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| Porn Users Forum » Abbywinters office raided.... (Austrailia HeraldSun) |
| 1-31 of 31 Posts | Page 1 |
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| 06-23-09 08:46am - 5661 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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nbaby8 (0)
Suspended  Posts: 1 Registered: Dec 18, '07 Location: Canada |
Abbywinters office raided.... (Austrailia HeraldSun) Original Link of News http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25641940-2862,00.html POLICE raided a Melbourne porn business that makes up to $10 million a year from allegedly illegal activities. Detectives raided five premises as part of Operation Refuge, seizing computers containing footage of women allegedly performing explicit sex acts, which are illegal to produce in Victoria. They are also investigating allegations that some of the models on the porn company's website are under age. Police raided the Fitzroy head office of G Media - which runs a porn website - in the early morning raids, and arrested its director, Garion Hall, at his Heidelberg home. Two storage facilities and another office were part of the Fitzroy raids. Computer records and explicit DVDs allegedly containing material too graphic to be legally made in Victoria were among items seized. It is illegal to profit from making porn films in Victoria. It is believed Mr Hall denies any wrongdoing. Yesterday's raids came after the Herald Sun provided police with a dossier of information about the allegedly illegal porn G Media, and companies associated with it, have churned out in Melbourne since about 2000. G Media is believed to receive about $30 a month from 30,000 subscribers to its website, which contains more than 370,000 explicit images and almost 4000 sex videos. The company specialises in filming female teenage students and backpackers in Melbourne and has explicit photographs and videos of almost 1200 young women on its website, many listed as being aged 18 and 19. Police have seen a copy of a driver's licence of one G Media nude model, allegedly showing she was 17 when photographed. It is not known if Mr Hall knew of her age. Detectives from Yarra CIU questioned Mr Hall yesterday while the police e-crime squad began sifting through mountains of electronic material seized during the raids. Mr Hall, 34, was released last night, but possibly faces charges of making objectionable films for gain, which carries a maximum jail term of two years. Each of G Media's 30 employees could also be charged with the same offence. Yarra CIU Sen-Det Steven Boskovski said police were likely to make more arrests. "We're still identifying the hierarchy involved," he said. "We're very satisfied with the content we've secured." The Herald Sun provided police with written information that allegedly reveals Mr Hall was warned by experts in 2007 that G Media's activities were likely to be in breach of state and federal laws. One former G Media employee, Steen Vestergaard, has claimed in court documents that before he accepted a job he was assured the sex films he would be producing were legal. Mr Vestergaard later sought his own legal advice and was told the films were too explicit to be legally made in Victoria and that he was liable to be prosecuted if he continued to produce them. Former G Media model Liandra Dahl said the company used cash-in-hand payments to lure teenagers into performing prohibited sex acts on camera. "It is utterly unethical to mislead very young people into choices that could affect their entire life," she said. G Media uses posters stuck on traffic lights and poles near popular pubs and nightclubs to entice budding nude models to contact them. A G Media poster in Chapel St, Prahran, offers females up to $800 cash on the day of the shoot and provides contact details for more information. | |
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| 06-23-09 09:37am - 5661 days | #2 | ||
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turboshaft (0)
Active User Posts: 1,958 Registered: Apr 01, '08 |
Dammit, I have yet to join Abbywinters and they are trying to shut them down! I am sure some of their more loyal members here at PU will be pissed. And I would love to visit Australia one day, but it seems as if all porn is illegal, so I would have to leave my laptop and my brain at home. :( But seriously, what is it with these supposedly free countries around the world (including the good ol' U.S. of A.) banning any and everything that might bring the slightest amount of happiness to somebody without hurting anyone else? Granted, they found out that one model was apparently seventeen when photographed, but the point of the raid seemed to be outlawing porn. Where's Wittyguy and his free speech rants? A couple of odd quotes in this article:
It's probably taken out of context, but come on, how many here at PU have said this after joining a site? And isn't the whole point of Abbywinters' content is to be satisfied?
