Some Brazilian prostitutes are starting to use technology to increase the number of clients they receive. The mentioned women work for an online site called M.Class, which recently started offering video on the MP4 format that can be played on the iPod. Rodrigo dos Santos, the owner of the site, commented that the idea emerged six months ago and it is receiving a lot of attention. Before using the M.Class services users can download the videos, upload them to the iPod and ask friends some advice regarding the product portfolio and after the service is consumed the clients can carry the video around to brag about it. There is nothing explicit going on, it is just a showcase for the girls, including 3 to 4 minutes of play time where they describe themselves.

NORWAY -- The owners of the Diamond Go Go Bar in Olso have done what few have managed to do -- they fought the tax man and won.

Although Norway waives its valued-added tax (VAT) for performers, including sword-swallowers and comics, it has forced strippers and those who hire them to pay the tax, somehow concluding that erotic dance is not a form of art.

The attorneys for Diamond Go Go Bar explained that the club owners and its Terpsichorean performers disagreed. Instead, they contended that the strip tease is, indeed, an art form that requires skill and its practitioners deserve the same respect and tax breaks as other creative artists and performers.

Amazingly enough, the Norwegian court agreed.

"Striptease, in the way it is practiced in this case, is a form of dance combined with acting," the judges ruled, according to the AFP news agency.

Reuters quoted one of the plaintiff's attorneys as saying that, "One can suspect there were moral scruples behind the tax authorities' claim, since all forms of stage dance are free of value-added tax."

Fortunately for Diamond Go Go Bar, the local authorities that took it to court in order to force it to pay the 25% tax won't be able to use their "moral scruples" in order to line their governmental coffers anymore.

Instead, the court -- which sustained a May 2005 verdict -- ordered the government to pay the club's court costs.

SEATTLE, WA -- Most people would be horrified to hear anyone protest the building of new church for fear of its negative community impact, yet many have no problem entertaining the same fears when it comes to adult businesses, including strip clubs. Three motivated Seattle strip clubs has released the results of a study they financed on the issue -- and the findings may surprise open-minded industry opponents.

According to the study, which reviewed eight years' worth of police responses to the clubs in question, concluded that "there is no evidence" that the exotic dance establishments were "disproportionately more often the source of police attention" than nearby taverns, convenience markets, or department stores.

In case that wasn't clear enough, its author's reiterated that "Crime does not tend to accompany, concentrate around, or be aggravated by these adult businesses."

Whether this information is compelling or not may be seen in the November 7th election results, since Seattle voters will have the opportunity to set aside currently laws that restrict dancers to a four-foot distance from customers, denies direct tipping, and requires clubs to install bright lighting.

Although the new laws are not yet being enforced, supporters have insisted that they were necessarily to protect the surrounding areas and cut back on presumed police calls to strip clubs. Club owners and free expression supporters have argued that the laws stem from an attempt to legally enforce a moral standard and would result in financial hardship for businesses, their employees, and dancers.

Daniel Linz, a professor of communication and law and society t Universtiy of California, Santa Barbara was responsible for the study, which was conducted at the request of Rick's in Lake City Déjà Vu near Pike Place Market, and Sands in Ballard strip clubs.

Linz found that the three non-alcohol-serving strip clubs actually had fewer police calls than surrounding bars, which serve alcohol but do not provide erotic entertainment. In fact, Fred Meyer stores had more than three times as many police incidents as Rick's. The majority of police responses that Rick's did experience were related to undercover vice inspectors checking to make sure dancers weren't touching patrons, although budget cuts have caused those visits to decline.

City officials dismiss the study, which they have not yet fully reviewed, claiming it is biased. Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis says, "It kind of reminds me of the tobacco industry hiring consultants to say tobacco was good for you."

Police arrested 12 women who advertised sex for pay on an Internet Web site.

