It all began last year, when Edison Chen, a star of Infernal Affairs--the movie that inspired Martin Scorsese's The Departed, dropped off his custom pink MacBook at a repair shop. Then in late January, thousands of sexually explicit images began appearing on the Internet that showed Chen in rather compromising positions with eight of the region's most popular actresses and singers. Authorities say the images were illegally copied from the computer by repair technicians.
Police have arrested nine people in connection with the scandal and three suspects have been formally charged, including a 24-year-old man who was charged with publishing obscene materials after he was said to have posted two files containing 100 photos, according to a report in The New York Times.
Chen has apologized for the photos and has asked Web users not to aid the spread of the images. However, the crush of interest in celebrity-obsessed China has crashed servers in Hong Kong and the China mainland, with one online discussion board generating more than 25 million page views and 140,000 comments, according to a report in The Guardian.
"I urge you to please destroy them immediately," Chen said. "Let's help the wounded heal their wounds. I urge you to help the victims and not make it any worse."
Chen has been joined in his effort by the local Catholic bishop, the Hong Kong police, and other celebrities. Dozens of Web sites in China have posted declarations by Web users that they would not view nor circulate the images to other Web users.
"Hereby we call on each responsible netizen to 'end Pornogate' by deleting those photos, not downloading and not forwarding, so as to create a healthy online environment for children," read one declaration.
Unlike in the West, being implicated in a sex scandal can have devastating effects on an actress' career in China and Hong Kong, where careers are built on squeaky clean images.
However, some observers complain that the effort has gone too far, amounting to an infringement on individual freedoms. Several hundred bloggers have taken to the streets to protest the crackdown.
"On the Internet there are a lot of nude pictures and sexy photos, but the police don't bring charges" except in this case, Oiwan Lam, a local blogger who participated in the demonstration, told the Times.
A bill just approved by a U.S. Senate committee would slap steeper fines on Internet service providers that fail to alert authorities when they obtain knowledge of child pornography on their servers.
Federal law already requires ISPs to file such reports "as soon as reasonably possible" to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Cyber Tipline--although they're not required to proactively search for the illegal images.
The Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, which the Senate Commerce Committee cleared by a unanimous voice vote on Thursday afternoon, would triple the fines for failure to comply with the current law--rising to up to $150,000 for the first offense and up to $300,000 for each subsequent violation.
ISPs would also have to include a variety of information in their reports that is not required by existing law, including any relevant user IDs, e-mail addresses, geographic information and IP addresses of the involved person or reported content.
It's not exactly clear whether the steeper fines and extra reporting information are necessary. Ernie Allen, who heads the National Center, told Congress last year that since its conception in 1998, the Cyber Tipline has handed law enforcement more than 400,000 leads and led to hundreds of arrests and successful prosecutions.
Allen also said it's partnering with companies like AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Earthlink and United Online to come up with technological solutions for disrupting child pornography sites.
Lest you be confused, this bill is entirely different from one of the same name that was introduced in January by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), ranking member of the Commerce Committee. That proposal revived two thorny approaches to online child protection that generated significant controversy last year: limiting access to social networking sites and chat rooms in schools and libraries and threatening jail time to Web site operators who don't label "sexually explicit" pages as such.
None of those proposals shows up in the version approved Thursday. Instead, the bill calls for schools and federal regulators to launch online safety educational campaigns and would establish an "online safety and technology working group." The working group would be required to issue a report about the "prevalence" of online safety educational campaigns, blocking and filtering software and parental control technologies--along with recommendations about what sort of "incentives" could be used to boost use of those techniques. Such assessments have been known to fuel calls for new laws.
The group would also be tasked with finding out what Internet service providers do about retaining user records "in connection with crimes against children." That information could prove a step toward reviving the push for federal data retention requirements put forth by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in recent years.
Whether the bill will go anywhere from here, as always, isn't so clear.
A New Jersey police officer in charge of the department's Web site and computer systems has been locked up on child porn charges.
To hear prosecutors tell it, Pennsauken Township police officer John Schenberger was a sick fellow who sent 1,071 still images and 11 movies to (whoops!) an FBI agent that included depictions of bestiality, child bondage and child pornography.
Schenberger allegedly engaged in this vice while on duty and using Pennsauken Township's computers. He's accused of writing to the FBI agent, who pretended to be about to engage in sexual acts with a 5-year-old niece: "I'm in the office (at Pennsauken Township Police Department), once your niece gets there I'll lock my door so I can watch."
The FBI's Memphis Crimes Against Children Task Force claims they stumbled across Schenberger's alleged predilections after they found him on the Google Talk buddy list of another suspect.
