Need advice about a pirate site with an underage model

Hi folks,

I need a bit of advice. One of my reviewers spotted something quite bad today and I'm not sure of the proper response.

He was reviewing a twink site when he noticed they had pirated a video from Cobra Video (video company of the now-deceased Bryan Kocis). The video was contained in its entirety and had a watermark placed on the entire video saying, "A _____ Exclusive" along with a copyright. (The blank being the name of the site).

In looking at the site a bit later, I was able to find a second video scene they had pirated from Cobra Video and were marketing as an exclusive video of their own.

It gets worse. Turns out the first video scene was the recalled scene of Brent Corrigan that was allegedly done when he was 17 years-old. I know the police had investigated the issue but no determination was ever made whether he was underage or not, perhaps because the records may have been destroyed in the fire following the murder of Bryan Kocis. Either way, the scene remains recalled to this day and will presumably never be re-released.

I immediately yanked our public reviews of this site and e-mailed the owner of the website to let him know of his piracy and the potential underage issue. I then flagged the website in our listings as engaging in copyright infringement, so that a warning appears by the website's listing on GayGeek instead of a link to the site.

I also tried to alert Cobra Video regarding the issue, but the e-mail bounced. No one in his estate collects his e-mail, I suppose.

So... questions: In your opinion, did I properly respond to this issue?

Should I be publicly berating the website on the forums to warn other affiliates that they are sending traffic to a website with pirated videos and potentially underage model?

Or should I be dealing with this quietly and discreetly and giving the webmaster a chance to remove the pirated videos? (Frankly, he put his watermark on the vids. I can't imagine he doesn't know they're pirated).

This is a legitimate-looking website that, while dealing with boyish twinks, isn't one that would automatically set off your radar as being a problem website.

Do tell.

--Aaron

And that raises the issue again of Mr Corrigan being a VERY active adult video and mainstream movie performer, in the years following his (alleged) purposeful underaged performance. People on our side of the 2257 issue know that the abuse of the 18+ rule comes from performers, not from Producers.

To my knowledge Brent's other scenes are fully legal. There's an argument to be made (and Michel Lucas made it in front of an audience one year) that he shouldn't be working in the industry at all. But considering our industry's varied ethical stances, it's hardly surprising that he's finding regular employment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GayGeek

To my knowledge Brent's other scenes are fully legal. There's an argument to be made (and Michel Lucas made it in front of an audience one year) that he shouldn't be working in the industry at all. But considering our industry's varied ethical stances, it's hardly surprising that he's finding regular employment.

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I agree, a lot of people in the industry claim to have ethics and morals, unfortunately, very few actually know the meaning of those two words and would do pretty much anything to make a quick buck :(

I heard this earlier today somewhere and thought it was actually a pretty neat statement...

'The difference between ethics and morals is the man with ethics knows he shouldnt steal from someone else, the moral man actually wont.'

Regards,

Lee