PornWikiLeaks Shuts Down: XXX Industry Worked With ... FBI, AIDS Group Against Website That Leaked Porn Stars' Personal Info?
Corrected, at bottom.
Performer Justine Joli.
Here's a first (maybe): The porn industry is in bed with the FBI. Or so it says. And the two made magic happen from various positions in an attempt to polish off PornWikiLeaks, the website that posted the names and medical records of hundreds if not thousands of adult performers.
In a statement to the adult-biz media, the head of porn industry trade group Free Speech Coalition announced that PornWikiLeaks was no more -- the product, it seemed, of a hacking campaign against it. However, the FSC also states that the FBI was poised to take it down at almost the same time.
FSC honcho Diane Duke (via Xbiz):
The FBI had gathered the information it required and the [take-down] letter was to be sent out last week. But due to the work of a group of creative hackers, the site already had been taken down.
Performer Ryan Keely. The FSC will continue to work with the FBI to make sure the monsters that illegally and brutally violated the privacy and rights of adult industry performers, and other adult industry professionals, are brought to justice.
Interestingly, Duke said that FSC board chair Jeffrey Douglas, a longtime industry attorney who also worked bro-bono on "1st Amendment and patient privacy issues" for AIM, also helped the FBI go through the clinic's "database" and was "collecting data" for the bureau in its search for the PornWikiLeaks bad guys.
(FSC contends that PornWikiLeaks exposure of patients names and records was not a matter of free speech but a crime against the privacy of those performers).
Duke:
Because Jeffrey Douglas had worked pro-bono for AIM he was able to volunteer his time to gather information critical in reaching the goals of taking down PWL and prosecuting those involved.
Here's where it gets weird: FSC says it actually brought its archenemy, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) into the fray, introducing it to the FBI's investigation.
AHF essentially sued the industry clinic out of existence because it's unhappy with porn's refusal to adopt condom use in favor of the clinic's testing regime. And its attempts to get state officials to do a better job of forcing condoms on the biz are ongoing despite the resistance of the likes of the FSC.
Still, AHF and the industry are in the same corner on PornWikiLeaks, apparently (according to FSC, anyway). They both felt individuals' rights were violated by PornWikiLeaks. Duke:
[Corrected below: Michael Whiteacre is not an AHF lawyer. Our bad].
... We introduced them (the FBI) to[AHF lawyer]Michael Whiteacre who had been working on getting PWL down and was able to provide them with additional information.
Strange bedfellows?
[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]
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