Schenberger's attorney had requested bail until the trial could take place. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel Schneider refused it in a July 27 ruling, saying the defendant was a flight risk.
Excerpts from Schneider's opinion:
Although there may be instances when bail is appropriate for a defendant charged with receiving and distributing child pornography, this is not such an instance. The available evidence clearly demonstrates, and defendant concedes, he received and distributed a substantial number of images and films of child pornography. These images were graphic and included scenes of bondage and physical abuse.
Furthermore, although this Court is not prepared at this time to go so far as to opine that defendant actively encouraged the molestation of a five-year old girl in Tennessee, there is no question defendant believed and expected this was going to occur and he intended to watch it live on a webcam. There is also no question that defendant did not take any steps to stop the molestation he hoped was going to occur. The fact that defendant was willing to permit this abuse to take place is a window into his character.
Furthermore, defendant reviewed and distributed child pornography using his police computer while he was working at his police station. If the defendant viewed and exchanged child pornography under these circumstances, it is difficult to conceive of a situation that would deter him from his illegal conduct. In addition, the fact that a trusted police officer engaged in the charged illegal activities is especially egregious. Defendant betrayed his oath of office and the trust placed in him by his family, employer and the community at large. If defendant betrayed this trust, no assurances can be given that he would not also violate any condition of release this Court imposed, no matter how stringent...
As to defendant's risk of flight, the court is not confident defendant will appear in the future given his knowledge of police practices and procedures and his computer expertise. It is not far-fetched to believe that this knowledge will enable defendant to avoid detection if he flees. Also noting home detention, family assurances and electronic monitoring are not sufficient to justify bail in view of strong evidence that the defendant presented a risk of flight and danger to the community). Furthermore, defendant faces a certain substantial prison sentence and the loss of any stature or prestige he held in his community. In addition, as a former police officer defendant is aware of the risks he faces in prison to his personal safety. This combination of factors creates a substantial incentive for defendant to flee.
For all the foregoing reasons, the Court finds that detention is appropriate and has entered an Order of Detention Pending Trial.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Eric White believes the future of sex technology lies in a 16" red-and-black cylindrical device that he sells for $439.69 from his office in rural Pennsylvania.
White's device is aimed at men and, to put it delicately, is designed to provide pleasure through an ingenious combination of a vacuum pump, a back-and-forth motor, and a stimulator at the business end that he says "adds a little extra zing."
Eric White holds his 'Virtual Sex Machine,' which is controlled by Windows software. Optional goggles can provide a more immersive VR environment than a computer screen.
(Credit: Declan McCullagh)Similar devices have been around for years -- there's the perennial gag of an inflatable sheep, of course, and the non-programmable Venus 2000 from Sybian.com sells for $815. What makes White's contraption different is that it's arguably the most technologically advanced to date.
That's because his so-called Virtual Sex Machine comes with Windows software that controls the VSM through the PC's parallel data port. It can simulate different sorts of intimate activities by, as White puts it, "varying the vacuum." (In truth it's more configurable than that, but good taste forbids us from elaborating.)
What that means is that it's possible to craft an adult video with synchronized instructions sent through the data port to the VSM. As the action on the screen progresses, the electronic manipulations of the VSM's silicone-like interior varies as well.
White doesn't want to be in the business of creating adult videos, though. He showed up at the Internext conference here organized by adult trade publisher AVN Media Network to try to persuade the companies that own or produce videos to insert VSM data tracks. (The resulting disc sells for $40, a hefty premium over traditional adult DVDs.)
He has four porn stars signed up so far for custom discs -- kind of a virtual woman-at-your-command -- including a cheerleader-turned-amateur actress who runs the sammy4u.com Web site. Dozens more compilation discs with data tracks are available through White's vrinnovations.com site.
"It adds another level of marketing ability to (an adult movie) star," White said. "When you're done with her, you put it back on the shelf and close the door. You don't have to take her out to dinner."
Next steps include a sensor-equipped version of the VSM marketed at women (or men, for that matter) who operate pay-per-minute Web cams at sites like cams.com and camz.com. The idea is that their customers will pay extra for the 'cammer to manipulate the remote VSM in certain, ah, specific ways that will be detected by the local Windows software, communicated over the Internet, and output to the male-oriented VSM connected to the remote customer.
After that, of course, might come VSMs with medical applications, VSMs designed for couples in long distance relationships, VSMs with a software interface that allows hacking, and so on, although expansion plans may have to wait until Pennsylvania authorities stop harassing White over building permits. He had the bad fortune to place his factory in Amish country, which apparently is less than happy about being a birthplace of the world's teledildonics movement.
