Planet Manu

Very sad news about an internet porn legend, and long time free speech supporter, from RAME:

Peter van Aarle, curator of the Internet Adult Film Database (IAFD) and co-founder of rec.arts.movies erotica (RAME), passed away on Sunday, September 18, 2005, after suffering a heart attack at his home in The Hague, Holland. He was 42. Details of a memorial service are not yet known. Details will be posted at http://www.iafd.com as they become known.

Peter started the IAFD “back in 1981/82 when I started watching porn movies (back then my hometown still had a cinema which showed porn movies, and only porn movies by the way, and that’s where I went).”

The site came on-line in its present incarnation and its present address in 1999, and he explained his goal for the site in an e-mail: “I basically want the IAFD to be the definitive porn movie database on the web. I’ve spent the past 18 years compiling this data, and I want all of the credit :-)”

The credit is all his.

The IAFD will continue, in his memory. Volunteers have begun assembling updates. It will take us a little time to ramp up and try to fill the void left by Peter, but we promise to do our best.

Rest in peace.

Many of you have already seen the Story Tags feature we have launched (currently in BETA) on Lit. We have always used a keywords system to help readers find stories via search, but this update takes that feature one step further. Literotica is inching closer to having 100,000+ submissions published and the pace of submissions continues to increase with each passing year. That is great news, of course, but it also brings some challenges. When a reader visits the site, how does she or he find what they are looking for?

We have always used story categories, and we will continue to add more of those when we feel that it is justified and/or when we get enough requests (and stories that fit into the requested category). However, the number of categories will always be limited, and many stories fit into multiple categories. What to do?

Search is a great way to find specific stories, but it doesn’t allow browsing and it requires the reader to figure out each search term. There must be something better?

We hope that “something better” will be the Story Tags feature. It allows authors to add tags to their stories, and then readers can click on those tags to find other stories that share those tags. You could look at it as a way to add unlimited, user-generated categories, to the site. Some other story sites use story codes, ASSTR for example, where the author tells you MMM/f, Fdom, preg whatever. But those tags are generally a large set of pre-set acronyms/terms that both authors and readers need to know in advance. That system is interesting and has worked well over the years in usenet, but like categories, it is somewhat limited. We are hoping that the Literotica Story Tags feature will go beyond the old systems because the authors themselves are the ones creating the tags.

We are still in the beta phase of this feature, so I’m sure there will be more changes and tweaking, and the Story Tags Portal has not been re-designed from it’s ugly testing-phase look yet, but in the long run, we think this feature will help readers to find the stories they are interested in. Thanks to everyone who has worked to help make this feature a reality and to those who have sent feedback to help improve it already.

It’s been a while since I updated, so I wanted to make a quick comment on recent free speech issues. In the last few weeks, two Democrats have joined the usual right wing suspects in launching attacks on the free speech rights of the American people:

Hillary Clinton: Hillary has been on a rampage lately against video games made for teens that can be modified to show boobs. She has taken on the roll of one of the leaders of the anti-GTA forces in the government, saying stupid things about games and the gaming industry that she probably doesn’t even understand - like most politicians. Politicians don’t seem to understand that many video games are sold to adults and some parents don’t mind their teens seeing R rated movie content. The content of the game has always had killing and violence, but since there might be a few tits as well, now all of these nanny-state religious fanatics (and Hillary) want the game banned.

Hillary might not know this, but I’ve heard that a piece of paper can be modified to show boobs too with a pencil. Perhaps Hillary will have another attack when she finds out about hentai - all cartoons are supposed to be for children, right?

Blanche Lincoln: This congresswoman from Arkansas wins the idiot of the week prize. She wants two do two unconstitutional things with a single bill. Lincoln wants to add a 25% tax to any websites that sell adult content. As has been pointed out by many already, that would be taxing free speech based on the content of the speech. If the government doesn’t like you being critical of their policies, they can just make a 250% tax on any movie, music, or book that is critical of government policies according to Blanche Lincoln.

Secondly, Lincoln revives the several-times-struck-down-by-the-supreme-court-already idea of making adult websites block content to everyone who is under 18 by using “special software”, which of course doesn’t exist. Maybe she is hoping the Supreme Court with a new justice will change their mind after ruling on this issue several times already, or maybe she just doesn’t like free speech. Either way, her proposals are blatantly unconstitutional and hopefully the rest of congress won’t waste taxpayer money trying to take away your rights when they should be defending them. The way things have been going lately with the U.S. government, don’t count on it. When they aren’t wasting time on stupid issues, it seems they’re probably working on ways to take away your rights.

These are just two of the recent stories that caught my eye. I’m sure there are plenty more. It’s usually the religious extremists that are pushing censorship and attacking the constitution, but this week we’ve got two Democrats. I don’t care what party or belief system you have, free speech means free speech. If you don’t support it, you are not supporting the constitution or a free society wherever you live.

Have a great weekend!

So, I’m browsing through the as-usual-mostly-all-ads July issue of Stuff Magazine, stopping for a few minutes to laugh at the gold plated PSP in the “best bling” section (I’ll take two).

I was shocked as I turned a page and came face to face with Winnie Cooper from the Wonder Years - in nothing but lingerie!

