Labret
01-20-2001, 11:55 PM
The shitstorm is coming... god I hope he is wrong. Taken from YNOT, posted by Flying Croc CEO (Sextracker, YNOT, etc...) Andrew Edmond.
Lets begin:
YNOT -
Good evening!
As I promised... let's stir the political pot a little, shall we? http://bbs.adultwebmasterinfo.com/ubb/smile.gif Here is the INSIDE STORY of the GIA and the "players" effort to form a protective association to protect their (and your) business, and the total lack of success thereof.
Here goes...
I was one of the original folks at the GIA pre-meeting and first open meeting in January of 2000. Folks from the ITA (International Telecommunications Association, a fancy title for the largest phone sex business association in the world) took initiative and pro-actively approached the big players in the adult internet business.
At the meeting where Dave from Python, Ron from CE, Joe from CEN, Jack from BabeNet, myself (Andrew Edmond from YNOT/SexTracker), Bob from RJB, Kaiser from NetPond, Greg Dumas from IGallery. Quite a roomful of people, egos and fortunes!
The ITA guys were perfectly reasonable, they wanted to help us create an adult internet trade association by mirroring the successes they've had with the phone sex business... they knew how to neutralize politics and ego to get business done between enemies for a common good. They had even flown out some chief prosecuter from the FTC with their own money to explain to the embryonic GIA that a shitstorm was coming. I was convinced that these guys were offering to our industry an awesome advantage for getting this done quicky, correctly, and with folks that have already hit all the bumps in the road. I was convinced we couldn't lose if we went with what these guys were proposing... experience, proven track record... they had it all.
However, it was clear from the beginning that Ron Levi had control of the room, and was the central figure that would decide if the rest would participate. Everyone in the room, though intelligent and successful, was going to go with where Ron was going to go. Most of them were still looking at me wondering how I got in the room, but as usual I had a lot to say about protecting our business. It was also very clear Ron and Jack didn't like me interrupting them http://bbs.adultwebmasterinfo.com/ubb/smile.gif I *did not* make a good first impression on those guys - LOL!
In the end, Ron and the rest of the guys decided to throw their money - quite a bit of it - at Mark Tiarra to run the GIA, not these guys with a proven record from the ITA - who had a dossier of lobbying success the size of the yellow pages. I like Mark and all, but vocally told them I thought they were crazy to put a guy with a stellar design business into the lobbying business. Ron was pissed at Visa, as was Dave from Python that was in the middle of billing nightmares. Jack and Bob were on the sidelines, but dropped their money down as well. Mark accepted as a favor to Ron.
Over the next year, the GIA spent a lot of money on lawyers doing research for how to sue Visa effectively, but in the end nothing happened. The GIA is still in existance, but really is being used as community lawyer muscle for all the big players to protect their business interests, and not to that successful of a degree from what I gather.
Where was the GIA when RJB got sued by the FTC? Where was the GIA when JoeE got shut off from UUNet? Where was the GIA when JoeE got sued by AOL?
Now here we are a year later. Dubya just got elected to office, Ashcroft is days away from being named attorney general, and ANYBODY with a half a head knows that online pornography is going to get the SHIT KICKED OUT OF IT.
BEFORE Bush become president, AOL sued CEN for $150,000,000 and not only is CEN going to spend hundreds of thousands fighting it, they are going to be dragged through the public media like criminals before they are even found guilty soon as Ashcroft's PR team starts up. RJB lost untold millions and has had to stipulate to agreements at gunpoint by the federal government. I can tell you right now there is not one company cleaner than RJB and they got trashed this year with a friendly administration in place.
2001 is going to be worse.
Much worse.
MUCH MUCH worse.
If you aren't scared, you have your head in the sand!
Pull it out and look around you. This industry is heading for some serious rapids, and unless your raft is bulletproof, you have an equal chance of going down as anybody else.
So, why am I writing this? Well, because it's not a bad thing. I think it will be GOOD for this industry to have to fight for it's life. I think we'll see a lot of assholes get chased out of the business.
I think we'll see most of the con men shut up shop, and even though many of the innocent will hurt insufferably through the next few years (most people at YNOT I include on this list), the whole industry will come out so that the next time Ron Levi and partners are in a room being held an olive branch for protection from the government they won't fuck it up like they did last time.
In the meantime, YNOT is dedicated to helping webmasters survive through the coming storm. Much of what is going on at YNOT in the background is preparing for the likelihood of this type of nightmare happening to our industry. This is why I get involved with stuff like the COPA Commission, or the National Research Council. YNOT will be there to do that and more, now and in the future.
Oh yeah, if I'm wrong about my predictions for the next administration, then I'll be glad to have you all say I told you so. However, I think most people can see the truth and the likelihoods I propose as happening.
Okay... if I offended anyone, I apologize ahead of time. These are my opinions only, don't roast me for having them, but I would love to hear yours in turn.