I am sure she has good intentions here, but this idea that it is "unethical to mislead very young people into choices that could affect their entire life" covers a lot of things, not just porn, and it seems to support this theory that porn is the absolute worse thing very young people could possibly do. That's bullshit, these models were doing something that they enjoyed to earn money -- without hurting themselves or anyone else -- and the state gets its underwear in a twist and has to go and ban porn. "It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hardcore Commie works." - Gen. Jack D. Rippper, Dr. Stranglove | ||
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| 06-23-09 11:21am - 5661 days | #3 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones used to scream about how he couldn't get "No Satisfaction", but that was back in the days before you were born. The policeman appears to be talking about a different kind of satisfaction. Jagger was talking about sexual satisfaction. The copper (do they call them that in Australia?) was saying they were happy with the evidence seized, because it made a strong case all those criminal perverts in Australia were guilty of producing porn films for gain (profit or money). Evidently Australia believes in free love only, and sex for money is a no-no. One problem with good intentions is that it gives the police and other people in authority the right to fuck you over legally. The police and other people are only trying to help society and keep it safe, which is how they have the right to put all these perverts in jail. And if the laws of Australia only extended to the United States of America, then we could have a better, cleaner society with less porn cluttering the streets and homes and Internets of America. | |
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| 06-23-09 12:18pm - 5661 days | #4 | |
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Wittyguy (0)
Active User  Posts: 1,138 Registered: Feb 04, '08 Location: Left Coast, USA |
I'm rather suprised that the Abbywinters people didn't have their website set up offshore since Australia is not exactly know for being porn friendly (see the "Free Speech and Porn" thread for my rants against the Aussies). That would have at least set up a firewall against such a raid. It also sounds like the owner had some warning that he was treading on thin ice but did nothing to change the location or focus of his operation. Sometimes you have to know when the getting is good and get out or at least sell the stuff you have to others and take a nice long vacation. I guess I find it a little bewildering that making money from porn is illegal Down Under while prostitution is still legal (street walkers are illegal but brothels and online advertising are OK). Nothing beats confusing societal standards. Then again, its legal to make money from porn in the US but illegal to be a prostitute. Anyway, if someone is interested in the site I don't think I'd be signing up for this site anytime soon if they are still accepting memberships. Sounds like they could disappear from the web any day. | |
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| 06-23-09 02:40pm - 5661 days | #5 | |
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james4096 (0)
Suspended Posts: 132 Registered: Mar 02, '09 |
Illegal to profit from porn in Victoria? I had no idea they were that way about sex in Oz. I thought only America had that puritanical thing. What the hell took them so long to bust them then? Anyway, they were making a good chunk of change, 10 million! That's probably in Australian dollars, but I'm sure that's still a lot. | |
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| 06-23-09 02:50pm - 5661 days | #6 | |
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turboshaft (0)
Active User Posts: 1,958 Registered: Apr 01, '08 |
I remember seeing a documentary about porn where a producer said something like "If I pay a girl for sex, that's prostitution, and it's illegal; but if I pay a girl for sex and I film it, that's porn, and it's not illegal. That doesn't make any sense to me." Of course, as we all are very well aware, producing porn is illegal in much of the U.S. anyways, so it doesn't matter whether it's porn or prostitution, it's illegal. Hell, where I'm from, any sex outside of marriage is illegal, and a lot of sex, even if you and your partner are married, is still illegal. You can take a guess at where I am from, since that still covers a lot of states, but it is still bullshit. "It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hardcore Commie works." - Gen. Jack D. Rippper, Dr. Stranglove | |
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| 06-23-09 03:46pm - 5661 days | #7 | |
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turboshaft (0)
Active User Posts: 1,958 Registered: Apr 01, '08 |
