The internet address gay.xxx has been sold for $500,000, making it the most expensive domain name sold in an extension that is not yet publicly open for registration.

The deal was made as part of the Founders Program offered by .xxx operator ICM Registry. The buyer is Liberty Media Holdings, aka Corbin Fisher, the now based Las Vegas-based gay porn production house. The site associated with the domain is not yet live.

ICM does not plan to sell .xxx addresses to regular punters until December. It is currently in the midst of a “sunrise” process that allows reluctant trademark owners to claim or block their brand names in exchange for a fee of about $200.

It has also blocked the names of about 4,300 famous people from the domain.

The Founders Program saw ICM sell or otherwise allocate about 1,500 .xxx names to 35 companies, raising over $4m. The first to go live, back in August, was casting.xxx.

According to ICM, nine of these domains sold for over $100,000 each.

The previous top price for an address in pre-launch extension is believed to be the $350,000 that Overstock.com paid the Colombian .co registry for o.co in June 2010. Overstock is in the process of making O.co its primary brand name.

Before that, flowers.mobi sold to a domain investor for $250,000 in 2005, a purchase widely considered to have been an enormous mistake.

Porn addresses selling for big money are not without precedent. The most expensive domain name sale of all time is widely believed to be sex.com, which sold for $13m last year.

According to the Corbin Fisher website, the company is a member of the Californian porn trade group the Free Speech Coalition, which has been ICM’s most outspoken opponent.

The FSC lobbied against the approval by ICANN of .xxx for years until March this year, and has since called for a member boycott of the extension.

As well as being concerned about the high price of .xxx names (roughly $100 a year) ICANN continues to fear that having a dedicated porn-only domain is an invitation for censorious governments to mandate or block it.

ICM plans to auction more .xxx domains at domain investor conferences and other venues over the coming weeks. A “landrush” phase – which will enable anyone to take a shot at a “premium” address – will kick off in November.

story credit: MarketWatch

XBIZ has annouced the official awards categories at large and also 6 categories specific to the gay adult entertainment industry. The 10th annual XBIZ Awards will be held on Jan. 10, 2012, in Hollywood, Calif. Winners will be announced at the highly anticipated ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

The first phase of the pre-nominations will start on September 1. To submit pre-nominations in any of the awards categories, industry professionals must be registered members of the XBIZ.net social network and use the online submission form to record their entries. With a user base approaching 6,000 XBIZ  industry professionals, record pre-nomination submissions are projected.

The deadline for all 2012 XBIZ Awards pre-nominations is midnight on Friday, Oct. 21.

In order to be eligible for consideration for a 2012 XBIZ Award, video and novelty products must be released between Nov. 1, 2010, and Oct. 21, 2011.

The 10th anniversary XBIZ Awards will highlight a week of industry-leading business events that include digital media conference XBIZ LA (Jan. 9-11) and XBIZ Retail Expo & Conference (Jan. 9-10). XBIZ LA will return to the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles, while XBIZ Retail will be held at the Burbank Marriott hotel.

The categories specific to the gay industry are: Gay Studio of the Year – Gay Movie of the Year – Gay Director of the Year – Gay Performer of the Year – Gay Web Company of the Year – Gay Site Of The Year

This past January the following gay industry companies and personalities were awarded the 2011 XBiz Award for the respective categories:

Gay Studio of the Year
Titan Media

Gay Movie of the Year
Brutal (Raging Stallion)

Gay Director of the Year
Joe Gage

Gay Web Company of the Year
Lucas Entertainment

Gay Performer of the Year
Spencer Reed

Gay Site of the Year
CorbinFisher.com

A U.S. Federal Court in San Diego, California has awarded Corbin Fisher.com, a $63,000 default judgment against Quynn Alan Phillips, for illegally sharing two of the studio’s scenes online through the use of torrent protocols. This judgment comes on the heels of a number of favorable court judgments by the studio against content pirates.

