Two More Cobra Videos Recalled

Two More Cobra Videos Recalled
By: Doug Lawrence
Posted: 2:15 pm PDT 4-12-2006

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - In an industry-wide email, Cobra Video distributor Pacific Sun Entertainment is urging its customers to remove all DVD and VHS copies of Cobra Video titles Campus Boys 1 and Campus Boys 2 from their shelves.

"Under no circumstances should these titles be sold, rented or shipped to anyone," the email instructed. "They must be boxed, sealed, and stored at your facilities until further notice."

No reason was given, but it is likely that these titles contain a possibly underage or undocumented performer.


http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary...tent_ID=264720


Really, I had nothing to do with this one! I am not surprised, however...

For those keeping score, this makes 6 of 18 titles pulled from the market.

I'm getting pretty tired of boxing and holding titles for this companies releases...money i've already paid out that i'm never going to see again.

they certainly don't offer any refunds or rebates to those holding their past mistakes...

wonder what the retail/distribution fallout will be for this? first time, it was a fluke.. now?

at some point retail stores and distribution are going to stop carrying this studio...just wonder where that point is.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chadknowslaw

For those keeping score, this makes 6 of 18 titles pulled from the market.

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At this point, I cant believe anyone would carry anything of their. Like Tom said once is a fluke, 6 times is just plain fucked.

It is pretty pathetic to play the old "the model lied, it wasnt my fault, really" routine. If you are that fucking naive, you are in the worng business. This is starting to more like their business plan. Assholes, the deserve whatever they get. They are fucking up things for the rest of us legitimate producers.

I am not above gloating. I told you so.

Just to remind you who this is:

04/05/2002

A Dallas Township man who operated an adult video business pleaded guilty Thursday in Luzerne County Court to a sexual abuse of children charge for possessing an unlawful videotape of a 15-year-old boy.

Bryan Kocis, 39, of Midland Drive had been charged with more serious offenses, including the alleged sexual assault of the 15-year-old boy on the tape, which he recorded in his own home.
However, prosecutors conceded that Kocis had a valid "mistake of age" defense to almost every charge against him.

All other charges against Kocis were dropped Thursday when he pleaded guilty to the single charge of sexual abuse of children in connection to the tape police found in his home.
He faces a sentencing range of probation to nine months' imprisonment for the offense.
President Judge Michael Conahan will impose sentencing on May 15.
Attorney Al Flora explained Thursday that Kocis did not know of the teen's true age until after the police investigation began. He alleged the teen had lied about his age to Kocis.

He further argued that Kocis had a registered and legitimate business and that he properly obtained written contracts from all of the "models" he employed.
However, Kocis had not obtained a written contract and proof of identification for the teen before the police investigation began.

"My client believed he could disseminate (the tapes) after he got the contract and identification. He didn't realize under state law the mere video taping could constitute a crime," Flora said.
Flora further noted that Kocis was not charged with operating an illegal business. In fact, prosecutors had to return almost every item they seized from Kocis' home when they executed a search warrant last July 12.

In addition to various computer, audio/visual and camera equipment, police had seized hundreds of allegedly pornographic videotapes from Kocis' home. All of the items, except the tape of the 15-year-old boy, were returned to Kocis last November.
"We couldn't show it was anything criminal," prosecuting Assistant District Attorney Jeff Tokach said of the material that was returned to Kocis.

At the time of his arrest, Kocis reportedly operated a business call Cobra Videos, which Flora said was a registered business.
It had been alleged that Kocis met the 15-year-old boy who lived in the Allentown area through an Internet chat room. It further was alleged that Kocis transported the boy to his Midland Drive, Dallas Township, home last May or June and had sexual contact with the teen.
This contact was videotaped and police seized the tape when they executed the search warrant.

Assistant DA Tokach conceded, "Mistake of age was a defense."
Tokach further conceded that the teen had misrepresented his age to Kocis.
The prosecutor said of the resolution of the case, "It's a resolution the victim wants. The victim is more than satisfied, in speaking to his father."

Prosecutors and court records indicate that the teen consented to the sexual contact. Kocis initially had been charged with sexual assault due to the teen's age and the difference between his and the teen's age.
"They (the victim and his family) didn't want to be involved any more than they had to," Tokach said.

He further indicated that the teen moved away from the Allentown area. "They just don't want to come back and have this open up again."



http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...d=455154&rfi=8

Notice also that, once again, it's the DISTRIBUTOR sending the emails and telling stores to pull the titles, not the studio itself.

