Seized: Bareback.com, et al (U.S.C. 2257???)

I recieved this e-mail today from one of my Yahoo! Groups. I think the Feds have started in on their enforcement of the new 2257 regs. There goes the industry because of irresponsible parents! Comments? Did the feds really seize these names due to 2257 violations or is this company just trying to generate interest for selling their domains?

http://www.bareback.com index page reads as such:

THE FOLLOWING DOMAIN NAMES HAVE BEEN SEIZED BY THE
UNITED STATES MARSHAL AND WILL BE SOLD AT PUBLIC AUCTION!



NOTICE OF INTENDED SALE
Case No. C 04-2823 SBA
Brief Description of Property to Sold: Domain name registrations for the following domain names:

aworkshop.com

bareback.com

barebackvideo.com

bearsnextdoor.com

boysfetish.com

boysnextdoor.com

houseboy.com

latinuncut.com

malenation.com

militarymen.com

troff.com

and any other domain name in which Bareback.com, Inc. or A Workshop have rights or a possessory interests.

Date of Auction: Commencing on November 1, 2005

Time of Auction: Commencing at 9 a.m.

Place of Sale : Electronically by and through www.afternic.com

Pursuant to a Writ of Execution, dated June 16, 2005, issued by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on an judgment rendered against A Workshop and Bareback.com, Inc., in that Court on January 26, 2005, under case number C 04-2823 SBA, the United States Marshal, concurrently with the service of this motion, levied upon, A Workshop and Bareback.com, Inc.’s interest in the domain registrations for aworkshop.com, bareback.com, barebackvideo.com, bearsnextdoor.com, boysfetish.com, boysnextdoor.com, houseboy.com, latinuncut.com, malenation.com, militarymen.com, troff.com and any other domain name in which Bareback.com, Inc. or A Workshop have rights or a possessory interests.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that, pursuant to the Writ of Execution, the United States Marshal will oversee the sale of the domain name registrations identified above at public auction to be held electronically by and through the domain auction website www.afternic.com commencing on November 1, 2005 at 9:00 a.m. PST, subject to the following conditions:

1. All purchases are subject to the rules and conditions of www.afternic.com as set forth in further detail at http://www.afternic.com/agreement.php.

2. Each auction shall run for thirty days, unless a bidder makes an offer equal to or above the reserve price, in which case the auction will continue for seven days with the sale being made to the highest bidder at the end of those seven days.

3. If there is no successful bidder at the end of thirty (30) days, the judgment debtor shall make a credit purchase in the amount of the reserve.

4. The successful bidder shall pay via check, money order, wire transfer or PayPal (eChecks) following the escrow policies of afternic.com as further explained at http://www.afternic.com/help/index.php?c=6. Once Afternic has received funds and the funds have cleared, Afternic will instruct the seller to transfer the domain name registration to the successful bidder.

5. The execution sale will be made without any express or implied covenant or warranty.

6. The United States Marshal reserves the right to reject any bids not in conformance with the above requirements and to postpone the sale at any time.

7. No convicted felons and no one related to judgment debtors A Workshop, Bareback.com, Inc. or Michael Purser will be allowed to purchase the domain names. Each successful bidder must submit proof of identification and must participate in a short telephone interview with the U.S. Marshal before the sale is finalized.


For additional information please contact:
Gill Sperlein- General Counsel, Io Group, Inc. dba Titan Media
Legal@TitanMedia.com

I think if the feds sieze your domains they just lock your site or shut you down, they don't put up notices of auctions....but then again, I could be wrong..

I could not see this notice on the site at this time......i checked the index page, as well as a few pages into the site and did not see it.

Did you notice the email addy at the bottom was for Titan's attorney, and the case was referred to the Northern District of California (San Francisco?). Maybe this is someone that Titan went after. They're notorious for pursuing and prosecuting copyright infringment cases. Didn't the webmaster for the sites in question start posting to GWW just a few months ago? This doesn't look like a 2257 case; it looks more like a Titan legal action.

Most of the domains mask-forward to a page on Titan's site. It's apparently a notice of their own.

