In June 2009, Australian police raided the offices of G Media, the company that runs Abby Winters and other pornsites. In December, authorities charged owner Garion Hall with 50+ counts of “making objectionable films for gain and possessing a commercial quantity of objectionable films”.
Here’s the latest news:
In June 2010, the company accepted a plea bargain, pled guilty to two counts and paid a small fine. Garion Hall wrote on the abbywinters.com member forum, “We have always believed the law to be gray in this area, and the law had not been properly tested in this regard. We could have spent many thousands of dollars in attempting to define the laws but this would have involved additional time and resources that the company could ill afford, therefore, the company plead guilty to the two charges.”
The company has also decided to close its Australian business and relocate to Amsterdam. They stopped shooting content in Australia in May, and they hope to start posting new European-shot content by September.
Meanwhile Abby Winters is feuding with anti-porn journalists and disgruntled ex-models over the removal of past content. During the legal fight, a G Media lawyer told a judge that company policy allows models to request their photos and videos be taken off the website. Several former models then requested their old content be removed immediately, which the company declined to do. The Melbourne-based Herald Sun accuses G Media of reneging on its promise. The company insists it weighs removal requests by committee on a case-by-case basis.
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Thanks for the update. I wondered what had happened in this case.