YouPorn

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Globe icon of the infobox
Youporn
Website logo
Video portal
operator Mindgeek
editorial staff individual registered or not registered
Registration optional
On-line 2006
www.youporn.com

YouPorn is a video portal through which both professional providers and amateurs can distribute pornographic videos. The platform has been online since August 2006 and has been distributed by Mindgeek (previously Manwin) since 2011 .

concept

The format is modeled on the popular YouTube site . In this context, one speaks of Porn 2.0 , based on the term Web 2.0 . According to the Alexa Internet service , YouPorn (as of September 26, 2015) was the 162nd most visited website worldwide and 39th in Germany .

YouPorn enables website visitors to upload videos without registering, which are activated within one to two days after editorial review and conversion to Flash format . The page can be searched for keywords. The unlocked videos contain excerpts from commercial porn films , commercials for pornographic websites and amateur videos. YouPorn also operates a premium site on which, among other things, more than 21,000 porn DVDs are available (as of January 2016). This membership is chargeable.

In addition to the video offering, YouPorn has chat rooms, cam chat shows and an online dating service. YouPorn is free and is partially funded through banner ads.

A mobile version for cell phones was also introduced in mid-2008. Cell phone browsers automatically redirected to the mobile site, which offered optimized videos with a length of around one minute and 30 seconds. In the meantime, there is a mobile version for smartphones that has the same content as the desktop version.

operator

The operators of YouPorn were initially anonymous; However, various reports indicate that the company is based in California or Germany. In December 2005 the domain youporn.com was registered by a company in California. On the page itself, only an email address is stored as a contact option for the operators. Since the site is operated from California, California law applies, which, in contrast to German law, does not require the disclosure of data. In October 2007, Vivid Entertainment reported that in May of that year a Stephen Paul Jones reached out to the company claiming he owned YouPorn with Zach Hong, a Malaysian who lives in Australia. He wants to sell his shares for $ 20 million. Jones later retracted his claim, instead stating that YouPorn was founded and is run by a German.

In October 2008, NZZ Folio criticized these reports and stated as the result of their research:

“It is still unclear who is really behind Youporn. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, the owner of the internet domain is a 'Midstream Media International NV' based in Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles. The company is legally represented by Jeffrey Parker and Company in London. According to the Federal Office of Police , which closely monitors the development of free porn providers on the Internet, the website is hosted on servers in the USA. […] It is quite possible that the porn tycoon Steve Hirsch himself is involved in Youporn and that the 'Portfolio' story was just a clever PR campaign to underpin the 'amateur' legend and to attract attention - in the endless sea of ​​data an important market factor. "

- Lukas Egli : Everyone is a porn star . In: NZZ Folio . No. 10/2008.

In a 2010 study, researchers at the University of California documented that, among other things, the operators of Youporn use so-called " history hijacking " to spy on the surfing behavior of their users. History stealing can also be used to collect user information from third parties . As a result, a lawsuit was filed against Midstream Media in a California District Court for computer espionage and unfair competition.

It has been known since 2011 that the Luxembourg-registered company Manwin (since 2013 MindGeek ) operates the Web 2.0 porn platforms Youporn , Pornhub , XTube and Extremetube , which also publishes professional offers such as Brazzers , Wicked Pictures , Digital Playground and Mofos , who benefit from visitors to the company's own free tube pages. Since November 2011, Manwin has also been one of the operating partners of the Playboy division Playboy Plus Entertainment . The founder of Manwin was Fabian Thylmann , who acquired and merged the aforementioned sites in March 2010 through the purchase of the companies Interhub, operator of tube sites such as YouPorn, and Mensef, operator of professional offers. He sold all shares in October 2013.

Blockages

From April 2007 until November 2012 at the latest, YouPorn was not indexed by the German version of Google . Between September 11 and 17, 2007, the German Internet access provider Arcor even completely blocked access to this and two other websites with freely accessible pornographic material for all of its 2.4 million customers. According to Arcors, the blocking took place voluntarily at the request of a provider of paid pornographic material on the grounds that the pages concerned violated German law on the protection of minors in the media by allowing access without proof of age.

The blocking was lifted after it became clear that the blocking of the IP addresses of the blocked sites also affected many other offers without pornographic content.