The bottom line is, Cobra's stuff sells, and so I think greed on the part of retailers is the only reason their titles are still on the shelves.

Now mind you, Pacific Sun's email is carefully worded and makes no accusations whatsoever about what's wrong with said titles, but I think we can read between the lines... the only reason that I can think of that PacSun would be saying not to ship the product back would be if it contained CP, because the only safe harbor in the law requires that the titles be boxed and sealed; they cannot be shipped, even back to the distributor.

If the media were defective, or there were a copyright issue, or something like that, the product could be shipped back to the distributor. So, since it can't, we have to assume that it's due to CP issues.

*grabs popcorn and watches the fireworks*

This could very well end up being a case of PacSun asking to see 2257 and releases, and a document came up missing. That is a more likely scenario than CP.

There appears to be models who were in both videos, so this isn't necessarily about multiple guys either.

I agree though, if they were not the hottest selling twink studio then people probably would steer away from them at this point. I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I'm also inclined to protect myself in the process.

I would assume that since the movies are titled Campus Boys, the models are all undergraduate students at institutions of higher education like the University of Pennsylvania or Carnegie Mellon, between 18 and 23, who took some time out of their active college schedules to film a scene.

Steve

i wouldn't want to have their titles physically in my posession if there could be legal issues with them. if one of those models is underage, and you are found with a bunch of the video in your hands, seems like it could bite you in the ass, not just cobra :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tombarr

I'm getting pretty tired of boxing and holding titles for this companies releases...money i've already paid out that i'm never going to see again.

they certainly don't offer any refunds or rebates to those holding their past mistakes...

wonder what the retail/distribution fallout will be for this? first time, it was a fluke.. now?

at some point retail stores and distribution are going to stop carrying this studio...just wonder where that point is.

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FYI,

I just ran across this statement from Cobra:

"We have removed Campus Boys 1 &2 DVds (only) from market as it seems some places in the market were selling a version that still had a trailer from Schoolboy Crush attached and since that is still a title in question, our lawyers are taking no chances and recalling both those DVDs and making new DVDs. This was only a trailer and in no way affects the rest of the movie content."

Anyway, that's what I just saw.. so I thought I'd share.

Steve

So if they are recalling those DVDs and creating new ones without that trailer, is everyone who has some of the old DVDs in stock going to get free copies of the new ones?

Should retailers who have had to box, seal and store their old copies also take an inventory of how many copies they have so they can notify PacSun/Cobra and get free replacements they can sell?

How's that gonna work?

Quote:

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A Dallas Township man who operated an adult video business pleaded guilty Thursday in Luzerne County Court to a sexual abuse of children charge for possessing an unlawful videotape of a 15-year-old boy.

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FUCK !! its things like this that give everyone in the industry a bad name. you can bet this will be trotted out in DOJ meetings and in front of congress when they are trying to make new tougther laws.

Well, as Cobra did not seem to be forthcoming with refunds or rebates, or product replacements for the other titles we had to "seal and hold", I am not holding my breath that we will see any compensation, or product replacements on these titles either.. even if they do come out with new versions of them.

Again!! As I stated before...If the owner of Cobra has had incidents with a "15" year old boy and now with the accusations underage talent appearing in there videos, why havent the FBI investigate this person or raid the offices of Cobra...If there is any doubt or some kind of accusations that underage talent is appearing in videos doesn't this "tip" off officials that its considered CP and don't they investigate, I'm sure they read the AVN and keep an eye out for potiental producers who produce CP.

Since the government is SO concerned about re-vamping the 2257 and making an issue of adult videos being distributed wouldn't this be the time for the Feds to come in and check the 2257 information that Cobra has on file and do a formal investigation....isn't that what usually happens???

So my question is how come the feds have not raided Cobra's office/studio and investigate the owners???

Or Perhaps, Cobra is innocent and the boys are just taking revenge because they are a popular video production company and perhaps the boys were treated like "meat" and they feel that the owner of Cobra is a terrible person and they are just make these accusations up...because in reality, if a person or two comes out of the woodwork claiming the are a victim of CP/underage performers on video and 6 of the 18 titles produced by Cobra has been removed from retail/site stores plus can not be distributed, the feds would be on this like white on rice and it would already be on CNN.

However, regardless of the situation its messed up and gives the good producers a bad name. If I were the distributor or any retail outlet going forward...that is one company I wouldn't stock or keep promoting...you never know what other videos need to be pulled, regardless how well they sell...no money is worth going to jail or having the stress of dealing with the police/feds. Furthermore, these videos seem like boxoffice poison and not worth stocking for all the trouble & stress its cause....or perhaps its a the greatess marketing ploy ever invented...

