Women awarded £28,000 against AdultWork

[CoolTiger]

External Link/Members Only

Now all she has to do is find them in order to get the £28,000 as AW failed to turn up in court.

[Straife]

"Concerned at any possible danger to the child if she was working as a prostitute, an investigation was carried out before social services concluded she had no involvement in the sex trade."

More of this stupid drivel 

[webpunter]

External Link/Members Only

Now all she has to do is find them in order to get the £28,000 as AW failed to turn up in court.

Puts the dampers on putting up photos of an annoying ex OH onto AW for a laugh !
Unless you can afford to pay & consider it worth it
Or divorced & bankrupt & WGAF
Donkeys old post on AW location - Belize
https://www.ukpunting.com/index.php?topic=1098.0
Wouldn't be surprised if AW pay - just to avoid the bad publicity.  They must be making loads so worthwhile maybe
No point the woman speaking to Mumsnet, who only found out about AW in 2012 it appears.  Bless !

[ladyofthemansion]

It's unlike she will ever see a penny of that money.

[Jimmyredcab]

Wouldn't be surprised if AW pay - just to avoid the bad publicity. 

Bad publicity. 

Adultwork is a directory of prostitutes, no such thing as bad publicity.   

[k]

It's unlike she will ever see a penny of that money.

Not if she were suing AW Systems Ltd.  No such company according to Companies House.

"Judgement was made in her favour after the defendant failed to enter an appearance."
Their defence would likely be that they didn't receive the summons as it wasn't addressed to them.
According to AW's website:-


AdultWork.com is owned by:

Ubard Investments Ltd
Room 1704
17/F. Fu Fai Commercial Centre
27 Hillier Street
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong

AdultWork.com is operated by:

AWS Affiliate World Systems International Limited
Villa Wied Florina FL6
Triq il Kantra
XLN 1310
Xlendi
Malta

[webpunter]

Bad publicity. 

Adultwork is a directory of prostitutes, no such thing as bad publicity.   

True - i stand corrected.  What i meant was attention from the authorities etc.  Not that they'll give a flying fuck in Belize
Just easier to say sorry / pay up & say that they run a proper website
Just bung £28k in the direction of the court & be done with it
Really they should have been a bit smart & removed the profile pronto & they'd have been ok maybe
I remember reading in one the papers that an MP had likened AW to the auto-trader of escorts [& not Fords]
Thought to myself - what a great description - something that AW would be proud of !

[Jimmyredcab]

True - i stand corrected.  What i meant was attention from the authorities etc.  Not that they'll give a flying fuck in Belize
Just easier to say sorry / pay up & say that they run a proper website

Yes, but they don't run a proper website, they are a bunch of spivs who are happy to tolerate scam profiles ------ OK, they do remove some, but do they refund our money --------------- no way.   

We suffer Adultwork because there is no viable alternative.

[brooksey]

These people are good at retaining complete anonymity. They didn't defend the case and it will be interesting to see if the court award can actually be enforced.

[smiths]

External Link/Members Only

Now all she has to do is find them in order to get the £28,000 as AW failed to turn up in court.

Good for her. If by some miracle those bunch of pricks who own A/W pay up it will be us punters that will be further scammed by them thats for sure to make the money back.

[dazzler72]

But why is there no viable alternative? Would it be against the law to run an alternative to AW?

[Festisio]

But why is there no viable alternative? Would it be against the law to run an alternative to AW?

Many have tried.

All have failed.

There was a thread a while ago with some cock-sure developer who thought he was going to create the next big rival to AW.  Needless to say it's gone all quiet on that front.

[daviemac]

These people are good at retaining complete anonymity. They didn't defend the case and it will be interesting to see if the court award can actually be enforced.

Not a chance of that happening, that's why they didn't defend it.

People take UK based companies to court and can't get paid even with bailiffs etc there's no way to enforce civil actions abroad.

But why is there no viable alternative? Would it be against the law to run an alternative to AW?

Not illegal as far as I know but AW aren't based in this country and have sites worldwide.

[Riot Doll]

My first impression upon finding out about this farce was that I'd love to see a "Horace Rumpole"-style adaptation of it, comedy gold 

[Jason]

Well I guess the best bet to enforce this decision is to threaten to render adultwork.com domain not accessible from UK or even the entire EU. Of course in such a case you can use Tor but it won’t be the same and also the prossies would have to use Tor too (and of course they should first learn about the existence of Tor).

[Riot Doll]

I have used Tor and it's a bit rubbish when it comes to AW, because of the "random" IP's that it assigns to you. It looked as though I accessed my profile from 10 different countries in one day, not exactly encouraging for the client, I should imagine...

[Jason]

I have used Tor and it's a bit rubbish when it comes to AW, because of the "random" IP's that it assigns to you. It looked as though I accessed my profile from 10 different countries in one day, not exactly encouraging for the client, I should imagine...

You can select servers from one particular country (e.g. France) and make Tor hopping only between them – thus appearing as if you log from one country only. But I agree for prossies the use of Tor in a slightly advanced way it would be like rocket science.

[Riot Doll]

You can select servers from one particular country (e.g. France) and make Tor hopping only between them – thus appearing as if you log from one country only. But I agree for prossies the use of Tor in a slightly advanced way it would be like rocket science.

To be fair, I used it very briefly and didn't explore any of the "advanced" features, so can't comment. However, when I did use it, it was slow, not very "intuitive", and looked rather crap... I tried the Android version as well, and unfortunately found it to be just as bad.   