.. andy
Andrew Edmond ( Nero ) [ Profile ] [ Contact ] – SexTracker
Lets begin:
YNOT -
Good evening!
As I promised... let's stir the political pot a little, shall we? http://bbs.adultwebmasterinfo.com/ubb/smile.gif Here is the INSIDE STORY of the GIA and the "players" effort to form a protective association to protect their (and your) business, and the total lack of success thereof.
Here goes...
I was one of the original folks at the GIA pre-meeting and first open meeting in January of 2000. Folks from the ITA (International Telecommunications Association, a fancy title for the largest phone sex business association in the world) took initiative and pro-actively approached the big players in the adult internet business.
At the meeting where Dave from Python, Ron from CE, Joe from CEN, Jack from BabeNet, myself (Andrew Edmond from YNOT/SexTracker), Bob from RJB, Kaiser from NetPond, Greg Dumas from IGallery. Quite a roomful of people, egos and fortunes!
The ITA guys were perfectly reasonable, they wanted to help us create an adult internet trade association by mirroring the successes they've had with the phone sex business... they knew how to neutralize politics and ego to get business done between enemies for a common good. They had even flown out some chief prosecuter from the FTC with their own money to explain to the embryonic GIA that a shitstorm was coming. I was convinced that these guys were offering to our industry an awesome advantage for getting this done quicky, correctly, and with folks that have already hit all the bumps in the road. I was convinced we couldn't lose if we went with what these guys were proposing... experience, proven track record... they had it all.
However, it was clear from the beginning that Ron Levi had control of the room, and was the central figure that would decide if the rest would participate. Everyone in the room, though intelligent and successful, was going to go with where Ron was going to go. Most of them were still looking at me wondering how I got in the room, but as usual I had a lot to say about protecting our business. It was also very clear Ron and Jack didn't like me interrupting them http://bbs.adultwebmasterinfo.com/ubb/smile.gif I *did not* make a good first impression on those guys - LOL!
In the end, Ron and the rest of the guys decided to throw their money - quite a bit of it - at Mark Tiarra to run the GIA, not these guys with a proven record from the ITA - who had a dossier of lobbying success the size of the yellow pages. I like Mark and all, but vocally told them I thought they were crazy to put a guy with a stellar design business into the lobbying business. Ron was pissed at Visa, as was Dave from Python that was in the middle of billing nightmares. Jack and Bob were on the sidelines, but dropped their money down as well. Mark accepted as a favor to Ron.
Over the next year, the GIA spent a lot of money on lawyers doing research for how to sue Visa effectively, but in the end nothing happened. The GIA is still in existance, but really is being used as community lawyer muscle for all the big players to protect their business interests, and not to that successful of a degree from what I gather.
Where was the GIA when RJB got sued by the FTC? Where was the GIA when JoeE got shut off from UUNet? Where was the GIA when JoeE got sued by AOL?
Now here we are a year later. Dubya just got elected to office, Ashcroft is days away from being named attorney general, and ANYBODY with a half a head knows that online pornography is going to get the SHIT KICKED OUT OF IT.
BEFORE Bush become president, AOL sued CEN for $150,000,000 and not only is CEN going to spend hundreds of thousands fighting it, they are going to be dragged through the public media like criminals before they are even found guilty soon as Ashcroft's PR team starts up. RJB lost untold millions and has had to stipulate to agreements at gunpoint by the federal government. I can tell you right now there is not one company cleaner than RJB and they got trashed this year with a friendly administration in place.
2001 is going to be worse.
Much worse.
MUCH MUCH worse.
If you aren't scared, you have your head in the sand!
Pull it out and look around you. This industry is heading for some serious rapids, and unless your raft is bulletproof, you have an equal chance of going down as anybody else.
So, why am I writing this? Well, because it's not a bad thing. I think it will be GOOD for this industry to have to fight for it's life. I think we'll see a lot of assholes get chased out of the business.
I think we'll see most of the con men shut up shop, and even though many of the innocent will hurt insufferably through the next few years (most people at YNOT I include on this list), the whole industry will come out so that the next time Ron Levi and partners are in a room being held an olive branch for protection from the government they won't fuck it up like they did last time.
In the meantime, YNOT is dedicated to helping webmasters survive through the coming storm. Much of what is going on at YNOT in the background is preparing for the likelihood of this type of nightmare happening to our industry. This is why I get involved with stuff like the COPA Commission, or the National Research Council. YNOT will be there to do that and more, now and in the future.
Oh yeah, if I'm wrong about my predictions for the next administration, then I'll be glad to have you all say I told you so. However, I think most people can see the truth and the likelihoods I propose as happening.
Okay... if I offended anyone, I apologize ahead of time. These are my opinions only, don't roast me for having them, but I would love to hear yours in turn.
.. andy
Andrew Edmond ( Nero ) [ Profile ] [ Contact ] – SexTracker