Porn site to pay $12.7m to women who didn't know videos would be posted

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Porn site to pay $12.7m to women who didn't know videos would be posted

GirlsDoPorn was sued by women who claimed they were coerced into making videos without knowing footage would be online

Harriet Grant
Fri 3 Jan 2020 15.44 GMT
Last modified on Fri 3 Jan 2020 17.06 GMT

A US judge has awarded $13m in damages to 22 women who were defrauded by the owners of GirlsDoPorn, a website specialising in “amateur”-style pornography.

The women were coerced and tricked into making pornography that was released on to some of the biggest adult sites in the world without their consent, leaving some of them suicidal.

The San Diego superior court heard evidence from the women, Jane Does 1 to 22, in a case their lawyers say has “exposed the rotten underbelly of the San Diego sex industry”.

GirlsDoPorn is an adult subscription service launched in 2006 by New Zealander Michael Pratt and operated by Ruben Garcia and Matthew Wolfe. Filmed in homes, hotels and trailer parks, videos on GirlsDoPorn specialise in promoting the image of the “ordinary” college girl who is making her first and only pornographic film.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/03/girlsdoporn-site-pay-127m-women-didnt-know-videos-posted

[redqueen]

3. .

[whathehell]

9. "The women were coerced and tricked into making pornography..."

some of them became suicidal"....Still think this is funny?

[PCIntern]

15. Of course nothing is ever funny. Post removed

[whathehell]

16. Riiiiight... I guess I'm just one of those 'humorless feminists",

though I doubt the liberal parents you recently spoke of -- your mother especially -- would agree..

[PCIntern]

17. You're the boss...

I just work here.

[whathehell]

18. Um, no..

Unless you need one to understand that pushing women to the brink of suicide isn't "funny".

[samnsara]

2. i thought Girls Gone Wild was sued for the same thing...

[redqueen]

4. Someday every person who gets involved with making porn will be able to sue for damages.

That day should have come in the 70's so now here we are decades later still fighting for people not to be exploited and abused by this industry.

[empedocles]

5. Collection will be difficult

[whathehell]

10. Why?

Explain.

[empedocles]

20. Not exactly S&P 500 corporations

[whathehell]

21. Not sure that's a necessity.

[hunter]

8. It's the non-consensual aspect of this porn that attracts many viewers.

This is a reflection of our misogynistic society.

[whathehell]

11. Yes. It's like rape.

and the "providers" of this misogynisic garbage need to be punished, big time.

[aikoaiko]

6. I wouldn't be surprised if the traffic from the free advertising from this lawsuit...

...actually put them out ahead.

Its a screwed up world.

[lame54]

7. From here on out..

EVERYONE assume everything filmed WILL be online

[hunter]

12. That's blaming the victims.

Things we did when we were young may be remembered forever by the internet, but they needn't have any impact on our lives years later.

I'm not going to shame anyone, or tell them they were foolish.

Forty years ago I looked pretty damned hot wearing only a hat. A quick google search didn't turn up that photo, but I'm sure I could find it if I kept searching.

But I am embarrassed by some of the stuff I was writing back then. Hell, there's posts I've written here on DU I now find embarrassing, some of them recent.

[lame54]

13. it's reality...

it is wrong what was done to them

but that's no excuse to ignore reality

[hunter]

14. The reality is that social stigmas further punish the victims.

You can tell people "it's reality" but it's more important to recognize how society punishes victims, especially the victims of sexual predators.

We can change this social reality.

Furthermore, realistic sex education is a necessity. Too many young people are unable to recognize sexual predators.

[whathehell]

19. Absolutely..

The hideous Double Standard. One of the Founding Fathers had something to day about it.

"Pity the Tender Sex as the have to deal with Men, who are at once, their Seducers and their Judges".

Thomas Paine