Police Bucks County said they arrested the women after they received a tip last month about alleged prostitutes who advertised themselves on Craigslist.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Investigators then called cell phone numbers posted on the site that advertised “GFE’s” for girlfriend experiences, that asked for payments in “ro$” or “125 donations.”

The investigators then waited for the women at motels where they were later arrested. Several, police said, brought their boyfriends who were also arrested.

The operation was similar to those conducted by police other states such as Maryyland, New York, Oregon and New Hampshire.

Sue MacTavish Best, a spokeswoman for Craigslist, said the site cooperates with authorities and uses a system that allows users to inform the site about prohibited content.

The Council voted 10-3 recently in favor of granting a license to the owners of Diva’s Gentlemen's Club despite a recommendation by the city's public safety committee to deny the permit, the Star Tribune reported.

The council rejected the claim by the owner of a Christian nightspot, called Club Three Degrees, who claimed the club was akin to a church, thus making it illegal for the strip club to located next to it. By law, no adult business may operate in Minneapolis within 500 feet of a church, schools or other public facilities.

Diva's owner, Mike Nigai, said the club would open in the next two to two-and-a-half months.

Nancy Aleksuk, Club Three Degrees’ co-founder, said she was surprised by the city’s action, saying the club would now look into possible legal action to stop the strip club from opening.

BUCHAREST, Romania - Romanian Parliament said recently that it plans to legalize prostitution, in an attempt to fight human trafficking and sexual slavery. The Eastern European country's legislation currently imposes a heavy fine or up to three years in jail for prostitution. However, when caught, the Sofia News Agency reported that “most of the Romanian prostitutes are just forced to pay a fine.”

The article went on to say that human rights organizations in the country “see the legalization as a way to fight the spread of sexually transmitted illnesses and female trafficking.”

SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- The strip clubs in Scottsdale, AZ are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Sick and tired of harsh new regulations that they believe will ultimately run them out of business, club owners have vowed to do battle with Proposition 401, a September 12th ballot measure that would require dancers to wear more clothes and remain four feet from club patrons, effectively making lap dances impossible.

Lamar Whitmer, political consultant for Babe’s Cabaret and Skin Cabaret, which would each take a substantial hit from such a law, says the clubs tried to play nice, but now the gloves are coming off.

“We will have a full-fledged campaign,” he vows, adding that “The polling data looks very good and we feel very confident.”

Mayor Mary Manross, a strong a vocal supporter of the additional constraints is unmoved by the threatened political combat, insisting that it her intention to “stay the course and allow the city to vote on this.”

According to attorneys for the clubs, the city has made it nearly impossible for new clubs to open, something club owners thought might encourage relaxation of the already tough rules. Assistant City Manager Ed Gawf has admitted that business owners are correct that it would be “very difficult” for any new adult establishment to make Scottsdale its home.

In December the city council unanimously approved new limits on conduct within adult entertainment establishments, but the strip clubs were able to gather enough signatures to put them on hold until voters had an opportunity to weigh in. Joel Wright, a local pollster working with the clubs, says that only 30-percent of voters report having confidence in their elected officials, whereas 50-percent admit no confidence and 20-percent were neutral.

Wright believes that the club owners have a good chance of winning their fight and, in fact, that the process will not only “be bitter” but will also “further erode confidence in the city’s leadership.”

Councilman Tony Nelssen has been willing to reach some kind of consensus with the clubs but feels that their previously proposed compromise was unacceptable. The council voted as a block to reject it in spite of the testimony of First Amendment lawyers, insisting that it was too lenient.

It’s not just club owners and their legal council that think the battle will be ugly and pointless. Former council member Bill Crawford agrees that long-established businesses are having their rights violated and that the situation will not make the city or its representatives look good. “This is a train wreck,” he told the council. “You will be held accountable for this.”

LONDON -- Irish bookmaker Paddy Power was only making a holiday joke when he proposed a strip poker championship. The problem with jokes - even those told on April 1st -- is that sometimes people take you seriously.

That's what happened to Paddy.