If I won a judgement against you and you didn't pay the judgement, I would use the legal system to enforce the judgement against you and gain control of whatever property you had that could be sold to satisfy my judgement.

So in this case, "seized by the US marshall" means just that... the US marshall took the property, most likely because somebody (Titan) got a judgement against the owner of the domain names and those were the only assets available to satisfy the judgements.

You can bet your ass that if it was a 2257 seizure, the Feds would be issuing press releases all over Creation to make sure that the Christian right knew that they were doing something to protect their phony-baloney jobs.

Hmmm... I just checked bareback.com and didn't find the "seizure" message on the main page like it was an hour ago. Apparently it's just their way to attract buyers for selling the domain names.

I could foresee a "seizure," but the U.S. Marshal conducting an auction for the sale of an adult domains??? I think not. You'd simply get a 404 error message when you clicked on the site. Ah well, I was suckered into the drama again, Yikes!

Kevin

Think I agree with boyfunk ...sounds like a civil matter and somehow i don't see the feds not ramping up the press machine for any 2257 charge...


just my opinion though
Ian

Whois for bareback.com is now Titan Media...

Quote:

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Domain Name: BAREBACK.COM

Administrative Contact:
Io Group, Inc
Keith Webb
69 Converse Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
US
(415)252-7747
keith@titanmedia.com

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by neags78805

Hmmm... I just checked bareback.com and didn't find the "seizure" message on the main page like it was an hour ago. Apparently it's just their way to attract buyers for selling the domain names.

I could foresee a "seizure," but the U.S. Marshal conducting an auction for the sale of an adult domains??? I think not. You'd simply get a 404 error message when you clicked on the site. Ah well, I was suckered into the drama again, Yikes!

Kevin

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It may have just been some hacker who left that message. I've been seeing a lot of that lately.

This is obviously not a hack. It is most likely a seizure of assets by Titan probably because of copyright infringement. Titan did not previously own these domains/sites. Titan would never voluntarily own any bareback domains... they are vehemently opposed to the promotion of bareback sex.

Some of the domains have the notice on the index page. Other domains have a pop-up with the notice.

Good :)

The quicker we get rid of content theives from the industry the quicker we can start to get cleaned up.

At least some companies (Titan) take content theft very seriously, in the past Titan have literally made people homeless because they won judgements in court where webmasters stole their content and used it on their sites.

The sooner more companies start taking the same stance as Titan on issues like this the better.

I beleive, the minimum damages to be collected for a content theft reward is around $1500, per image.

Regards,

Lee

Stealing content is a big no-no, but a lot of webmasters still and will do it. The shame of the matter is that the good (Big Bois) will get shut down for some reason or other. The guys on freehosting (banner farms; et al) will probably never ever get caught or prosecuted. This is just another example of laws/regs that can't possibly be enforced or policed. It just amazes me :whip:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

This is obviously not a hack. It is most likely a seizure of assets by Titan probably because of copyright infringement. Titan did not previously own these domains/sites. Titan would never voluntarily own any bareback domains... they are vehemently opposed to the promotion of bareback sex.

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Hmm..I must be missing something very obvious as I do not see any of these notices ya'll have been referring to.

This should be a wake up call for all cruise sites... you'd better diligently police your user submitted pics. If a pic looks professional, someone probably owns the copyright! ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slade

Hmm..I must be missing something very obvious as I do not see any of these notices ya'll have been referring to.

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Try some of the other domains and you will see the notice. http://www.barebackvideo.com/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

Try some of the other domains and you will see the notice. http://www.barebackvideo.com/

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Nope..still nada..page loads and looks like the normal welcome page and intro page for a site. Maybe it's in the popups you mentioned and my google blocker popup is working VERY well preventing any popups.

I see them as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slade

Nope..still nada..page loads and looks like the normal welcome page and intro page for a site. Maybe it's in the popups you mentioned and my google blocker popup is working VERY well preventing any popups.

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You're freaking kidding me! I even turned my google pop-up blocker on to see if I could see the original site and I get a page that looks like this (resized at 80%)...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

You're freaking kidding me! I even turned my google pop-up blocker on to see if I could see the original site and I get a page that looks like this (resized at 80%)...

