adult website news stories on Newser

Goldman Sachs Owns Stake in Sex Trafficking Website

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:47:37 CDT

The No. 1 American website for sex trafficking of underage girls is Backpage.com. And Backpage.com is owned by Village Voice Media, which is 16% owned by ... Goldman Sachs. The Wall Street firm "was mortified when I began inquiring last week about its stake in America’s leading Web site...

Detroit Cops Link Trunk Murders to Escort Site

Rob Quinn — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:11:00 CST

Police in Detroit believe a killer may be targeting women who advertise adult escort services on backpage.com. Two dead women were found in the trunk of a burning car on Christmas morning, less than a week after the bodies of another two women were found in a car abandoned...

Facebook Sues 'Shagbook' Over Name

Matt Cantor — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:11:16 CDT

A few months ago, Facebook sued adult dating site Shagbook over trademark infringement; now, the makers of Shagbook are hitting back, arguing that “facebook” is a “generic term.” Facebook says Shagbook is too close to its own name and suggests “the intent to call to mind and create a likelihood...

Playboy Launches SFW Website

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:47:50 CDT

Good news for those of you who “only read it for the articles:” Playboy now has a safe-for-work website. TheSmokingJacket.com , named for one of Hugh Hefner’s favorite articles of clothing, still has lots of lingerie on the front page…but no nudity! “The ideal is to be the go-to site...

.xxx Porn Sites May Be Coming Soon

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:24:00 CST

If your plans to buy www.johndoe.xxx were hopelessly derailed when Icann reversed a decision to start selling .xxx domain names, never fear: The Internet’s governing body is set to revisit that ruling. “If the contract is signed, we could be selling names by the end of the year,...

Dow and Dirty: Investor Pushes Porn Hedge Fund

Victoria Floethe — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:04:02 CST

Looking for a conservative investment? Forget bonds and go for bondage—or, at least, that’s the pitch for AdultVest, a hedge fund its CEO tells the Atlantic is an adult-entertainment industry first. The spiel: AdultVest is up 50% in the past year (based on “very conservative” appraisals), and the porn...

Online Hookup Hopefuls Gain Mapping Aid

Kristina Loew — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:30:15 CDT

In what may be the most opportunistic mashup ever, a web entrepreneur is putting a bold spin on the modern hookup, reports Wired . A new website scans the anything-goes "Casual Encounters" section of Craigslist, then integrates the postings with Google Maps, designating the locations of random horny strangers with tiny...

Shopping in the Online Meat Market

Michael Roston — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:34:44 CDT

Adult FriendFinder may have 30 million users, but that doesn't mean it's easy to find partners for sex, love, or anything else with a few clicks. The site claims to have an even split of men and women, but from posts and chat rooms, it looks more like 30:1....

Porn Firm Sues YouTube Clone

Lucas Laursen — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:49:42 CST

Los Angeles porn producer Vivid Entertainment Group is suing one of the many pornographic knockoffs of YouTube, claiming copyright infringement, reports the Los Angeles Times . The action is similar to Viacom’s suit against YouTube last year, which claimed the video-sharing site isn’t doing enough to prevent users from sharing copyrighted...