Hi Mike,
I just read your the item on your website about AVN and Acacia. I’m one of the guys that the original poster (on the GFY message board) was referring to when he posted that we thought Acacia had somehow obtained contact information from InterNext registration data–data controlled by AVN.
Below is a copy of an email I sent earlier today to DUC (aka Luke Ford) at SetGo.com.
As I plainly state in the email, I think that Acacia probably obtained names and addresses from InterNext registrations, but doubt (like you do) that AVN would cooperate with Acacia. What is suspicious is AVN”s heavy-handed response to the dissemination of this news.
Thank you for publishing information on the Acacia extortion. I wish more of the adult biz gossip and news sites would inform the general public about this. Instead we get reports on karaoke, Jim Holliday baiting, and Taylor Rain’s drug problems.
Cookie Guy
Hi DUC,
I just read the item on SetGo titled, AVN Denies Acacia Uses Its List, and was intrigued by Paul Cambria’s response to the original post on GFY.
I’m one of the people that Mutt spoke to regarding the matter, and one of the people he was referring to in his GFY post. Contrary to Mr. Cambria’s assertion that “the information is blatantly false, and clearly an intentional and malicious act aimed at discrediting AVN” the information is completely true as reported by Mutt.
I received a letter from Acacia this past Wednesday. One of the first things I considered was where they could have acquired the name and address where the letter was sent. After some thought, the way the letter was addressed, the person it was addressed to (not me, but someone no longer with my company), and the address it was sent to, led me to the conclusion that the only correspondence received that fit the above criteria was the InterNext registration materials sent by AVN. I am not one hundred percent sure about this, as we’ve used this address for a few years and had dealings with a few correspondents using it. I would, however, describe myself as being greater than ninety-five percent sure.
The same day I called a business associate, and told him about the Acacia letter. He called me back the next day to tell me he’d just received the same letter. We discussed where they might have got his details, and he determined that because of how the letter was addressed, and where it was sent, the most likely source was also from his InterNext registration.
We both agreed that it was extremely unlikely that AVN was cooperating with Acacia, and that somehow Acacia had come into possession of the InterNext attendees through a third party. When I spoke to Mutt, we also came to that same conclusion that AVN was probably the source of the mailing list, but that perhaps AVN sold a mailing list to a third party that was surreptitiously associated with Acacia. These are the facts.
What was intriguing about Mr. Cambria’s reply was the force of it, and his strong assertion that someone was deliberately being malicious and attempting to discredit AVN. Does he protest too much?
Also, Mr. Cambria assumes that the information posted is “blatantly false.” What information exactly? The information about me receiving the Acacia letter, my determining that the InterNext registration was the probable source of the address, and my reasons for doing so are, in fact, completely true. Perhaps the source of our (my business associate and I) mailing addresses was not the InterNext registration. But we came to our conclusion not out of malice, but because of the facts as we saw them.
Unlike others in the adult business community, I’ve always held AVN in fairly high regard. Because of this, my initial reaction upon realizing the source of Acacia’s mailing list was AVN, was to doubt that AVN would ever work with Acacia, and that Acacia must have obtained the list covertly.
However, AVN’s over-reaction to the post on GFY (which is a message board renown for it’s immaturity), and their unfounded accusations of malice, falsehoods, and fictitious persons (made through Mr. Cambria), now make me wonder about AVN’s motivations.
For AVN to take this post so seriously as to set legal heavyweight Paul Cambria into action poses more questions than it answers. The world class spin doctoring makes it obvious that AVN is very concerned, perhaps embarrassed, perhaps frightened, about these allegations. Why is that?
I have no ax to grind with AVN, and merely wanted others on GFY who were reporting receiving letters from Acacia to have my input. I don’t post on GFY, and don’t intend to, which was why I asked Mutt to post my conclusions. Since the original post on Friday, it seems that other GFY posters have arrived at the same conclusion as me: that some of the names and addresses where Acacia letters were received this week, came from data captured during the InterNext registration process.
One more point: At the last AVN show there was a booth where the people running it were scanning registration badges. I can’t remember who the booth belonged to, but I do remember that the booth bunnies were very aggressive about scanning everyone who walked past; they took me by surprise and scanned my badge. What is the point of AVN having mailing lists that “are carefully guarded under security measures” when they allow anyone with a booth to scan badges?
CookieGuy
I am going to speculate on Cookie Guy’s specific comments about AVN bringing out the big guns (Cambria). I suspect my speculation is spot on. You see, like it or not video tape as we know it is dying off, same as wax did when CD arrived. DVD is the future but the delivery method now in place is a dinosaur. The days is very near indeed when you will order your DVD off the Internet, you will burn it real time on your DVD burner and you will buy it directly from the manufacturer. The middlemen like the three letter distributors will be gone, the complexion of Porn Valley as we know it will change, drastically. Smart companies are anticipating these changes.
AVN is a smart company, they know that the future of AVN lies with the internet and thatis a big factor in AVN’s medium and long term strategic planning. AVN can ill afford to alienate the people that they may have to depend on to make these goals a reality. This is a very serious allegation and a huge problem for AVN regardless of whether they actually had anything at all to do with it.
There’s an old saying that “perception is reality” it’s true of course and the reality for AVN right now is that the perception is that the list leaked from them. They cannot ignore this reality. I expect strong statements from AVN on this matter in the coming days.
Personally I would like to see AVN and the Free Speech Coalition get behind the movement to fight Acacia, a fight that will take considerable resources, but it’s a fight that every adult company, specially the independent websites, can ill afford to lose. I would like to see AVN, Paul Cambria, Bill Lyon and others get behind this. It would be a good move for them, it might just make heroes out of them to the very part of the adult industry that they need the most.