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Yes..now I DO get that page..but I swear to ya..I wasn't getting it before.

For example..I still don't get that notice at bareback.com

Here's my screen shot of what I get there.
http://www.gayclassic.com/bareback.jpg

Yeah, Bareback.com works like normal.

If they were awarded those domains, I don't imagine they'd shut that one down if the auctions are a month away. It's a popular site and worth more than just the domain.

How come there was no news of this? Steal some Titan content, lose all your sites... Seems like this would be a pretty high profile news bit.

This is exactly why you lease your domain names through a separate entity so they cannot be seized in this kind of action :toff:

Nice to see a content producer with the resources to protect what's theirs. Really sucks we live in a society where enforcement of your rights depends on how much money you can spend to enforce them, but that's the way it is.

actually, what I suspect we're seeing is DNS propagation. Those of us still seeing bareback.com as an ordinary website are probably pointing to the old servers; those seeing the seizure notice are pointing to the new servers. Probably everyone will see the same thing within a day or so.

Also, reading the text of the seizure notice, it's a definite that the US marshall has seized the property pursuant to a judgement in favor of Titan. Plain old civil litigation matter, nothing whatsoever to do with 2257.

It's true, Titan did win ownership of the domains as partial settlement of a copyright case. I attended Titan's cocktail party on Saturday and heard it there.

I've been joking that Titan earns more from lawsuits than from porn - at least on paper. The awards are usually way more than the combined assests of most of the people they've sued, so they end up seizing everything.

It really puts them in a difficult position as to what to do with those bareback domains. It looks bad to keep them - even if they merely use them for a re-direct to Titan sites. It's valuable property, but selling them off to someone who wants to re-launch them would be against their morals.

I predict they will turn them into safe sex education sites.

This whole deal is another example of marketing at its best (worst).

The internet is jammed with this tid bit...

Titan has demonstrated that they are no longer a porn producer but a legal
firm. I agree that it is important to protect our copyrights but, do you think that Titan would help two of their former performers and now BAREBACK PRODUCERS with a little legal advice re: copyright infringement? NOT ON YOUR LIFE!

Next will come ads on TV for class action suits, etc... at titanlegalserivces...

I find it unbelievable that Titan would profit from the sale of sites with the
word BareBack in them, even if they were won in a suit.

PLEASE!

Mark:

Do you know what exactly was on bareback.com that infringed on Titan Media's property rights?

I am puzzled. Are we saying that because several users post some 300 x 240 images from Eruption or Heat, it all falls down like a house of cards? Or were they doing something else - like say selling duped DVDs to customers?

Steve

with all the stolen shit people said they had in the members area, Im not surprised at all

good for titan, only stupid people would try to mess with them. They've won themselves some nice precedents and I'd be shitting my pants if I had any of their stuff illegally

I receive the notice:

THE FOLLOWING DOMAIN NAMES HAVE BEEN SEIZED BY THE
UNITED STATES MARSHAL AND WILL BE SOLD AT PUBLIC AUCTION!
NOTICE OF INTENDED SALE
Case No. C 04-2823 SBA
Brief Description of Property to Sold: Domain name registrations for the following domain names:
*
aworkshop.com
*
bareback.com
*
barebackvideo.com
*
... blah blah ...

I agree...I don't think it is 2257 related either.

TitianMedia seems to have control over part of the message/image (http://www.titanmedia.com/legal/bareback.htm).

And I don't think that the US Marchal would be involved in the 2257 regs. That is something that a "higher" law would be involved in.

Might be a good wakeup call for other sites.

I think this would make for an interesting public service campaign to illustrate how the US Deptartment of Justice PROTECTS the rights and assets of the adult entertainment industry.....

an idea that would cause anti-porn cusaders and politicians to really furrow their brows.

Steve

Just got this email spam from bareback.com this morning,,,

Quote:

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Dear Members,

Last week our sites were rendered inoperable by another company's seizure of our domain names. We hired attorneys to argue our case. In the end, we were able to reach an amicable settlement with them. All of this had to do with Copyright Infringement and not anything related to 2257 regulations that have been in the news recently. We are a very stable company and we comply with the laws of the land. We try our best to stay on top of all the issues. In this instance, we were taken by total surprise and unbeknownst to us, our domain names were seized. I will not go into the gruesome details of the case but it was not pretty.