On October 19, 2007, Kirchberg Logistik GmbH (which itself operates a website with pornographic content, e.g. offers erotic films for download) obtained an injunction from the Frankfurt am Main regional court , according to which Arcor must block access to the website , whereby Arcor realized this lock by means of DNS manipulation. As a result, warnings were issued against 19 other German Internet service providers, who did not, however, move them to block access, and preliminary injunctions were applied for against the Freenet subsidiary KielNET and Tele2 in order to force these providers to implement an access block, as had previously been the case with Arcor. On November 23, 2007, the district court in Kiel rejected the preliminary injunction requested by Kirchberg Logistik on the grounds that the provision of internet access was content-neutral and that KielNET was therefore not responsible for the content of the pages. The day before, Arcor decided to take legal action against the temporary injunction, as it did not want to be the only provider obliged to block it. On December 12, 2007, the Düsseldorf Regional Court also rejected the application for a preliminary injunction against Tele2 and denied that Internet access providers were obliged to maintain safety . Subsequently, the third civil chamber of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court and the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court refused an injunction against Arcor, which Arcor had requested by ueber18.de managing director Tobias Huch as a protest against the blocking order of the sixth civil chamber and its effects on the freedom of recipients Blocking the search engine should oblige Google , because Google, like YouPorn, also allows access to a large number of pornographic content without sufficient age verification. On February 8, 2008, the 12th Civil Chamber of the Frankfurt Regional Court followed the arguments of the Higher Regional Court and canceled the blocking order obtained against Arcor in the main proceedings, whereupon Arcor removed the installed DNS block from YouPorn.

Controversy

2012 vulnerabilities

In spring 2012, the owner of the internet platform hit the headlines because of the repeated theft of user data by hackers. In February the independent forum of the internet platform, the YP Chat , was directly affected. The passwords and email addresses of over 6,000 users were stolen. Mindgeek (until 2013 Manwin) distanced himself from responsibility and accused the inadequate security measures of the external company commissioned for the external forum. The following month, the company was hit again when the previously unknown hacker group The Consortium claimed to have stolen the data of over 73,000 subscribers to the Digital Playground website , including 40,000 credit card details. Mindgeek then stated that he had only taken over the service on March 1st. The attacks had already happened before that. The controversy about insufficient data protection at Manwin ultimately led to a significant drop in access to YouPorn.

RedTube warning affair 2013 and wave of warnings 2017

In December 2013, YouPorn became the subject of a wave of warnings from the law firm Urmann + Collegen, along with the Mindgeek subsidiary RedTube , which sparked a public discussion about the legal admissibility. The warnings initially only concerned users of RedTube who were accused of watching unlawfully published videos. However, in an interview with lawyer Christian Solmecke , the law firm's partner Thomas Urmann stated that the warnings should be expanded over the next few years. This statement raised the suspicion that YouPorn was also the focus of the law firm. At the same time, doubts about the legality of the warnings increased. There were increasing indications that the IP addresses were illegally collected via forwarding to the warned videos. Contrary to fears, the warnings were limited to six videos on RedTube, because in December 2013 RedTube was able to stop the warnings with an injunction. In August 2017, the wave of warnings initially appeared to be repeated on YouPorn. The warnings were sent by Wondo GmbH & Co KG on behalf of the Munich law firm Auer Witte Thiel, the Dortmund law firm Streicher and the Schwetzingen law firm Zipper & Partner as emails in which a claim of 92 or 207 euros was made. Those affected reported to the consumer advice center, which investigated the case. She received confirmation from the law firms that the emails were forgeries.

.xxx domain

In the course of the introduction of the top-level domain .xxx , the operators of YouPorn brought a lawsuit against the Internet administration ICANN . In August 2012, a US court confirmed that competition and antitrust law were being applied.

marketing

Social media

YouPorn is active on various social media. The platform uses the name YouPorn Katie to advertise individual videos, actresses and promotions on Twitter . The offer is loosened up by memes with sexual connotations , whereby the channel benefits from the loose regulations on pornographic content. YouPorn also maintains its own channel on the Instagram online service , but due to the more restrictive handling of nudity, it does not distribute nude photos or pornographic content. With its own account under the name officialyouporn , the platform is also active in the instant messaging service Snapchat .

Team YP

YouPorn has been sponsoring esports clans in disciplines such as League of Legends or Dota 2 since July 2014 . On December 3rd, YouPorn announced the signing of a Spanish roster in Dota 2, which has since competed as Team YP . Also in Super Smash Bros. Melee , Team YP signed another e-athlete in June 2015 with the American Jason "Bizzarro Flame" Yoon. In November 2015, committed team YP with Team Phenomenon and Team NewEra in Global Offensive Counter-Strike both a men's and a women's team from the CIS region. In 2016, the Electronic Sports League announced its collaboration with the team because the rules prohibit sponsors from the pornography and adult entertainment industries.