You got to love the Stones, but I think a successful rock band is the last group of people who can claim they can't get no satisfaction, but of course they never tried to produce porn (that I am aware of anyway). And sex will never truly be free, someone will always be making money off of it; condom makers, beer brewers, lube manufacturers, the list goes on... "It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hardcore Commie works." - Gen. Jack D. Rippper, Dr. Stranglove | |
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| 06-24-09 12:00pm - 5660 days | #8 | |
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messmer (0)
Disabled User  Posts: 2,582 Registered: Sep 12, '07 Location: Canada |
Stories like this always give me the very uncomfortable feeling that we've been living in the "Wild West" period of the Internet and that it won't be long now before the folks on top will take measures to re-establish some form of control over our electronic lives. I still remember the frantic efforts by customs and the Post Office to keep the "filth" originating down south out of pristine Canada and the resentment I felt that someone's view of what's "proper" should be able to control mine, so the Internet was (and is at the moment) like a breath of fresh air to me. Having been born and raised in Europe I could never understand that sex was so controversial on this continent while violence was freely shown on Canadian and American Television on a daily basis. Someone's values are slightly twisted, and I don't think they are mine. To add to my unease, our Government in Canada is, at this very moment, talking about introducing a bill that would make it mandatory for every ISP to have to install equipment that would keep track of every move a user makes on the Internet, this even includes e-mail! The official reason given is that a tool is needed to hunt down pedophiles and terrorists. Scarier yet is the fact that no warrant would be needed to check the activities of an individual except some vague suspicion on the part of the police that he might be up to no good. The sheeple are already muttering: "Nothing wrong with a law like this if you are not doing anything wrong!" giving me fits of despair that they seem to be unable to see that some of the freedoms we have gained are gradually being taken back. I hope to hear loud protests from the opposing parties that, at the moment, are propping up our minority government once the proposed bill is being debated. If not I'll give up voting for good. P.S. I just stopped my subscription to Abby Winters a month ago. I wonder if the present subscribers will end up on someone's data base as "known perverts?" AW, for Pete's sake, one of the cleanest sites around. Go figure! Edited on Jun 24, 2009, 12:05pm | |
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| 06-24-09 10:37pm - 5660 days | #9 | |
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jd1961 (0)
Active User  Posts: 296 Registered: Jun 07, '07 |
From what I understand, the bust of AW is just the tip of the iceberg down under. Australia seems to be leading the charge toward a fully regulated and censored internet, and are probably using AW in that effort. One day the internet will be fully regulated, such as television and radio are. This is a fact of life. People will always exclaim, "no, the internet will always be open". Why? Can you set up your own TV station? You'll be raided as soon as the FCC traces your signal. Your own radio station. Nope. Why will the internet be different. They will use porn, fueled by child porn hysteria, as the excuse. As it is now, Australia has a SECRET censored site list. Secret. Sometimes I do wonder if the mega explosion of online porn is no accident. Edited on Jun 24, 2009, 10:42pm | |
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| 06-25-09 12:40am - 5659 days | #10 | |
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badandy400 (0)
Active User  Posts: 869 Registered: Mar 02, '08 Location: ohio |
Going after AW is a good idea, on their part anyway. If they can shut down a site as mild as AW in court than it will leave no room for interpretation and need for new trials on other harder sites. Basically if they can shut down AW than any hardcore site will stand no chance whatsoever. Really sucks for them down there, and for the AW fans. All in all this is a bad situation, and a kick to the stomach to all porn fans. I was not a big fan of AW but do give them credit and respect for their content. Also, that article said they made about $9 per month. Sounds like the site was doing well Should be able to hire Johny Cockrin for that! "For example, badandy400 has taken it upon himself to become the one man Library of Congress for porn with a collection that surely will be in Guinness Book of World Records some day." ~Toadsith~ PU Interview | |
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| 06-25-09 06:35am - 5659 days | #11 | |
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james4096 (0)
Suspended Posts: 132 Registered: Mar 02, '09 |
My sentiments exactly! | |
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| 06-25-09 07:49am - 5659 days | #12 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended  Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