I have always been an advocate of free speech and free choice made by adults. I believe that every consenting adult should have the ability to do what they want in the privacy of their home. There are others that do not feel this way. I will continue to stand up for the things I believe in and I will continue to fight for all of us to make our own decisions in our home, our personal sex life and in life in general.

Last weeks take over of our domain names, even for a short time, has put us at a need for assistance. We need Gold Members. We lost many last week who did not think we would reopen. We need you to continue working with the site, being and active member and participant.. If we would get 700 new gold members we would have all our issues taken care of.

Over the years, I have asked for very few things and you have never heard me plead to you for anything. Please, if you have it in your ability to upgrade to gold please do so. If you have the money to purchase videos, please do so. The next few months are crucial as we need to recoup the lost members we had. Your assistance is asked for!

If you are still unable to reach the site, please be patient. It can take several days for the site to be reachable once again all around the world. But it is back live and will remain that way!

Bareback Michael

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

Just got this email spam from bareback.com this morning,,,

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strange... you'd think he would have sent something out to members THE DAY this happened, not a week later. Sounds like they had their domains taken be not appearing in court and had a default judgement set against then... that's how Acacia has siezed domains before. Really sux

Haha this is the part of that email that i liked best..

Quote:

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I believe that every consenting adult should have the ability to do what they want in the privacy of their home. There are others that do not feel this way. I will continue to stand up for the things I believe in and I will continue to fight for all of us to make our own decisions in our home, our personal sex life and in life in general.

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So in other words, they will defend webmasters rights to steal and, profit from, other peoples content LOL

I like how they are making this seem like THEY are the victims here LOL

The stole, they got caught, they paid the price.

Regards,

Lee

OH YEAH that's right... THOSE guys!!!!! Why the hell they got a deal cut is beyond me.. the domain alone is worth a fortune. I hope whatever check they paid with to get the domains back cleared :coffee:

Everyone here is speaking as if they know something. What exactly was bareback.com doing that was illegal copyright infringement?

Duplicating Titan DVD's? I still don't really understand.

Steve

Quote:

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Originally Posted by desslock

Everyone here is speaking as if they know something. What exactly was bareback.com doing that was illegal copyright infringement?

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I always say, Never speak on something unless you were there to witness it first-hand. Anything less than that is public grandstanding. High horses are so tempting to climb, aren't they? :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steven619

(http://www.titanmedia.com/legal/bareback.htm.

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The above link now contains the following message:

"BAREBACK.COM

We sincerely apologize for any confusion and interruptions of your service.

The website is being propagated and re-launched and it will be coming online at various times around the world over the next twenty-four hours.

Please contact the owner of Bareback.com, mikepurser@gmail.com , for further information, updates, or inquiries."

I wonder what that's all about.

It funny how after a few landmark cases everyone always assumes that Titan Media is in the right in new cases. I'm not saying they're right or wrong, it's just funny that everyone makes the assumption that if Titan's involved the defendant is guilty.

Michael

Quote:

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Originally Posted by desslock

Everyone here is speaking as if they know something. What exactly was bareback.com doing that was illegal copyright infringement?

Duplicating Titan DVD's? I still don't really understand.

Steve

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Titan wouldn't sue them unless there was some sort of infringment. Either someone in the profiles used titan photos or in the premium gallery

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jIgG

Titan wouldn't sue them unless there was some sort of infringment. Either someone in the profiles used titan photos or in the premium gallery

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Why would someone put pictures from Titan movies in their personal profile? Are people saying "hey I look just like cigar chomping Cole Tucker from Fallen Angel!" ?? Typically the photos individuals place in their profiles on that particular site involve action that does not appear in Titan movies.

Now I dislike the practice of people trying to use other's work for nothing just as much as anyone else. And I never was a member of the site, so I don't know what was in the "Premium Area".... so I was just asking.

Steve