For his part, White views himself as a kind of Thomas Edison of the industry: "I want to be the guy who invented virtual sex."
HOLLYWOOD, Fla.--In the long ago heyday of adult magazines, Screw publisher Al Goldstein was one of the undisputed porn kings.
Now the onetime multimillionaire and foul-mouthed sex celeb has turned his talents to hawking Booble.com here at the Internext conference organized by adult trade publisher AVN Media Network.
Former Screw publisher Al Goldstein presents a $5,000 check to this year's 'Booble Girl.'
(Credit: Declan McCullagh/CNET News.com)Booble, which features some topless photos and isn't entirely safe for work, is an adult search engine and "sex search directory." It also features a "Booble Porn Minute" and the ability to search by porn star name and by sex-cam name.
During a lunch break at Internext, a cursing, cussing Goldstein presented a check for $5,000 to the naturally well-endowed porn actress Lisa Sparxxx who bested 175 other contestants to become "Booble Girl of the Year." The work seems somewhat less than arduous: a few minutes later she was spotted over at the Booble booth signing small plastic breasts.
Once a towering figure in the smut businesses, the 71-year old Goldstein practically lost it all in the last few years when, in quick succession, cheap Internet porn put his notoriously ribald magazine out of business, he filed for bankruptcy, and he got slapped with harassment charges. A 2004 article reported that Goldstein was reduced to selling salami, gefilte fish and beef brisket at a Manhattan deli.
Now Goldstein is on something of a comeback. He's got a new book out called I, Goldstein: My Screwed Life and a blog at Booble. He's also, of course, running for president at Goldstein08.com as the "dirty old candidate" with a slogan of "Removing the 'o' from country."
In case you're wondering how Booble got away with the similarity to Google under U.S. trademark law, by the way, there was a spat complete with a nastygram from Google back in 2004. But J.T. Ortiz, who works in marketing at Booble's parent company, said Friday that everything settled amicably, not least because Booble considers itself a parody of its far better known cousin.
Here's another bill to add to the heap of congressional proposals offered in the spirit of combating child pornography and keeping kids safe from predators on the Internet.
It's called the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, and it was proposed on Thursday by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)--along with Sens. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).
But this one doesn't seem to be as aggressive as some previous approaches, which called for requiring everything from labeling Web sites containing sexually explicit content to wiping out access to social-networking sites and chat rooms on school- and library-based computers.
If the 11-page bill seen by CNET News.com on Friday becomes law, ISPs would face tripled fines for failing to report child pornography on their servers--up to $150,000 for failing to report child pornography the first time and up to $300,000 for each subsequent failures. But unlike an earlier draft proposal by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), however, this version does not attempt to expand those reporting requirements to include other Web operations, such as commercial Web sites and personal blogs.
The ISPs would, however, also have to include a variety of information in their reports that is not required by existing law, including any relevant user IDs, e-mail addresses, geographic information and IP addresses of the involved person or reported content.
In addition to proposing that both schools and federal regulators institute online safety educational campaigns, the bill would establish an "online safety and technology working group." Composed of businesses, public-interest groups and relevant federal agency representatives, they would be charged with exploring the state of various industry efforts dealing with, you guessed it, online safety.
Among the topics slated for discussion is ISPs' existing data retention practices. That's a far more watered-down approach than some draft legislation circulating last year, in which politicians, backed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, were considering requiring ISPs to record data about their users and hang onto it for a specified block of time in an effort to aid investigators.
After meeting, the working group would be required to issue a report to the Senate Commerce Committee and the Commerce Department about the "prevalence" of online safety educational campaigns, blocking and filtering software and parental control technologies--along with recommendations about what sort of "incentives" could be used to boost use of those techniques. Such reports, however, have been known to fuel calls for new laws.
The House of Representatives is also scheduled to turn to the issue of "Internet sex crimes" before politicians scoot out of town for their August recess. On Friday afternoon, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and three of their Democratic colleagues plan to stage a press conference at which Conyers is expected to announce hearings on the topic this fall.
Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D) is likely to make another push at the event for his bill, the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2007 (or KIDS Act, for short). It would require convicted sex offenders to register their online identifiers, such as e-mail addresses and screen names, in a federal database that could be checked by commercial social-networking sites.
Update: I added more detail from the study itself and some of the reasons it spotlights.
No doubt we all oversimplify the world a bit, but University of Texas-Austin researchers have found that there are way more reasons people have sex than one might expect.
Specifically, 237 reasons.
