operator too, so my opinion is probably tainted :-P )
Celeste
08-07-2008, 03:54 AM
Awww.. stop picking on Seanchai :censor hehe j/k. Come here Seanchai ::HUGS::
happychris
12-18-2008, 06:02 AM
You must be happy that the new lines of DSLRs that have HD video capabilities, that should save a few bucks.
AmyDaly
12-18-2008, 06:47 AM
I had nothing but good experiences talking to Seanchai. He has answered every email and PM that I have sent him in a pretty timely matter for running all these sites that he does. He has also been very nice.
His sites are some of the best shemale sites on the net. You get what you pay for, thats for sure.
GroobySteven
12-18-2008, 08:00 AM
Thanks for the link bump. I'll be able to tout our discount program again:
http://grooby.com/tickets/
Get any of our sites for as little as $20 a month. No locking in to a specific site, try as many of our sites as you want, over as long a period as you want PLUS free 2 day passes to our sites.
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LibertyHarkness
12-18-2008, 03:28 PM
So if a website doesnt increase its monthly fees to conicide with increased with running costs... i.e lets take model fees as an example....
In the UK at the moment i am having to pay models more now per scene than i was in march/april of which i have had to incorporate that cost into my sale price to the distributors i sell to.....
If the models are now charging more (due to petrol and living fees going up), how would a website still maintain a profit if they didnt increase their fee. if they told the model no we wont pay you that, then that model would not appear on that site, so that site would potentially dry up with no means of new models that people want to see.
T-wannabe
12-18-2008, 05:42 PM
Seanchai Could do the unthinkable and stop updating or seeking out new Girls to photograph for the site and continue at the previous price point.
But instead of offering nothing new for the costumer Seanchai has had a slight increase in the monthly fee of his sites.
but if you knee jerk reactionaries would take the time to read his postings you would see that he has kept long standing members at the original pricing that they signed up for.
That to me screams of costumer support and recognizing the loyal customers that have been with the sites and helped make his sites what they are.
And in one posting Seanchai has even offered one poster a helping hand( No pun intended) with the rising cost's of his membership.
That is going above and beyond when it comes to customer service.
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