Thanks to his sense of humor -- and 200 brave player's love for the game -- the first ever World Strip Poker Championship will be held in London, England on August 19th.

Those clever enough to keep at least some of their clothes on during the tournament will earn a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, win a Golden Fig Leaf trophy -- and $18,630 in cash.

"This will be the most fun you can have with your clothes on -- or off!" Power promises those with naked ambition -- or merely a keen interest in watching poker players strip away more than just their dignity.

"I know what the risks are, and I know that putting myself in this situation is like putting a gun to my head," he says. Some of that mountain music that's so popular is playing, making the moment even more surreal as a Southern voice sings, "Keep on the sunny side of life" behind Carlos. "But I think it turns the other guy on to know that I'm negative and that they're bringing me into the brotherhood. That gets me off, too."

I met Carlos in New York's Greenwich Village, the neighborhood where he usually hangs out. He is tall, with a large build, and plenty of gay men find him attractive. His longish, curly-wavy hair is jet-black with golden highlights, and his face is soft and just a bit feminine. He has a very appealing smile and laugh, and he's a funny guy sometimes. The conversation veers from the banal -- his fascination with the reality show The Amazing Race -- to his desire for HIV. Carlos' tone never changes when switching from one topic to the other.

When asked whether he is prepared to live with HIV after that "erotic" moment, Carlos dismisses living with HIV as a minor annoyance. Like most bug chasers, he has the impression that the virus just isn't such a big deal anymore: "It's like living with diabetes. You take a few pills and get on with your life." Carlos spends the afternoon continually calling a man named Richard, someone he met on the Internet. They met on barebackcity.com about a year ago, while Carlos was still with his boyfriend. That boyfriend left because Carlos was having sex with other men and because he was interested in barebacking -- the practice of having sex without a condom. Carlos and Richard are arranging a "date" for later that day.

Carlos is part of an intricate underground world that has sprouted, driven almost completely by the Internet, in which men who want to be infected with HIV get together with those who are willing to infect them. The men who want the virus are called "bug chasers," and the men who freely give the virus to them are called "gift givers." While the rest of the world fights the AIDS epidemic and most people fear HIV infection, this subculture celebrates the virus and eroticizes it. HIV-infected semen is treated like liquid gold. Carlos has been chasing the bug for more than a year in a topsy-turvy world in which every convention about HIV is turned upside down. The virus isn't horrible and fearsome, it's beautiful and sexy -- and delivered in the way that is most likely to result in infection. In this world, the men with HIV are the most desired, and the bug chasers will do anything to get the virus -- to "get knocked up," to be "bred" or "initiated into the brotherhood."

Like a lot of sexual fetishes and extreme behaviors, bug chasing could not exist without the Internet, or at least it couldn't thrive. Prior to the advent of Web surfing and e-mail, it would have been practically impossible for bug chasing to happen in any great numbers, because it's still not acceptable to walk up to a stranger and say you want the virus. But the Internet's anonymity and broad access make it possible to find someone with like interests, no matter how outlandish. Carlos surfs online about twenty hours a week looking for men to have sex with, usually frequenting sites such as bareback.com and barebackcity.com, plus a number of Internet discussion groups. Most of the Web sites use the pretense that they actually are about barebacking, which is in itself risky and controversial but still a long way from bug chasing. For the Web sites, that distinction is at best razor-thin and more often just an outright lie. "We got Poz4Poz, Neg4Neg and bug chasers looking to join the club," the welcome page to barebackcity.com, which claims 48,000 registered users, up from 28,000 about a year ago, recently said. "Be the first to seed a newbie and give him a pozitive attitude!"

CLEVELAND - Some staff members at WOIO 19 Action News believe the station hit a new low in pursuing a story this week on an after-hours strip joint at a North Randall coffee shop, according to a published report. The story led to the proprietor's arrest.