Helpfully, the researchers did boil the list down to four major factors--physical, goal-based, emotional and insecurity-based--and 13 minor ones, the university said Tuesday. Researchers David Buss and Cindy Meston described the motivations in the August issue of the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
"Why people have sex is extremely important, but rarely studied. Surprisingly, many scientists assume the answer is obvious, but people have different reasons for having sex, some of which are rather complex," Buss said in a statement.
The top reason both men and women gave was that "I was attracted to the person," but some motivations were ranked very differently by the two sexes. The study authors found an "astonishing" 123 of the 237 motivations were cited more frequently by one sex or the other. Topping the list was "The person wore revealing clothes," which as social stereotypes might lead one to expect was cited by men more often than women.
More specifically, men had lots of reasons for sex that women didn't rate as highly.
"Men showed significantly greater endorsement of having sex due to physical reasons...and simply because the opportunity presented itself. Men more than women reported having sex as a way to improve their social status. Finally, men exceeded women on endorsing a variety of utilitarian reasons for sex," the study said.
In contrast, "Women exceeded men on only three of the 237 reasons: "I wanted to feel feminine"; "I wanted to express my love for the person"; "I realized that I was in love."
Among the reasons that subjects gave researchers for two studies on the matter:
• I wanted to feel closer to God.
• I wanted to get a promotion.
• I wanted to feel connected.
• I wanted to keep my partner from straying.
• I wanted to have a baby.
• I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease.
• I wanted the attention.
• I wanted to break up a rival's relationship.
• It seemed like good exercise.
• I wanted to defy my parents.
• I wanted to change the topic of conversation
• The person was famous and I wanted to be able to say I had sex with him/her.
• I wanted to end the relationship.
• I wanted to communicate at a "deeper" level.
• My partner kept insisting.
• I was bored.
(Credit:
Ann Summers)
Apple's legal team appears to have its panties in a twist over an unusual subject: sex toys. We all know that there are a few things that Apple likes to keep to itself. Its name, for example--remember that little Beatles spat?
Now, Macworld is reporting that Apple's not, shall we say, excited about an ad campaign for the "iGasm" from naughty-appliance manufacturer Ann Summers. (WARNING: You might not want to click on that link at the office.) It's a little $60 gadget that encourages open-minded consumers to "take your appreciation of music to a whole new level" through a vibrating add-on; we'll leave the rest up to your imagination.
Apple does have a point. The salacious "iGasm" advertisement does look more or less exactly like its easily recognized iPod ads, except that, well, there's something resembling a white earbud cord meandering down to the scantily clad nether regions of the female silhouette depicted.
The promotions, consequently, are rubbing Apple's lawyers the wrong way. They're allegedly demanding that Ann Summers strip down all ads for the iGasm or face legal action.
According to the Brit tabloid News of the World, Ann Summers CEO Jacqueline Gold's response was, "Perhaps I can send them an iGasm to put a smile back on their faces!" CNET News.com has been unable to verify that statement.
MySpace responded Tuesday afternoon to the letter sent by eight states' attorneys general Monday requesting the popular social networking site to turn over data pertaining to registered sex offenders who have profiles on the site. The letter, signed by the attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, requested that MySpace respond by May 29 with a count of how many sex offenders' profiles have been located as well as a plan for how to deal with them.
The News Corp.-owned site had provided a less detailed statement Monday.
The formal statement, attributed to MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam, said that the social network has been doing "everything short of breaking the law" to ensure that sex offenders' profiles are discovered and removed. "MySpace has zero tolerance for sexual predators," he wrote, "which is why we devoted a team of engineers to work around the clock with Sentinel Tech, to develop the nations? first proprietary software dedicated to identifying and removing sexual predators from online communities."
According to Nigam, MySpace has been proactive: "In the 12 days since the software has become operable, we have deleted and removed every registered sex offender that we identified out of our more than 175 million profiles."
But he said that the states' request was actually illegal under the terms of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA): "A few Attorneys General have asked us to turn the names of the sexual predators over to them, we are, unfortunately, prohibited by federal and state laws from doing so." To clarify, Nigam later added a comment on Tuesday evening to the earlier statement, emphasizing that MySpace is "more than willing to provide this information as long as we don't have to break laws to do it."
Nigam instead suggested that politicians could be taking different measures to combat sex offenders' presence on sites like MySpace. "We need cooperation from lawmakers to drive mandatory sex offender email registration legislation at the federal and state level to make blocking predators from community-based websites a more efficient process," Nigam wrote. "Our hope is that the Attorneys General who signed onto this letter, and other websites, join us in pushing this legislation into law."
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