The judge in the case ordered Phillips liable for $30,000 per file shared as well as a permanent injunction against future theft of content.

The judgment also makes it clear that simply ignoring a lawsuit will not make it go away. Phillips, who goes by the screen name “qalanalt” (< see profile n JustUsBoys) on a number of torrent sites, was served with the claim and made fully aware of it. In fact, he sent a document to the court complaining about the suit, but once the court allowed the case to move forward, he did not bother to continue participating.

Corbin Fisher has remained at the forefront of anti-piracy battles over the last two years, winning numerous judgements against illegal file sharers, including notable victories which shut down tube site DudeVu and and a $1.75 million dollar judgement against DVD counterfeiter Eric Brown.

Corbin Fisher’s General Counsel, Marc J. Randazza, said that this judgment was significant because it makes it clear that the courts assign a value to adult films beyond what some defendants have claimed.

“We have had a number of defendants and defense attorneys in our cases argue that courts will only award us $750, the statutory minimum, in torrent cases. Mr. Phillips now knows that this position is without merit – and it should send a message to the defendants in our other torrent cases — Corbin Fisher material is valuable, and courts will see fit to impose reasonable judgments against intellectual property thieves. We can, and will, continue to press forward to collect the judgment against him,” - Brian Dunlap, Corbin Fisher

“Whether those engaged in the unauthorized distribution and reproduction of others’ intellectual property like it or not, courts have regularly and consistently come down on the side of studios who are engaging in efforts to protect their content. This is our latest legal victory on this front, though it certainly will not be our last.” - Marc J. Randazza – Lawyer

Anyone with information on copyright violations is urged to contact the studio atpiracy@corbinfisher.com

Launched in 2004, Corbin Fisher, one of the web’s premiere online adult content providers, is known for producing high quality adult videos and products featuring 18 to 25 year old, college-age, primarily straight, American men.  In 2011, Corbin Fisher extended its reach in to the bi and straight markets with the launches of GuysGoneBi.com and CorbinsCoeds.com.

Corbin Fisher has announced its acquisition of a 15,000 square foot facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it will concentrate its production and post-production facilities.

In addition to the announcement about the move to Las Vegas  according to XBix, Corbin Fisher has also announced that it has followed up 2010′s record donation to Equality Florida (EQFL) with a second donation to the non-profit organization of $60,000.

EQFL, a St. Petersburg-based non profit, made headlines in 2010 when they were instrumental in overturning Florida’s ban on same-sex couples right to adopt children. Corbin Fisher was proud to support EQFL with the largest single donation in the organization’s history.

The new, state-of-the-art facility will allow the company considerably more physical space to accommodate Corbin Fisher’s rapidly-expanding operations. Having outgrown its previous Florida facility, the company recently was faced with a choice of finding a new facility in Florida, or find a more favorable business climate in Las Vegas, the decision to locate production and post-production closer to the company’s existing San Diego headquarters made logistical sense.

“We’re extremely excited and looking forward to building a custom, mega-facility that will accommodate our current business needs and future business plans. We see this facility as being an industry leader in production and post-production on the level of a major film studio.”

Jason Gibson, CEO of Corbin Fisher

The company is currently building out the new mega-facility, but will immediately begin production operation in a temporary site in Las Vegas.

Corbin Fisher, has announced the launch of a new site, Guys Gone Bi. The new website will target bisexual males and females, a demographic in the online adult world often overlooked by online marketing and other adult content providers. The site will at first feature bisexual content previously seen on Corbin Fisher’s Amateur College Sex site and follow up with content exclusively for the site.

While the initial videos on the sites will be culled from Corbin Fisher’s archives, current productions are already gearing up to include an expanded role for the bisexual content of Guys Gone Bi. Featuring true HD videography and the cutting-edge quality Corbin Fisher is known for.

Guys Gone Bi will launch January 17

Membership for Guys Gone Bi will be $19.95 for a 1-time, monthly subscription and $17.95 for a monthly renewing membership. Videos will be DRM free and available in 3 formats—HD, Medium and Mobile Device.