In his story, reporter Matt Stevens referred to "a woman who just arrived with a date" paying $20 each to get in and then engaging with a nude dancer in "an hourlong relationship that could easily be used as a definition of obscenity." The man and woman, their anonymity protected, were then interviewed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer about what "our undercover camera" caught.

"We found out immediately that you can get just about anything for the right price," said the woman. Including, it appears, a ready-made sweeps-week story.

The story continued by saying that what the reporter failed to tell viewers was that the woman, who works at a local legitimate strip joint, and a man were recruited and paid several hundred dollars by the station to get lewd undercover video. And they didn't sit there passively in the one-hour session, the story said.

News Director Dan Salamone said he had no qualms about paying "$300, including cocktails," for the undercover work. He said he was forced to find outsiders after he used producers for three previous visits, none of which produced usable video.

"They flat-out didn't want to go back. I ran out of people," Salamone told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The story then asks, "Shouldn't viewers have been told that the interviewees were on the payroll?"

"What was germane to me was what was going on in the establishment," he said.

May 10, 2006, 12:57 AM EDT

NEW YORK -- The U.S. government is violating the First Amendment rights of key partners in its international fight against AIDS with a policy forcing groups to denounce prostitution as a condition for receiving funding, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the U.S. Supreme Court "has repeatedly found that speech, or an agreement not to speak, cannot be compelled or coerced as a condition of participation in a government program."

The judge wrote that the government's "somewhat cavalier take-it-or-leave-it answer to an infringement of speech _ which can more or less be characterized as 'if you don't like it, lump it' _ is simply not in keeping with the expectations our society derives from First Amendment freedoms."

He ruled after hearing arguments three weeks ago from the government and lawyers for three health organizations. Marrero asked both sides to propose a preliminary injunction within two weeks that conforms with his findings, which temporarily blocked the government from continuing the actions while the legal case continues.

Lawyer Rebekah Diller had argued on behalf of the health organizations that the government had created "a First Amendment nightmare" with the rules. She said she was "thrilled" with the judge's ruling.

"It's really a tremendous victory for public health," she said. "It will enable these organizations to serve very vulnerable women."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard E. Rosberger, arguing for the government, had said no provision of the 2003 law containing the anti-prostitution pledge requirement was meant to discourage the treatment of those with AIDS, including prostitutes.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, Megan Gaffney, said the government had no immediate comment on the decision.

The judge said non-governmental organizations have long been significant partners of government in administering vital services and should receive the quality of First Amendment rights and protection that editorial opinions or universities receive.

He wrote that the extent to which the government has prevented the organizations from speaking openly even with their private funds "contravenes our national commitment to open debate and our First Amendment values."

The judge wrote in his 115-page ruling that the government's asserted interest in eradicating prostitution may not be entirely inconsistent with the aims of the groups to reach out and empower prostitutes in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

He noted that evidence in the case showed that a program in Calcutta, India, in which groups work with prostitutes had the effect of reducing prostitution overall in the region in which the program operated.

He said the program not only helped to produce low rates of HIV infection among prostitutes but also contributed to a decrease in prostitution as economic and social barriers to exiting the sex industry were eased with social programs for prostitutes.

Rosberger had argued to the judge that the United States formed a policy to eradicate prostitution and sex trafficking worldwide to reduce behavioral risks associated with HIV and AIDS.

The plaintiffs _ the Alliance for Open Society International Inc., Open Society Institute and Pathfinder International _ have adopted policies acknowledging prostitution's harms but object to being told how to execute them.

Pathfinder International, the largest of the three, is based in Watertown, Mass. It does work in more than 20 countries with 600 employees and an annual budget of $76 million.

The groups say the government policy would prevent anyone from advocating the legalization of prostitution or urging those working in the sex trafficking business to organize or unionize.

After Congress passed the bill, it was immediately applied to foreign aid recipients, but the Department of Justice questioned the constitutionality of applying it to domestic organizations. In late 2004, the department cleared the government to implement the requirement domestically.