Did AVN Sell Out to Acacia?
This is a story that is brewing and promises to get bigger, I will try to lay it all out here.
Acacia has claimed that it purchased a patent that covers the transmission of video and audio over the internet, no matter what the file type or size or whatever. If it’s video or audio Acacia claims to own the patent. Acacia has choosen to attack porn companies first, particularly those offering streaming video, MPEGS and MP3 downloads on their websites. Some companies that are big and high profile like AEBN, Hustler and others are easily identified and targeted by Acacia, who sent everyone they could find a letter demanding that they pay royalties to Acacia based on how much the website earns ( the minimum is about 800.00/year)
Some companies have banded together to fight this, AEBN, Homegrown, Video Secrets and others have formed a group that is fightig the validity of this patent, the reasons being outside the scope of this article.
Among the companies who are NOT fighting is Hustler, who was reportedly offered a sweetheart deal to sign up.
Now the biggies are easy to find but Acacia is operating at a huge loss every month while they fight this battle. and they need more people, the easiest to target are the small mom and pop type websites but how does acacia find them all.
Apparently they somehow got their hands in the list of all the antendees at the last few Internext shows. Internext is an adult website show held twice a year by AVN. This list is RICH with small website owners, several of whom sign up for things like this with bogus names and companies in order to protect their real identities.
One such person is my friend Dallas who wrote me last week:
“Hey Bro,
Here is a battle for ya if you haven’t already starting preparing for it…
I got my Acacia notice today and it was addressed to a fake company name
that I only have out ONCE (to avoid junk mail and spam)… to AVN at the
show. Those cock suckers are selling (or giving but I doubt it) our info to
Acacia.
Hope all is well,
Dallas”
Around the same time this topic got VERY hot on the high profile adult webmaster forums like www.gofuckyourself.com. It seems Dallas wasn’t the only one who had this happen, and deducted that AVN had to be the source.
AVN responded swiftly by calling out none other than Paul Cambria to issue a stern statement/warning to the folks on GFY. Here is Cambrias response:
“Gentlemen:
We represent AVN.
It has just come to our attention that you have posted an Internet column at <www.gofuckyourself.com> for October 24, 2003, entitled: “Confirmation That Acacia Using AVN List.” In said column, you assert that two unnamed “people I know” received packets from the notorious Acacia [Information Technologies Corporation] so addressed that they can only be traced to registration at AVN’s Internext. In addition, you assert therein that: “AVN either sold it to them or somebody who bought AVN’s list resold it to Acacia.”
In your column, we assume that by a “list,” you mean AVN’s attendee list to the Internext Exposition, to be held in Las Vegas in January, 2004.
This information is blatantly false, and clearly an intentional and malicious act aimed at discrediting AVN. AVN has two lists that it uses in its business – a list of its subscribers and an attendees list for the Internext Expo. Both of these lists are treated as highly confidential and proprietary by AVN. They are not sold – or given – to anybody, either inside or outside of the adult entertainment industry.
Rather, the lists are carefully guarded under security measures. For you to imply that AVN sold such a list to Acacia for money, is to falsely accuse it of being a traitor to its own customers and clients, which is an extremely damaging allegation.
Accordingly, on behalf of AVN, we demand the names of your anonymous – or dare we say fictitious – purported sources, so that we can verify the accuracy of your “information.” Moreover, while AVN categorically denies your accusations, its carefully constructed reputation as the voice of the adult entertainment industry has been tarnished by falsely associating it with Acacia and its highly controversial patent infringement claims for Internet streaming of audiovisual works.
Accordingly, you are advised that AVN will seek to hold you and your principals, as well as others associated in this enterprise, responsible for any damages which may ensue to its reputation for your baseless assertions in your column.
Very truly yours,
Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria, LLP
by: Paul J. Cambria, Jr. “
I do not in any way think that AVN would knowingly supply this list to Acacia for any amount of recompense. But I have seen enough evidence to say that Acacia got this list from AVN. How they got it could be as simple as carelessness. remember I came up with the entire bill for the 2000 (IIRC) AVN Awards show, from the Venetian hotel. I do not know exactly how that information got into my hands but I would bet someone left it laying around someplace it shouldn’t have been laying around. Or maybe Acacia got it from an AVN Insider or even from a third party who bought it from AVN and resold it.
There are now a LOT of webmasters pointing a finger at AVN on this one and AVN is going to have to do some damage control, whether they are culpable or not. I expect to hear from AVN on this issue sometime today, I will keep you updated.
From the Mailbag Sammy Writes:
“Damn South, Why you want to bag on poor old Jimmy D and deny him his 50 bucks and a blowjob? And what’s all this whining from you? All ow me to name a few of the girls I am certain have given YOU a blowjob this year. There’s Trixie Kelly, Cori Love, Felicia Fox, Papillon, that Lisa chick you brough to the Internext show in Vegas, shall I go on? Theres Lisa Sparks, theres Celena Roxx, and Keli Anderson, theres Vandalia.
Now lets talk about the ones I am pretty sure have attched themselves to the South pole. Theres Kiki D’Aire, Layla Jade, Jesse Jane ( That one alone should keep you from whining) Theres Adella, maybe even Sam Phillips and Sam Lewis.
So shut the hell up and let JimmyD enjoy it while the sun shines on his ass.”
Ok he is right about some and very wrong about some, y’all can decide which cuz I ain’t kissing and telling…But he does make a valid point. I live a pretty damned charnmed life so I ain’t complaining. More Power to ya JimmyD.