I don't think it's marketing, and I don't think it's the models taking revenge.

Chad has been representing Brent Corrigan since the flap started, and he's seen the real and the fake IDs that were used. Several other models are rumored to also have been shot when they were underage.

The FBI often takes quite some time to take any action... a company I know of, that was involved in insurance fraud, didn't even know they were being investigated for months... then the FBI showed up... then about a year of nothing... and then an indictment.

So I don't think we can assume anything at this point.

what boyfunk said is so very true. it's sop for the fbi to take two or more years till their investigation is considered complete enough to make an arrest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by basschick

i wouldn't want to have their titles physically in my posession if there could be legal issues with them. if one of those models is underage, and you are found with a bunch of the video in your hands, seems like it could bite you in the ass, not just cobra :(

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Basschick is correct. I've known Bryan for a number of year and I really have trouble believing everything that is being said. Additionally, I believe that everyone is innocnent until proven guilty.

That being said; however, the accusations have gone on long enough, the possibility of being caught up in this mess just doesn't make the risk of carrying ANY of the Cobra titles worth it. Nor does it make any sense to box them up and seal them in hopes or recovering any monies spent on them.

We've removed any reference to Cobra Videos from our website, have destroyed all Cobra dvd's and have disposed of them.

I wish Bryan the best of luck in his efforts to fight these charges and hope that eventually they turn out to be false, but to continue to carry any of the titles produced by Cobra at this juncture seems to be to be a bad business decision. Even holding them in hopes of a refund makes no sense.

Basschick, you are correct as usual.....don't even want them in our possesson.

Bill

Quote:

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Originally Posted by allboysvideo

So my question is how come the feds have not raided Cobra's office/studio and investigate the owners???

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It is possible that they have. Cobra is not a very public company. You don't see them giving interviews and they don't post to the boards. If they were investigated, we wouldn't know about it unless it was public enough for the local media to cover it.

On Wednesday the 12th I turned over to the FBI material printed from the Cobr* website on April 11, 2006. The material was images of C*rrigan taken when he was 17 but still up on the site. The links within the site appear to have been disabled but the images were still up.

I am almost to the point of having sufficient evidence to present to the FBI the identity of another performer that was filmed underage. This performer appeared in a video that has not yet been pulled from the market, so if my due diligence proves the evidence I currently have, there will be at least one more title to pull.
Contrary to a previous statement by opposing counsel, I do not have an ethical obligation to disclose the names of the boys that have contacted me stating they were photographed by cobr* underage. I do have an ethical duty not to disclose the identity of my client without their permission and I have an ethical duty to the client not to divulge information given to me in confidence. I will disclose the name or names and evidence of their ages when I have permission from the clients to do so.

I would like to have my private investigator verify the ID's of all the performers. In fact, I would pay the investigation fees if they would forward their 2257 data to my investigator. It takes only minutes per name to verify and less than $30 per name to verify the information in an ID using a licensed private investigator. If the models are all legal age and no other ID's were forged, they should have no problem with a 3rd party verifying the data.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chadknowslaw

I am almost to the point of having sufficient evidence to present to the FBI the identity of another performer that was filmed underage. This performer appeared in a video that has not yet been pulled from the market, so if my due diligence proves the evidence I currently have, there will be at least one more title to pull.

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hmmm - that would make it 7 of 18 or almost 40% of their suff somehow connected to CP. That to me is a HUGE one time mistake with forged IDs and so on..... :-( very :-(

Ditto to innocent until proven guilty...and even then it's hard to tell. Underage models is a definate no-no, but there are so many gray areas in 2257, etc.

Here's the owner of Bijou World's website...he was in prison for a few years fighting obscenity charges....

http://www.steventoushin.com

fascinating - thanks for the link.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BijouWorld

Ditto to innocent until proven guilty...and even then it's hard to tell. Underage models is a definate no-no, but there are so many gray areas in 2257, etc.

Here's the owner of Bijou World's website...he was in prison for a few years fighting obscenity charges....

http://www.steventoushin.com

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I'd stay the fuck away from Cobra and anything they have their fingers in

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BijouWorld

Ditto to innocent until proven guilty...and even then it's hard to tell. Underage models is a definate no-no, but there are so many gray areas in 2257, etc.

Here's the owner of Bijou World's website...he was in prison for a few years fighting obscenity charges....

http://www.steventoushin.com

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Fascinating read....thanks for the link and thanks for carrying some of our vids....need any of th enewer titles, let me know.

Bill