I don’t even see where her name is listed on the cover of the magazine, yet there is Danica McKellar, Winnie herself, in almost all of her glory. There are seven pages of full color pictures, including a double page spread, and an interesting interview where she says that she’s never even posed in a bikini before and she’s doing Stuff to try to help get rid of the “nice girl” image.

I don’t think it’s going to work. She is absolutely hot, of course, but if you read the interview, you’re left thinking she really is a nice girl - a nice (and very smart) girl with a nice body as well. Anyway, I haven’t found any of the pictures online yet (not even on the Stuff website), or I’d post a link, but I wanted to let you know about it, in case you have a Winnie Cooper crush just like me and Kevin Arnold.

The Stuff Mag issue with the Winnie pics is the July issue - it has Sofia Vergara on the cover. You can also visit Danica’s official website, but she doesn’t have any of the pics up over there yet either.

Sam Sugar over at the SugarBank blog has an article about the approval of the .xxx domain extension and how bad it will be for those who support free speech. He suggests, as many other have, that a .kids domain would be a much better solution.

Here is a preview of what Sam and many in the adult industry see coming once .xxx is in place:

Companies like AOL, will start boasting of a commitment to ‘protect the children’ by filtering out ‘.xxx’ domains. Conservative groups will campaign to make accessing ‘.xxx’ domains from government or library computers illegal. Hosting companies will choose, or be compelled by the law, to restrict any adult content on their servers to ‘.xxx’ domains.

Some states will attempt to make hosting ‘.xxx’ domains illegal within their borders.

It will only be a matter of time before the U.S. government on their current “we will force our morals on all of you peasants” crusade try to force adult themed sites on to .xxx domains.

This is an issue on which Literotica has every intention of fighting. We are an erotic website, not unlike Nerve or even parts of Salon - the day that the government forces Salon.com into Salon.xxx, they will have a chance to force us over. Until then, we’ll be right here at Literotica.com.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride for free speech supporters for the next few years - hopefully the U.S. Constitution can survive the attacks.

A movie by highly acclaimed director Gregg Araki is under attack by a religious anti-free speech group who says they think the movie might be illegal. They want the U.S. Congress to investigate the indie art film, which tackles issue of teenage sexual abuse and homosexuality. AVN has an article on the controversy here.

Critic Ted Baehr says, “This film clearly violates the child pornography statutes written by Congress and most state legislatures. We urge authorities to take action and investigate.” Baehr holds a Ph.D. and is an attorney who worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York.

“The film, ‘Mysterious Skin,’ reaches a new low in depravity,” said Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide .

Could there be any better publicity for a film than having some anti-free speech extremist who used to work for the government calling it “a new low in depravity”? That alone should double ticket sales for the film.

Republicans and Democrats coming together to fight for free speech? That’s what this artice from Variety says:

A new interest group in the broadcast indecency debate plans to announce its presence Wednesday by releasing results of a national survey showing that nearly 80% of Americans prefer parental responsibility over governmental regulation when it comes to protecting children from naughty programming.

TV Watch, which bills itself as “a new broadbased group building a grassroots coalition to advocate for responsibility over government intervention and educate Americans about tools to control TV content,” is entering the fray because its members believe the debate so far has been dominated by advocates of more federal regulation.

It’s about time someone started fighting on the right side of this issue. Maybe this will wake up a few of the bandwagon jumping politicians in Washington DC who have been going censorship crazy lately.

More info on this group once they officially launch later this week!

From the anti-free speech files comes this article about the Catholic Church trying to get a website shut down because it insults the new pope:

Rome judicial authorities sought a temporary injunction on Friday against an Internet site which carried doctored photographs of Pope Benedict dressed in a Nazi uniform.

Rome investigating magistrate Salavtore Vitello said in a statement the pictures violated a national law prohibiting defamation of the Catholic Church. Vitello said he was also considering taking action against the owners of the site for insulting the authority and honour of the Pope himself.

Ratzinger served in the Hitler Youth, a Nazi paramilitary organisation, in World War Two when membership was compulsory for young Germans.

It’s illegal to parody the church in Italy? What kind of free speech is that?

Unbelievable article from the CBS News website today about a proposal to ban all books by gay authors from certain libraries in Alabama:

Alabama lawmaker Gerald Allen says homosexuality is an unacceptable lifestyle. Under his bill, public school libraries could no longer buy new copies of plays or books by gay authors, or about gay characters.

“I don’t look at it as censorship,” says State Representative Gerald Allen. “I look at it as protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children.”

Books by any gay author would have to go: Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Gore Vidal. Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” has lesbian characters.

Allen originally wanted to ban even some Shakespeare. After criticism, he narrowed his bill to exempt the classics, although he still can’t define what a classic is.

Don’t be concerned though, because as he explains in the excerpt above, burning books isn’t really censorship, it’s just “protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children”. The Founding Fathers expressed their hatred for children when they decided that free speech and the First Amendment might be important in a free society.

Apparently Gerald Allen thinks that America could be a great country, if only the Constitution didn’t exist!

If you haven’t seen this yet, check it out:

http://video.google.com/

It looks like they are eventually going to allow people to post videos and charge for viewing them, though I doubt they will allow adult content.