The whole world should be a lot more worried about the obscenities going in Iran than in the content on Abbywinters. | |
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| 06-25-09 11:24am - 5659 days | #13 | |
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turboshaft (0)
Active User Posts: 1,958 Registered: Apr 01, '08 |
Yeah, don't you love it how our government uses so many resources, time, not to mention our money, to run its war on porn? I mean really, why should the FBI waste its time tracking terrorists when it can be hunting down porn lovers? "It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hardcore Commie works." - Gen. Jack D. Rippper, Dr. Stranglove | |
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| 06-25-09 11:52am - 5659 days | #14 | |
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messmer (0)
Disabled User Posts: 2,582 Registered: Sep 12, '07 Location: Canada |
You said it, mbaya. My sentiments exactly! | |
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| 06-25-09 11:56am - 5659 days | #15 | |
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messmer (0)
Disabled User Posts: 2,582 Registered: Sep 12, '07 Location: Canada |
I read only recently, can't remember where exactly, that those on top of the food chain cannot tolerate anything that is not under their control and that this holds true even in democratic and "free" countries. I'm starting to believe it. | |
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| 06-25-09 12:07pm - 5659 days | #16 | |
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turboshaft (0)
Active User Posts: 1,958 Registered: Apr 01, '08 |
Very true, though porn hardly qualifies as anarchistic or revolutionary (too "busy" to organize an overthrow of the state), though there are other parts of society that essentially exist only to control people, though of course they would never admit it. "It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hardcore Commie works." - Gen. Jack D. Rippper, Dr. Stranglove Edited on Jun 26, 2009, 08:14am | |
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| 06-25-09 07:44pm - 5659 days | #17 | |
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Jay G (0)
Disabled User  Posts: 96 Registered: Jan 12, '07 Location: USA |
Not just any sex outside of marriage, also MOST sex acts EVEN WITHIN MARRIAGE are illegal according to most fundamentalist religious groups (Muslim, Christian, & Jewish). Remember, that's what "missionary position" was all about. Christian missionaries taught free spirited natives that all sex acts except face to face vaginal penetration (ONLY acceptable for the purpose of procreation) are perverted, immoral, and illegal. REMEMBER fundamentalist religious belief hates the flesh and believes all human pleasure is evil to varying degrees. Pleasure must be in heaven after we die (think of the famous 40 virgins of Islamic paradise). Jay G | |
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| 06-25-09 07:53pm - 5659 days | #18 | |
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Jay G (0)
Disabled User Posts: 96 Registered: Jan 12, '07 Location: USA |
Free sex? Remember the old saying, "Most women don't like prostitution because it lowers the price...." Jay G | |
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| 06-25-09 10:25pm - 5659 days | #19 | |
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SueAnn (0)
Suspended Webmaster  Posts: 13 Registered: May 06, '09 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
Hi everyone, Sorry to burst the apocalyptic bubble, but abbywinters.com isn't going anywhere... Police have to respond to any and all complaints and although I myself wasn't there (I nicked up to the snow), I was told the "coppers" were polite and actually good humoured. They didn't take any hardware and no charges have been laid. We have incredibly thorough policies for recording ID and model details to ensure they're overage and we proudly sponsor ASACP. Apart from that, it's business as usual, the site will be radically updated towards the end of the year (loads of cool features, stay tuned!) and I'm here to help answer any questions and generally be a forum flirt :) Hope that helps, Sue-ann Raw. Passionate. Unscripted. abbywinters.com | |
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| 06-25-09 10:51pm - 5659 days | #20 | |||
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asmith12 (0)
Active User Posts: 79 Registered: Oct 17, '07 |
What about ham Radio? It's not exactly CNN, but Internet blog isn't exactly cnn.com either.
Two reasons: 1. it's not technically feasible without affecting interest of HUGE monsters like AOL/MS/Google/Apple/whoever else (BTW, Canadian attempt to do it will die from similar cause, or will be reduced from proposed massive wiretapping to on-demand wiretapping which already exists for phone calls). 2. if I remember correctly, this question has already been raised in US Supreme Court with a comment like "radio and TV are indeed different because they use limited set of frequencies".
