This is something I'm surprised Amelia hasn't addressed or even mentioned in an article on the site. I think it's interesting, what do you think?
Here's the basic story:
-In 2000, a young woman begins acting in porn under the name "Violet Blue." She registers her name as a domain in 2001. She continues to act in porn. She also does a radio show on sex.
-Also in 2000, a different woman, named Wendy Blue, begins working at Good Vibrations and calling herself Violet. She begins writing for the goodvibes site and goes on to have some other sex blogging columns. Notably, she touts herself and her work as "open source".
In 2007, well after the porn actor has been using the name for some time, the blogger decides to trademark "their" name and sue the porn actor. The porn actor is at this time mostly retired and focused on raising her children. The blogger claims that the porn actor has maliciously "stolen" the blogger's identity and that people confuse the two.
In an attempt to be accommodating, the porn actor changes her professional name to "Violetta."
Not only does the "open source" blogger sue the porn actor, but (and here's something that I find really shitty) she also makes many mean, disparaging comments about the porn actor (for example, in her own blog on the subject.) I think this is important because it became more than just a dispute over the use of a name- the blogger, who writes in the field of sex, made it clear that she looks down on "talent."
The suit went to court and the porn actor, having fewer resources than the blogger, lost.
What I don't get is why almost the entire online sex-writing and -selling industry has gotten behind the blogger and left the porn actor out to dry. It seems to me that people are willing to overlook this because Violet the actor is "talent" and Violet the blogger has a minuscule amount of "mainstream" media pull.
There is still a huge double-standard in the industry about "talent", and it seems to pervade even the minds of those who like to flirt with being talent themselves- it's okay to write about the sex you are having, and even get paid to write about the sex you are having, but not to get paid to have sex.
Disclosure: I'm not a friend of either of these ladies. I met the porn actor once, in passing, at a party and she seemed nice, but I don't know either of them to speak to. I just think that the sex blogger behaved in a really low and hypocritical fashion here and I am surprised that very few other people seem to care.
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