Digital Ventures LLC., owner of the popular straight-guy niche site AmateurStraightGuys, has been slapped with a lawsuit filed by Untangled Web Inc. for non-payment of affiliate fees. The suit, filed by adult entertainment industry attorney Chad Belville, comes after several days of speculation among gay webmasters who have been posting messages on Internet chat forums about their own financial woes with the company.
An affiliate of AmateurStraightGuys’ since 2003, Untangled Web, owner of Internet gay porn guide BananaGuide.com, claims Digital Ventures failed to pay its affiliate earnings for an unspecified 12-week period in late 2005. Although the company says it began to recoup some of the fees from Digital Ventures in early 2006, Untangled Web also says the defendants subsequently neglected to pay earnings owed this year.
“They started to pay back the old stuff, but in the meantime they weren’t paying [the] current [earnings], so I let them know that they had to get their act together by the middle of July, and they did not,” Digital Ventures President Trevor Hennig tells AVNOnline.com. “So, we stopped promoting them at that point, and we filed suit last Friday.”
Hennig says Oct. 12 is the last day Digital Ventures’ affiliate website shows sales by affiliates. He also says the news that the company has closed its affiliate program comes as no great shock. “I surmised that they were in some financial difficulties, so I’m not surprised by that move,” he comments.
Still, he remains critical of the company’s business practices. “As of today, they have not even informed any of their affiliates officially of what they’re doing,” he says. “They haven’t even told their affiliates anything yet, which is par for the course. So, I don’t know why they’re talking nice now. I think they’re just buying time.”
Untangled Web is asking for roughly $24,000 in affiliate payments. “I hope that this matter will be settled speedily and that all affiliates are paid as soon as possible,” he says.
Representatives from Digital Ventures were unavailable for comment. Attempts to contact Digital Ventures’ attorney, Charles McTheny, also proved unsuccessful.
Belville says he cannot comment on the viability of the case, but he did say that “[Untangled Web] is not the only [affiliate] that is complaining about failure of payment, but I think that we are the first ones to actually file a suit. I would assume we would be close to the front of the line, if there is a feeding frenzy on this company’s assets.”