Corbin Fisher, one of the premiere online adult content providers in the world, is known for producing high quality gay adult videos and products featuring 18 to 25 year old, college-age, primarily straight, American men.

“Our research found that many bisexual consumers wanted access to the content we provide. Yet, they shied away from traditionally ‘gay’ sites. This site allows them to enjoy our content and give us a chance to reach a whole new audience,” said Corbin Fisher COO Brian Dunlap

Twink performer & gay porn fan favorite, Jake Lyons sits down and talks on video and details an extensive published version of his story on his own website about the events and circumstances surrounding the infamous lawsuit filed against him in US Federal Court by popular online porn studio, CorbinFisher.com. The overall summary of Lyon’s statement strongly suggests that the studio’s attorney sexually harassed him and the studio used bully tactics to pressure him.

In November 2009, Corbin Fisher.com filed a lawsuit alleging that a Jake Lyons uploaded seven (7) copyrighted images of himself on an escort site owned by Men4Rentnow.com, violating a prohibition on Corbin Fisher models marketing themselves as rent boys. Lyons whose real name is Justin Krueger was served the process in Florida where he resided. Corbin Fisher sought over $1 Million in damages ($150,000.00 for each image).

Lyons put up a defense but after losing his first motion in federal court, he put a halt to it and just quit attending any hearings, with the judge ultimately finding that he willfully infringed on Corbin Fisher’s copyrighted works, paving way for a judgment that could have reached just above $1 million. But Corbin Fisher later settled for a minimum licensing fee of $5,000 per image plus attorneys fees, or $54,000. Corbin Fisher later sought a court order whereby Jake Lyon’s payment from other porn studios he may work for could be garnished. In what seemed a last ditch effort by Fisher, the studio tendered a public offer to settle the case for $5,400.00 and if Lyons paid up the money would be donated to charity, namely Equality Florida.

Lyons now has published a rather extensive story on his own website detailing his “side of the story“. Read the full story published by Lyons here. Among many other interesting statements, Lyons contends that Corbin Fisher’s attorney, Marc Randazza was disappointed that they were no longer “fooling around”. This is an excerpt from his published online story:

At this point, since my agent had not acted in my favor, I flew out San Diego, CA to meet with Marc Randazza, said website’s attorney. We set up an appointment for 10am. Around 9:30am Randazza asked me if the meeting could be rescheduled to noon. He told me he would take me out to lunch and we could discuss the situation. However, my schedule did not allow us to meet at his requested time. Although I was prepared to discuss other options, Randazza assumed that I was still “fooling around with him,” and refused to discuss any further settlement

Jake also sits down and talks about the infamous lawsuit on video.

Below Is A Screen Shot Taken Of Our Jan. 28, 2010 Post Where Attorney Marc Randazza addresses comments left in our post. This particular post we made here at GayPornGossip was taken very hard by our readers.

Liberty Media Holdings LLC, the parent company of gay adult studio Corbin Fisher has received a second judgment against a defendant in a federal copyright-infringement lawsuit filed in December 2009.

In an unopposed default judgment, the court ordered Pittsburgh resident Eric Brown to pay Corbin Fisher $1.75 million in punitive damages for his part in what Corbin Fisher has characterized as a DVD piracy conspiracy perpetrated through auction site eBay. The judgment, which held Brown liable for 70 counts of willful infringement, also included a permanent injunction against future content theft.

“In this case, Brown was caught not only making and selling pirated DVDs, but he was doing so by buying other pirated DVDs and making second-generation copies,” said Corbin Fisher General Counsel Marc Randazza.

Corbin Fisher Chief Operating Officer Brain Dunlap admitted he is unlikely to collect the full amount of the award.

“Our research shows that Mr. Brown lives in a house that Zillow estimates is worth $90,000,” he said. “With that kind of wealth, we don’t expect that he has $1.75 million lying around.”

However, according to Randazza, the company likely will see at least a partial payment.

