By some calculations, Fabian Thylmann is the biggest porn king of all time. But right now, he's stuck inside a Belgian jail.
MUNICH - Glasses. Hoodie. Bulky body. No gold chains, mink coat or oversized sunglasses. This guy is a pale-faced nerd -- a geek. His name is Fabian Thylmann, and he just happens to be the biggest porn king of all time.
The German multimillionaire changed the porn sector worldwide by coming up with a totally new business model. On his website Youporn, millions watch sex videos on a daily basis. Thylmann is just 34 years old.
But for a couple of days now, the man German magazine Focus dubbed the “ruler of the kingdom of pleasure” has been in jail. He is awaiting extradition from Belgium, his adoptive country, to Germany where he faces charges of tax evasion.
Assertions that his company empire was evading tax on a grand scale were first made by journalists from the German newspaper Die Welt. Thylmann sued, and won. But prosecutors opened a case, and a Düsseldorf regional court is now hearing it.
REGENSBURG, Germany, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A German copyright law firm said it will publish a list of pornography pirates on its Web site at the start of September.
The firm, Urmann and Colleagues of Regensburg, said Tuesday it will publish a list of Internet connections used to pirate pornographic materials, starting with connections in police stations and church rectories, The Local.de reported Tuesday.
The firm, which represents several pornography sites, said the list will go up on its Web site Sept. 1.
The law firm said it will also send out thousands of cease-and-desist orders along with demands for compensation.
"As legal representative of its clients, the firm U+C warns owners of Internet connections who have violated copyright," the firm told Der Spiegel magazine. "These clients include companies from the pornography industry who believe their copyright has been violated."
The Catholic Church is again in another controversy. This time the ownership of a billion-dollar German media company that has been reported selling some pornographic materials, which is against its philosophy and teachings.
A report from online news provider Worldcrunch.com has revealed that the German company Weltbild, the largest media firm selling books, DVDs, music and more also happens to sell pornographic materials and other erotica.
The report said that although it has been 10 years that a local group had written the Catholic Church authorities about this, no action has been taken to address the situation.
"In 2008, the group sent a 70-page document to all the bishops whose dioceses have shared ownership of Weltbild for 30 years, detailing evidence of the sale of questionable material," Worldcrunch.com said.
It further explained that Wetbild, based in Augsburg, Germany, these days has a workforce of 6,400 and turns over some 1.7 billion euros in revenues. It ranks second to Amazon.com when it comes to its online sales of books and other media-related materials.
BERLIN — A German city that introduced a surcharge on street prostitutes via kerb-side meters said Monday the programme had been a success and would continue.
The Bonn government said a "sex tax" covering levies on sauna clubs, "erotic centres" and automated pay stations similar to parking meters that were rolled out in August had brought in around 250,000 euros ($326,000) last year.
"We are satisfied with that and plan to continue levying the tax," a city spokeswoman told AFP.
Bonn authorities said in a statement they had hoped to bring in 300,000 euros in 2011 from the "sex tax" but had later lowered its projected revenue to 200,000 euros based on the amount taken in early in the year.
About 14,000 euros came from the sex meters, it added.