See also

literature

  • Stefan Krempl: Bans for youth protection mud battle in the erotic industry . In: c't No. 23, October 29, 2007, p. 88 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Alexa.com: Traffic Ranks , as of September 26, 2015.
  2. Evidence of DVD number at videobox.com , accessed on January 8, 2016
  3. ^ A b Christian Stenzel / Bastian Reichert: The success of YouTube is shamelessly copied. Why are more and more people showing their private sex films on the Internet? , Bild.de , November 13, 2006.
  4. Sunny Freeman: Porn 2.0, and Its Victims. 'Private' sex tapes flood user-fed sites like YouPorn. The Tyee , July 6, 2007.
  5. ^ YouPorn Terms of Service at youporn.com/terms , accessed October 20, 2007.
  6. Claire Hoffman: Obscene Losses , Portfolio.com , October 15, 2007. German version of the article in Neon , March 2008, pp. 42-48. Hoffmann (in neon with two n's ) writes that besides the person using the name Stephen Paul Jones as a pseudonym, there is a real Stephen Paul Jones in South Lake Tahoe , California, who is probably “the mastermind behind the world's most popular porn site “(P. 48).
  7. Lukas Egli: Everyone is a porn star . In: NZZ Folio. No. 10/2008.
  8. This is how easily criminals can track down web surfers Spiegel Online from December 6, 2010
  9. ^ Lawsuit against Youporn for espionage in the Golem browser history dated December 7, 2010
  10. Hacker claims to have stolen 350,000 records from a porn site , Golem.de from February 14, 2012
  11. ^ Benjamin Wallace: The Geek Kings of Smut . January 30, 2011. Archived from the original on October 10, 2014. Retrieved on February 16, 2017.
  12. xbiz: Fabian Thylmann Sells Stake in Manwin to Company Management , October 18, 2013
  13. Filtered search results at google.de , accessed on February 19, 2008.
  14. Arcor blocks access to porn sites , heise online, September 10, 2007.
  15. Konrad Lischka: The role model for the film industry. Porn providers fight against web competition , Spiegel Online, September 11, 2007.
  16. Konrad Lischka: Incorrect censorship method. Arcor stops the porn filter , Spiegel Online, September 17, 2007.
  17. Stefan Krempl: Arcor installs easily bypassable network lock for YouPorn , heise online, October 24, 2007.
  18. ^ Konrad Lischka: Protection of minors. Wave of warnings urges Internet providers to censor the web , Spiegel Online, October 22, 2007.
  19. Ingo Pakalski: Court: Provider does not have to block porn sites. Interim injunction rejected by Kirchberg Logistik , Golem.de, 23 November 2007.
  20. Stefan Krempl: Arcor has lodged an objection to the YouPorn ban , heise online, November 22, 2007.
  21. Stefan Krempl: Another request to block porn sites rejected , heise online, December 13, 2007.
  22. LG Frankfurt: Access to animal pornography via GOOGLE does not have to be blocked . In: Press release from Huch Medien GmbH, December 13, 2007.
  23. OLG: Provider not responsible for network content . In: heise.de, January 23, 2008.
  24. Arcor no longer has to block YouPorn . In: heise.de, April 15, 2008.
  25. YouPorn operator: stolen 350,000 user data . ( futurezone.at [accessed December 30, 2017]).
  26. a b Porn site breached in hack attack . In: BBC News . March 12, 2012 ( bbc.com [accessed December 30, 2017]).
  27. Passwords leaked in YouPorn chat site security breach - BBC Newsbeat. In: BBC Newsbeat. February 23, 2012, accessed December 30, 2017 (UK English).
  28. After the warnings: What must be observed? Retrieved December 30, 2017 .
  29. n-tv news television: Was Redtube just the beginning? In: n-tv.de . ( n-tv.de [accessed December 30, 2017]).
  30. Thomas Urmann: "This wave of warnings was just the beginning" -. Accessed December 30, 2017 (German).
  31. FOCUS Online: End of the Redtube warning wave? In: FOCUS Online . ( focus.de [accessed December 30, 2017]).
  32. Warnings: IP addresses apparently determined by forced redirects - Golem.de . ( golem.de [accessed December 30, 2017]).
  33. ^ Wave of warnings (continued) - Byggvir of Barley. Accessed December 30, 2017 (German).
  34. Frankfurter Rundschau: Porno Redtube warning: Redtube obtains an injunction . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . ( fr.de [accessed December 30, 2017]).
  35. Fake "Youporn" reminders in circulation - Don't pay! | Rhineland-Palatinate consumer advice center. Retrieved December 30, 2017 .
  36. Florian Hitzelberger: Youporn wins against ICANN. In: domain-right. Retrieved August 21, 2012 .
  37. YouPorn Katie ? (@YouPorn) | Twitter. Accessed December 31, 2017 .
  38. YouPorn (@youporn) • Instagram photos and videos. Accessed December 31, 2017 .
  39. YouPorn is considering sponsoring a Dota 2 or League of Legends team. polygon.com, July 11, 2014, accessed December 26, 2014 .
  40. Team YP: Porn platform YouPorn is now sponsoring Spanish e-sports team. gizmodo.de, December 4, 2014, accessed December 26, 2014 .
  41. Team Phenomenon & Team NewEra signed by Team YP. YouPorn, November 13, 2015, accessed November 13, 2015 .
  42. Esports league bans YouPorn's pro gamer squad | GamesBeat. Retrieved December 30, 2017 (American English).