“We did get a satisfactory payment from the prior defendant,” Randazza said. “And while we don’t expect to get $1.75 million from Mr. Brown, we do expect to extract something from him.”

In February, Corbin Fisher received a $990,000 consent judgment against David Trice of Dallas, the only other individual specifically named among 51 eBay sellers included in the December lawsuit. Trice admitted to copying 66 Corbin Fisher videos without authorization. He and Brown were implicated during an in-house sting Corbin Fisher set in motion last year following tips from Corbin Fisher customers who had encountered pirated DVDs on eBay.

“[Brown] may not have $1.75 million today, but whatever he has now we will take, as well as whatever he gets in the future,” Dunlap said.

Randazza indicated Corbin Fisher will continue to pursue additional defendants as they are identified. The company has taken a strong stance against piracy, filing a number of lawsuits over the past year and receiving sizable judgments in several. Among the alleged pirates pursued by Corbin Fisher was the tube site DudeVu, which went offline after Corbin Fisher took legal action against it.

Randazza repeatedly has indicated content piracy is at the top of Corbin Fisher’s hit list for the foreseeable future.

“This company supports 50-plus families, and when you steal Corbin Fisher content, you’re stealing from my family and the families of all of my co-workers,” he avowed in December. “I take that personally, and I won’t let someone off just because they whimper and cry that they don’t have any money. You did the crime, you pay—no exceptions. Take out a loan to pay me, but you’re paying me.”

FOR ANOTHER INTERESTING READ ABOUT HOW ATTORNEYS & THE LEGAL SYSTEM GET PAID AND NOT THE PORN STUDIOS – Read our EXPOSE:

Titan Wins Another Million Dollar Lawsuit They Likely Can’t Collect

A federal court has awarded Titan Media $1.35 million in damages from tube-site operator, MonsterCockTube.com whose users were alleged to have infringed the studio’s intellectual property rights associated with a lawsuit filed in The United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. You may recall our April 24th Post concerning this federal civil lawsuit.

The federal court judge also issued a permanent injunction barring the tube-site and its owners, representatives and subsidiaries from making any further infringing use of Titan’s content.

According to AVN the court in order to give Titan an opportunity to collect money on the summary judgment— The judge permanently enjoined the website and its associates from transferring domain names and proceeds from domain operations until the judgment has been satisfied in full.

Can Titan Collect Their Million?

As with all of these types of lawsuits, the people or companies operating these tube websites have little or no money and or assets to pay any judgment of this size. In the end, Titan spends considerable money on associated court cost fees, attorney fees and more. As in most cases of this nature as was the case here, the defendants simply don’t appear or respond to the civil complaints and Titan wins by default. In this particular case, the tube-site being sued is still in operation and has already changed their name to Monstercockland.com. Moreover, in this instant case the owners are German foreign nationals, pretty much out-of-reach by the arm of the law in the United States.

Enter The PeeWee Herman Impersonator

A little over 2 years ago Titan sued numerous unnamed “John Does” and a named individual who went by the online persona as “Closet Jock” (legal name Mark Laperna photo right as PeeWee Herman) who had created a free hosted tube website on popular “build it yourself” social networking site, Ning. Laperna’s only source of income was his social security disability check for $594 per month and reported to the court in a handwritten letter his only other income source had been a one time payment by celebrity Paris Hilton to appear at her 28th Birthday party in Las Vegas dressed up as Pee Wee Herman. Laperna’s website then listed as BigDickClub (now exists as a independent platform website renamed Ruffkin) on Ning was taken down by the social networking company. Ning changed their policy opting to no longer host adult content related community sites as a result of all the legal recourse associated with the lawsuit filed by Titan. Ning was also named as a defendant in the initial lawsuit filed by Titan, however later Ning was dismissed as a defendant, following their change of policy.