[daviemac]

Well I guess the best bet to enforce this decision is to threaten to render adultwork.com domain not accessible from UK or even the entire EU. Of course in such a case you can use Tor but it won’t be the same and also the prossies would have to use Tor too (and of course they should first learn about the existence of Tor).

As far as I'm aware this can only be done in criminal cases - like P2P sites that breach copyright laws which is a criminal offence and then it's up to individual internet providers to block it. This is a civil action and it's illegal to harass anyone who owes money, even bailiffs have to be polite.

[Jimmyredcab]

Well I guess the best bet to enforce this decision is to threaten to render adultwork.com domain not accessible from UK or even the entire EU.

Not sure that would be possible, it seems they can't even block illegal child porn sites let alone Adultwork.

[Jimmyredcab]

But why is there no viable alternative? Would it be against the law to run an alternative to AW?

Anyone could start a site to compete with Adultwork but they would have to be very skilled in IT and be willing to make it a full time job, even %%% can't compete with Adultwork and they have been established for over 10 years.   

[NIK]

Anyone could start a site to compete with Adultwork but they would have to be very skilled in IT and be willing to make it a full time job, even %%% can't compete with Adultwork and they have been established for over 10 years.   

%%% can't even compete with UKP anymore! 

[Daffodil]

To be fair, I used it very briefly and didn't explore any of the "advanced" features, so can't comment. However, when I did use it, it was slow, not very "intuitive", and looked rather crap... I tried the Android version as well, and unfortunately found it to be just as bad.   

A lot of things are not intuitive to prossies, doesn't mean they are not intuitive though 

[Hellraiser]

These people are good at retaining complete anonymity. They didn't defend the case and it will be interesting to see if the court award can actually be enforced.

Exactly.

People assume they are in Belize but I doubt anyone knows what their true location is. Even one of the posts above lists Hong Kong and Malta offices. I am sure there are a lot more fake addresses to hide their exact whereabouts.

[k]

Not if she were suing AW Systems Ltd.  No such company according to Companies House.

"Judgement was made in her favour after the defendant failed to enter an appearance."
Their defence would likely be that they didn't receive the summons as it wasn't addressed to them.
According to AW's website:-


AdultWork.com is owned by:

Ubard Investments Ltd
Room 1704
17/F. Fu Fai Commercial Centre
27 Hillier Street
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong

AdultWork.com is operated by:

AWS Affiliate World Systems International Limited
Villa Wied Florina FL6
Triq il Kantra
XLN 1310
Xlendi
Malta

Both addresses are virtual offices. 

The way to try to enforce payment is through a garnishee order which can be obtained through the County Court at nominal cost (the cost is added to the amount owed by the defendent).  This is served by the court on the UK Bank where money has historically been paid into by the plaintiff.  However, if there's not enough money in the account at the time the order is executed then the enforcement will fail.

However, as I've pointed out, if she's got the company name wrong she's onto a non-starter.

[Jason]

Not sure that would be possible, it seems they can't even block illegal child porn sites let alone Adultwork.

I guess such material does not appear on sites with a fixed domain. These sites may keep changing domains and those who seek such content have to search thoroughly to find it.  Not the same situation for Adultwork which is an advertising provider. If Adultwork gets threaten to be blocked or suspended until they fulfil the court decision their best option is to pay. But I doubt that the court will take such measures in order to enforce it.

Tubes like redtube, apetube, xvideos etc do NOT have child pornography and they don't get banned for copyright infringement as they actually serve as content advertisement. For example you are exposed to limited content (e.g. a fetish or videos of a certain pornstar) that you have never known before and if you get addicted you may end up subscribing to the porn-site to have plenty of such videos. Also ALL pornstars work either as prostitutes/escorts OR as strippers. Becoming famous is more important than selling videos as it increases their selling value. It is much like singers uploading songs on Youtube for free and making money by live appearances. That said pornstars and singers still do sell plenty of videos and songs to their true fans (who want to support them).   

Filesharing websites such as Rapidshare do monitor copyright infringement more strictly than before. Otherwise they would end up like MegaUpload.com where the owner was imprisoned or other websites where they were blocked from USA.

[daviemac]

Jason can i ask you who would threaten to block AW in the UK, they aren't based in the UK,  they aren't in breach of any copyright, they haven't broken any laws. An individual has sued them in a civil court, it would cost her thousands to take further action to get paid.

I'm with Virgin and they try to block 'The Pirate Bay' file share site and VIPBox sports site on copyright grounds but they can't do it, a quick search of google gets you back on.

I don't know how many ISP's there are in the UK but they would all have to agree to block any site.

[badsin]

Not sure that would be possible, it seems they can't even block illegal child porn sites let alone Adultwork.

They dont take them down, as its easier for them to monitor who is logging onto these grotesque site's. The Police etc, have access to some formidable software and knowledge of how these (and other) sites operate.

[NIK]

They dont take them down, as its easier for them to monitor who is logging onto these grotesque site's. The Police etc, have access to some formidable software and knowledge of how these (and other) sites operate.

I daresay if necessary, but I wouldn't be so sure, especially with the recent cuts I wouldn't think the police have that much time or resources to spend hours monitoring web sites.
For example the enemies of UKP constantly bleat on about us being 'monitored' by the police as though this pathetic bollocks will put the wind up us. Although they will undoubtedly be aware of our existence, as we aren't doing anything illegal I doubt they will waste much of their precious time on us.

[Jimmyredcab]

For example the enemies of UKP constantly bleat on about us being 'monitored' by the police as though this pathetic bollocks will put the wind up us.

Well they would say that wouldn't they.   

We are hated in the industry because we expose bad service providers and their pimps.

There is nothing illegal on UKP, no obscene images, no discussion of under aged activity.