PRAGUE — Czech authorities arrested a prominent Prague-based independent producer on Monday, raiding his offices and charging him and eight associates with “coercing women to have sex on camera,” based on content from one of his company's "casting couch"-themed websites.
According to local reports, Monday’s raid on the Prague offices of online adult entertainment company Netlook resulted in the arrest of owner Martin Stiborek. Newspaper Seznam Zprávy describes the charges against Stiborek and his employees with Czech terms that translate as “human trafficking, rape or sexual coercion,” with a potential penalty of 12 years in prison.
Seznam Zprávy described Netlook as “the largest producer of pornography in the Czech Republic,” although sources familiar with Prague’s adult scene confirm that Stiborek is merely one of several notable players, suggesting that the newspaper may have inflated his prominence to sensationalize the story.
Netlook and Stiborek produce content for several paysites, and a source confirmed that the one mentioned by the authorities, Czech Casting, “is not even central to their brand.”
The Specter of GirlsDoPorn
The accusations described by Seznam Zprávy appear to be identical to those in the U.S. GirlsDoPorn civil lawsuit.
In fact, the Czech case against Netlook and Stiborek appears to be taken verbatim from the San Diego civil case that was decided in favor of a group of models who wanted to have their contracts with GirlsDoPorn rendered null. That decision was influenced by simultaneous federal criminal charges against the GirlsDoPorn owners that were revealed to the court and the public in the middle of the civil proceedings.
Last Monday, 50 officers raided the Netlook offices in Prague’s Vokovice district and took computers and documents, after what the newspaper reports as testimony from 18 models claiming that they had been coerced into those "casting couch" scenarios.
Netlook’s attorneys told Seznam Zprávy that the models had signed contracts agreeing to perform in the adult videos.
According to the paper, the models claim they “called or answered an advertisement that looked like a casting for models with a reward of several thousand crowns, then they got a contract signed on the spot — but most of the girls did not even read it properly.”
“According to the police,” the newspaper continued, “the girls were persuaded to have sex, some were said to be afraid of the unfamiliar environment and coercion, and asked to leave. According to the testimony, the cameraman also forced others physically.”
“During later interrogations with the police, the girls described that they felt helpless and did as the cameraman told them,” the newspaper reported. “Then they got several thousand crowns on hand, and according to criminal investigators, the company then edited the record so that it looked like the girls wanted sex themselves.”
When the video appeared on porn sites, the newspaper continued, “and was recognized by friends and family, some of the girls stated that they had felt suicidal. Others preferred to move from the Czech Republic or their city for a while, others ended up in school.”
"They did everything voluntarily, no one manipulated them," a lawyer for Netlook told the Czech paper.
The Prague Adult Milieu
While these allegations are almost identical to the civil claims made against GirlsDoPorn by a group of Jane Does, there is one important difference: while the GirlsDoPorn business model was built around "casting couch"-themed videos with inexperienced models recruited from classified ads, Netlook operates several different sites, the most notable of which shoot with professional adult performers and feature high production values.
XBIZ spoke with a Netlook representative who said that, according to Czech legal procedure, the company cannot release any statements until the court date. Sources familiar with the Prague adult milieu confirmed to XBIZ that professional models have appeared on the Czech Casting site, role-playing as amateurs under different names.
A Prague-based American performer who has extensive experience with Netlook, Stiborek and his staff, told XBIZ that, in her opinion, "this claim is baseless."
"I find it hard to believe that Netlook has misled any model, or coerced them into doing anything they did not agree to," she said. "The producer, camera [operators] and the rest of the production and office crew go above, beyond and even out of their way to ensure a safe, secure working environment."
According to the performer, the company is also known "to pay competitive and even above-average rates for Europe. Netlook is one of the most respectable companies I've worked for. These accusations, if baseless, would be nothing short of malicious."
"I stand by them," she concluded.
“It doesn’t add up,” another Euro-porn insider told XBIZ. “When I saw that headline I immediately thought of who it could be, but Netlook seems an odd choice for the police to target. They’re mostly known for high-end, professionally shot content, and not for ‘casting couch’ videos.”