The lawsuit was brought in Manhattan in September. A similar lawsuit is pending in Washington, D.C.

The rules now affect private U.S. groups conducting AIDS programs overseas. To qualify for federal money, a group must adopt a statement saying it opposes prostitution and sex trafficking. Then it must sign a form for the government promising it has the policy. Only then is the organization eligible for funding.

Besides the pledge, the rules require AIDS groups to inform clients of condom failure rates. They also require the government to give equal opportunity to funding applicants that have "a religious or moral objection" to a particular AIDS prevention method or treatment program, such as condoms or needle exchanges.

Diller, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said the government "can't be in the business of forcing public health organizations to make pledges on unrelated issues to do serious lifesaving HIV prevention."

She added: "The government was arguing for an extraordinary revision of well-established First Amendment principles. It's been clear that when the government spends funds, it doesn't have license to restrict the privately funded speech of funding recipients."

AUSTRALIA -- Condoms, lube, lotions, oils, gels, sex toys, and lingerie – they’re all tax deductible in Australia now – if you’re a sex worker.

Strippers, private dancers, and prostitutes are among the professionals who can now claim an assortment of unorthodox purchases as business expenses thanks to a decision made Friday by the Australian Taxation Office.

The items were only a few listed on the agency’s website and newly eligible as deductions from tax liability, which include dance lessons but do not include fitness club memberships or class fees.

According to the bureau’s “Tools of the Trade” section, sex workers can reasonably “claim the cost of replacing or repairing things like equipment, adult novelties, and other apparatus used in” their work.
An anonymous office employee for the taxation department explained that this was “just another one of our occupational lists that we put together to help people.”

April 28, 2006

Federal prosecutors are reviewing records of two Washington, D.C., hotels where Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes rented suites as part of their investigation into whether prostitutes were involved as he tried to curry favor with lawmakers and CIA officials.

Wilkes, whom federal prosecutors have identified as a co-conspirator in the bribery case of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, rented hospitality suites in the capital on behalf of his flagship company, ADCS Inc.

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As The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in December, the suites – first at the Watergate Hotel and then at the Westin Grand Hotel – had several bedrooms where lawmakers and other guests could relax.

Federal investigators are trying to determine whether Cunningham and other legislators brought prostitutes to the hotels or prostitutes were provided for them there, according to a report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal and confirmed by the Union-Tribune.

A source close to the bribery case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, told the Union-Tribune that Mitchell Wade, who pleaded guilty in February to bribing Cunningham, told federal prosecutors that he periodically helped arrange for a prostitute for the then-congressman.

A limousine would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and take them to the ADCS hospitality suite, Wade reportedly told investigators. Federal agents are investigating whether other legislators had similar arrangements with Wilkes or Wade, a business associate of Wilkes who ran his own defense contracting company, MZM Inc.

Wilkes' attorney, Michael Lipman, denies that his client hired prostitutes.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When America's top sex researchers gathered recently to discuss the next decade in their field, some envisioned a future in which artificial sex partners could cater to every fantasy.

"What is very likely to be present before 2016 would be a multi-sensual experience of virtual sex," said Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington.

"There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a partner of certain dimensions and qualities, the partner saying certain things in that interaction, certain things happening in that interaction."

A field dubbed "teledildonics" already allows people at two remote computers to manipulate electronic devices such as a vibrator at the other end for sexual purposes.

"People who use it are just blown away," said Steve Rhodes, president of Sinulate Entertainment, which has sold thousands of Internet-connected sex devices over the past three years. "This is not something that just the lunatic fringe does."

"The Iraq war...was kind of a boom for our company."

Gina Lynn, who writes the "Sex Drive" column for Wired magazine, says she has used and enjoyed the Sinulator and says there is no reason to fear the technology.

"People are still really afraid of...any sort of combination of sex and technology and of the Internet," she said. "What people are missing here is the point, which is the human connection that we are facilitating through the technology."