It would seem that Titan should have realized that a million dollar plus lawsuit against Laperna would end in a futile attempt to collect money seeing that Laperna only had barely enough income to make his own ends meet with only a monthly disability check of $594. Laperna rented a one-room apartment in Las Vegas, owned no automobile, no stocks or bonds. In speaking over the telephone with Laperna he related he was on disability due to a mental disturbance. Short of Paris Hilton picking up the tab, getting money from Laperna is akin to getting blood from a turnip.

Brad For Breakfast The Blogger

A blogger who blogs as Brad for Breakfast claims he also was the focus of a threatened Titan lawsuit after becoming a porn website revenue-sharing affiliate. Brad gives a very detailed written account about the actions taken by Titan. His published article also includes a comment by Corbin Fisher, who after learning of Titan’s action terminated Brad’s revenue sharing affiliate account.

Pay Or You Don’t Get To Pass Go

Another source to GayPornGossip shared an email he received from Titan Media. The email directed the reader to a Titan Media webpage where a Monopoly “get out of jail free” parody graphic was embedded. This graphical “get out of jail free” card hyperlinked to Titan’s Paypal account. Basically, would an accused wish to avoid prosecution by Titan for copyright infringement they could pay a $75 settlement fee to Titan via PayPal, remove the copyright content and possibly be exempt from any civil/criminal litigation – by remitting payment of $75 the admission of unauthorized use of Titan’s content was implied. Of note the $75 fee was per item. So if someone had let’s say for instance 3 individual Titan photos, they would need to pay $225.

Where Is The Police?

It would seem to this writer if Titan Media has CLEAR PROOF of copyright infringement, why can’t they file criminal charges or report these violations of federal copyright laws to law enforcement authorities as opposed to filing these costly civil actions? If not, then what’s the point of having all that jargon about FBI Warnings, maximum years of imprisonment and or heavy fines at the beginning of each video?

Titan Recruits Gay Porn’s Heavy Hitters

Several other gay adult studios such as Corbin Fisher and Channel 1 Releasing have joined with Titan in pursuing remedies using federal court processes.

Save The Bad Lawyer Jokes … For Now

GayPornGossip has gotten unconfirmed information from readers relating that one of the investors of Titan is a silent associate and a San Francisco based attorney, Gill Sperlein. Sperlein is house-counsel for Titan Media and the attorney of record for Titan in the lawsuits. Claims are that he collects significant legal service fees for representing and consulting other studios who have enjoined the battle on piracy. It is strongly suggested from this unconfirmed information that due to the porn industry recession (dubbed by The Advocate as “Porn Panic” ) Titan has suffered significant loss in the declining market with porn DVD sales. The suggestion is that the loss has been supplemented by creating a legal aide service that generates revenue from legal consultation from those studio who have or may wish to join Titan in stopping piracy and winning 7 figure judgments.

Profits & Losses

Nevertheless, after having won all these million dollar court judgments it leaves one to wonder what exactly the balance sheet looks like for Titan Media and other porn companies, assuming that the uncollected judgments can be shown as an asset. If so you would have a company well over-valued or inflated with debts unable to be collected. At the very least, a company should be able to declare a substantial tax deduction for legal expenses.

The Farm Goes Up For Sale

Just recently GayPornGossip also reported that Titan is offering to sell their luxury 80 acre estate used for filming their porn videos for 1.6 million dollars. GayPornGossip has been told by sources that Titan has relocated their productions to Palm Springs, California. Again, it leaves one to wonder if they need to sell that property to help pay all these costs associated with bringing lawsuits or are they building an even more impressive balance sheet.

Makes No Sense

Regardless of these collateral allegations concerning Titan’s motives it makes no sense to this writer, to pay all these legal costs to only end up with a court order that can’t be enforced and a debt that can never be collected.

In The End

One thing is evident – the legal system is making plenty of money from Titan’s legal battle against the pirates.  Instead of courts, process servers and lawyers getting this money it could be invested in developing and deploying technology to protect the content from piracy.

Corbin Fisher seeks $150,000.00  per photo for a total of one million from both the model and escort site.

