Sex Tech: Grindr Hacker, Digital Dating Disrupt, ICANN .XXX Defense, Filesharing Lawyer: Contempt

This week in sex and technology Big Porn’s piracy lawsuits lawyer has to pay for misconduct, the digital dating conference took place in Miami, Big Porn’s lawsuit against .XXX and ICANN got a response, and a popular location-based sex app was hacked – and it seems the hacker may go unpunished.

Digital dating destined for disruption

At the three-day digital dating conference in Miami this past week, companies brought their best pitches to show that the online dating world is looking to take its methodology, reach and profits to the next level.

Attendees spanned the online dating and hookup gamut. This included reps from Google, Bing, Match and OkCupid, Plenty of Fish, Grindr, marriage sites and startups eager to disrupt the space, such as TheComplete.me.

Everyone has a system, and each claim to be best at making a match: the final day sounded like it was an algorithm and math matchmaking battle where dating and behavioral science experts challenged the computational science behind the curtain at big sites like eHarmony.

• Inside The Online Matchmaking Industry’s Giant Blind Date (Fast Company)
• Who’s Telling You The Truth About Dating Algorithms? (Fast Company)

Porn filesharing lawsuit lawyer is acting above the law

Back in late 2010 porn filesharing lawsuits were making headlines as one notorious lawyer – Evan Stone – spearheaded tens of thousands in an MPAA-style mass shakedown on behalf of the porn industry.

The number of defendants went well over 30,000 and included films such as Batman XXX – which itself relied on fair use of Batman to even exist.

The porn file sharing lawsuits seemed so outrageous that the EFF got involved – and at the time I interviewed the EFF’s Cindy Cohn about porn’s anti-piracy strategy in Every Inch Counts: Porn Filesharing Lawsuits Crest 30K Defendants.

Now the lawyer that fancied himself the champion mercenary for Big Porn is in some very hot water over the piracy lawsuits – for unlawful invasion of defendants’ privacy and being in contempt of court.

He subpoena’d ISP’s without permission from the court, and was fined by the court – and then didn’t pay. Now the court has slapped him with a $500 a day until he pays up, plus attorney’s fees for Public Citizen and EFF.

• Judge blasts “unlawful invasions of privacy” by “rogue” P2P attorney (Ars Technica)
• Porn studio’s lawyer fined for contempt in piracy case (Reuters)

ICANN stands by their man, XXX’s ICM Registry

Not long after controversial .XXX domains went on sale, companies in Big Porn filed an antitrust suit against .XXX’s owner ICM Registry and ICANN.

Last week ICM Registry filed its response to the .XXX lawsuit filed by Manwin (YouPorn, etc.) and Digital Playground, which was recently acquired by Manwin, asking the Court to throw out the case.

ICM said that it was a nuisance lawsuit, and that Manwin’s claims were only being made because ICM feels Manwin wanted a slice of ICM’s pie, and were sore losers over certain allegedly prime .XXX domains.

(Historically, this been ICM’s repeated claim against any and all porn industry complaints about the .TLD, whose formation had zero porn industry input.)

Two days ago, ICANN made its stance known about the suit – and is standing by ICM Registry.

In ICANN’s separately filed motion to dismiss, ICANN stated that it’s ridiculous to claim that increasing the number of available domains is “anti-competitive.”

ICANN also claims that as a not-for-profit, public-benefit corporation, it cannot be held liable under US antitrust laws in this case. (ICANN gets $2 from ICM for every .xxx domain name registration. This is the highest amount it pulls from any .TLD registrar.)

• ICM Responds To Manwin’s .XXX Suit With Motions To Dismiss (Thedomains.com)
• ICANN responds to smut portal antitrust lawsuit (The Register)

Sex hookup app hacked, hacker likely going free

One week ago, extremely popular location-based gay male hookup app Grindr was hacked by an Australian man, and its over 1 million users worldwide were potentially exposed to account compromise.

The hack was trivial in light of the shockingly low security standards of both Grindr and its heterosexual counterpart Blendr. Grindr responded quickly but have yet to release a security update.

The under-18 hacker spoofed several user accounts and publicly posted sensitive personal information (including linking names and usernames, and passwords) on a separate website which has subsequently been taken down.

Meanwhile the Australian man who fingered the exploit is likely to escape prosecution because it appears that no complaint has been filed with New South Wales Police.

• Mr Nasty gets away with Grindr hack (Sydney Morning Herald)