You're right, they will try to use it, BUT I don't think there is any immediate danger for free Internet at least in US, given that even Patriot Act right after 9/11 didn't try to do it, and anti-terrorism concerns were (and are) MUCH MUCH MUCH stronger then child porn concerns. If somebody wants to attack free Internet in US, they should play anti-terrorist card, not child porn card. Motto: "All niches except for boring one!" | |||
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| 06-26-09 03:11am - 5658 days | #21 | |
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jd1961 (0)
Active User Posts: 296 Registered: Jun 07, '07 |
Thanks for posting in this thread, as you can see a lot of people are concerned. Your servers are in Texas. I was wondering why they aren't located in Australia, where all the content is produced. Is there a worry there? | |
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| 06-26-09 06:23am - 5658 days | #22 | |
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Jay G (0)
Disabled User Posts: 96 Registered: Jan 12, '07 Location: USA |
Thanks for the wonderful news. Paranoia is an emotion I confess to fall into too easily, so a healthy dose of reality is always welcome! Jay G | |
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| 06-26-09 08:12am - 5658 days | #23 | |
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turboshaft (0)
Active User Posts: 1,958 Registered: Apr 01, '08 |
It's great to have a webmaster here (and a female one at that) to sort out all the confusion and worries, so thanks for responding. Obviously, there are quite a few past and/or present members who care about Abbywinters, and just how this could effect a more restrictive Internet for the future, especially regarding our most precious resource -- porn. Hope it all goes well for everyone at Abby, and you will still be around for a long time to come. "It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hardcore Commie works." - Gen. Jack D. Rippper, Dr. Stranglove | |
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| 06-26-09 09:22am - 5658 days | #24 | |
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Horndog (0)
Active User Posts: 17 Registered: Jun 30, '08 |
I'm not a lawyer, I'm just a former AW member. The way I understand it, this is exactly why AW decided to place servers in the US and in Europe rather than in Oz. It's to avoid legal problems. | |
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| 06-26-09 11:39am - 5658 days | #25 | |
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messmer (0)
Disabled User Posts: 2,582 Registered: Sep 12, '07 Location: Canada |
Don't be too hard on yourself, Jay G. It was easy to react negatively to the newspaper article which is reality. If you are paranoid then so am I. :-) | |
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| 06-26-09 11:43am - 5658 days | #26 | |
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messmer (0)
Disabled User Posts: 2,582 Registered: Sep 12, '07 Location: Canada |
Welcome to this forum, Sue_ann, and I am delighted you burst that distasteful bubble. Abby Winters was my very first review and I've rejoined the site at various times over the years so I am happy to learn that the raid was relatively benign. I would have been very disappointed in my friends from Oz if it had been any other way. | |
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| 06-27-09 08:24pm - 5657 days | #27 | |
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exotics4me (0)
Active User  Posts: 664 Registered: Jan 12, '07 Location: USA |
You'll have to excuse us Sue-ann, we're used to fast-forwarding the tease/flirt parts! My first time I jacked off, I thought I'd invented it. I looked down at my sloppy handful of junk and thought, This is going to make me rich. - Chuck Palahniuk | |
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| 06-28-09 04:38am - 5656 days | #28 | |
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kkman112 (0)
Active User Posts: 56 Registered: Mar 31, '07 Location: United States |
I would be willing to bet all-in that the content is produced in Australia, but it is possible they run servers in various countries to increase speed or are using a CDN (Content Distribution Network). In either of those cases their "closest" server to you may be in Texas. But at the same time they may have servers in Australia, Great Britain, Asias, etc. However some COs will block access locally or in the country they are producing in to protect the model's identities. | |
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| 06-28-09 09:53am - 5656 days | #29 | |
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PinkPanther (0)
Active User  Posts: 1,136 Registered: Jan 08, '07 Location: Oakland, CA |
Glad to hear that your site isn't being shut down - thanks for posting | |
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| 09-01-10 10:24am - 5226 days | #30 | |
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Admo (0)
Active User Posts: 1 Registered: Aug 29, '10 Location: UK |
HI SueAnn. But has much changed since this entry & is it true AW is going to Holland? If true it's a victory for the Zealotts & I'll sure miss those liberated Aussie babes esp Zasha! Don't know why they don't BAN SEX! | |
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| 09-01-10 11:30am - 5226 days | #31 | |
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hodayathink (0)
Active User Posts: 312 Registered: Mar 27, '09 Location: Illinois |
https://www.pornusers.com/forum/forum_thr...d.html?threadid=1590 Yes, it's true. | |
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