Following my reading of the Orlando newspaper article I made the connection that Justin is in fact JetSetsMen’s Jake Lyons starring now in the newly released DvD,  Pizza Boys Gangbang.

Any chance this Corbin Fisher legal action is related to Jake’s recent appearance in a JetSetMen DVD? It has always been rumored that Corbin Fisher only likes to work with models who would be only exclusive to their brand.

CLICK DOCUMENT IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD 13 PAGE CIVIL COMPLAINT
(PDF FORMAT)

Jake Lyons – Photo: JetSetMen

By Amy L. Edwards, Orlando Sentinel
January 18, 2010

Photographs of a self-described porn star that were placed on a male escort’s Web site are at the center of a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit filed in Orlando federal court. At issue are seven risque pictures of Orlando resident Justin Krueger that were uploaded to men4rentnow.com. The photos include a trademarked name — Corbin Fisher — on each image, according to the suit brought by San Diego-based Liberty Media Holdings.

Liberty Media owns the rights to those images. It wants about $1 million in damages, the suit says — $150,000 for each infringement it is alleging.

Attempts to reach Krueger were unsuccessful.

Through its attorney, Wintice Group, which runs men4rentnow.com, denied any wrongdoing.

Wintice Group merely operates a classified ad service, similar to Craigslist or other classified ad services,” attorney Peter L. Arvant wrote in an e-mail. “Individual advertisers directly upload and post all of their own content and photos. Wintice Group does not post any content or photographs.”

“Wintice is very mindful and respectful of intellectual property rights. We would never infringe on another company’s rights, just as we hope and expect that others would not infringe on our intellectual property. Wintice is confident that the legal process will show that.”

Krueger is a model who worked for Liberty Media, appearing in a movie “Greg,” the suit says.

A copy of the men4rentnow.com listing is included in the federal court file. The online listing states Krueger is a “rising porn star and a [sic] escort.”

A MySpace page reportedly belonging to Krueger also says the 19-year-old is a porn star.

Krueger is nude in several of the photographs that were uploaded to men4rentnow.com. Liberty Media claims it never licensed its photographs to an escort agency.

Update: There was some initial confusion with this story based on a post by TheSword.com that the model Justin Krueger was NOT named as a defendant. You can now see that Corbin Fisher’s attorney Marc Randazza has weighed in our comment section below and has clarified that the MODEL IS ALSO A NAMED AS A DEFENDANT in the action.

The Sword was in error in correcting us when in fact this post’s initial report was in fact correct.We have now edited and retracted the previous followup where we related that the model was not a defendant.

RELATED INFORMATION See Jake Lyons in Jet Set Mens Pizza Boy Gangbang

Yet another reason for real Gay Porn stars everywhere to HATE Sarah Palins Son in Law!

Levi Johnson who recently posed for Playgirl magazine has had numerous offers from Gay Porn Media. The offer from Corbin Fisher is very serious, spelling out in detail exactly what Levi would be required to do for that 100K!

3 Solo scenes and the project would include a DVD release and interview. That is it!

And apparently Levi turned Corbin Fisher down!

What the Fuck! I would at least expect Levi to give up that famous booty to Dawson or Lucas for a Hundred Grand!

Read the contract below!

The source for all this is amusingly enough a well known Legal Blog!

Above the Law, a legal blog.

The offer was made for Corbin Fisher by noted lawyer and legal blogger Marc Randazza.

NOTE: I want to think a Twitter reader for sending this my way!

Meanwhile in West Hollywood Jet Set Men wrapped a very successful shoot. The Gay Porn Spoof of the Levi Johnson story titled “Getting Levi’s Johnson”.

Starring Brent Corrigan,Diesel Washington,Mark Dalton,Jesse Santana Luke Marcum,Dallas Reeves and newbie Casey who plays Levi Johnson. I am told Brent Corrigan bottoms for Casey(as Levi) below and Diesel Washington fucks Jesse Santana!

No word yet on anticipated release dates.