No Howoooooooooooo-mo

September 7, 2011 3:52 PM

Someone claiming to be an attorney is attempting to scrub the Internet of "private, obscene, lewd and pornographic photographs" of Colton Haynes, the star of MTV's new series Teen Wolf. Turns out, however, that the photos are neither private, nor obscene, nor porographic: they were part of a playful photo-spread published by XY Magazine in March of 2006. Or as Queerty so elegantly puts it, "XY Boytoy All Grown Up & Having Legal Regrets Now That He's On MTV." Markedly different, they point out, than when Real World star Dustin Zito tried to scrub out his gay porn past.
posted by hermitosis (35 comments total)

Jesus, can't one of these pretty boys finally grow up to be a star and not be ashamed of their past? "I did it because I needed the money" is so pre-lib.
posted by Nelson at 4:06 PM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

I smell a viral marketing campaign.

In the entire history of the internet, no attempt to "quietly" have some embarrassing content taken down has ever failed to backfire spectacularly.

Mr. Freedman has therefore either lived in a closet (no pun intended... Seriously, it just came out that way - Ack! No pun intended again!) for the past 30 years and never heard of the Streisand Effect; or he actually works for Viacom's marketing department rather than their legal department.
posted by pla at 4:06 PM on September 7, 2011 [4 favorites]

Nothing in XY (uuuugh memories uuugh throwing up) is pornographic or obscene, they're never more intense then dudes kissing, so yeah my nose says marketing.
posted by The Whelk at 4:10 PM on September 7, 2011 [5 favorites]

I dunno, I personally think it's really not marketing, but a private endeavor of Haynes, hence the total clumsiness of the attempt. They don't NEED this kind of marketing for a show like Teen Wolf (barf).

If it really was all about circulating pictures of him doing racy things, they'd just take new ones. (And probably will.)
posted by hermitosis at 4:15 PM on September 7, 2011

C'mon. You're on MTV. There's no way you have enough self-respect to be embarrassed about...well...anything.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:17 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

In the entire history of the internet, no attempt to "quietly" have some embarrassing content taken down has ever failed to backfire spectacularly.

Well, as far as we know....
posted by IndigoJones at 4:36 PM on September 7, 2011 [10 favorites]

I'm sorry let's go back to the part about Music Television having "a new show called Teen Wolf" fuck Jesus fuckballs this is an I'm old thing isn't it.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 4:39 PM on September 7, 2011 [15 favorites]

Dude in the first post really needs a lawyer himself. It's a bit laughable to see him throwing around concepts like Fair Use when he's probably a bit on the wrong side there. He got a take down notice for an image that he complied with, which says to me he's admitting that he had no fucking idea where it come from (a DMCA notice would have been enough here). And while I think that reproducing thumbs of a photo spread is probably Fair Use, my opinion and his don't much matter. Fair Use is whatever either side says it is until it ends up in court, then one side is right.

I don't know the laws in the state he's in, but often the kinds of notice he was given is required prior to any notification of suing for damages.

I'm not a lawyer, nor will I pretend to be.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:42 PM on September 7, 2011

"Twink Wolf" didn't sell as well in the midwest.
posted by clvrmnky at 4:45 PM on September 7, 2011 [11 favorites]

Also, the google bombing, SEO phrasing of that whole article DoorQ guy come off like an asshole. And the product placement in that post was way too heavy handed.

I'd never heard of any of these people prior to this post, but I did se a commercial for Teen Wolf.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:45 PM on September 7, 2011

In the entire history of the internet, no attempt to "quietly" have some embarrassing content taken down has ever failed to backfire spectacularly.

Unless no one cares. All this happened in early June. The first season of Teen Wolf wrapped in mid-August and it's already in production on Season 2.
posted by roger ackroyd at 4:49 PM on September 7, 2011

> queerty.com

Also, if these so-called “private” pics ran in XY magazine (which had a pretty high circulation in its heyday), then they fall under First Amendment protections of Fair Use. That’s why we’re posting some of them here for you in our handy gallery.

[...]

UPDATE: We removed the two hi-res images at the photographer’s request.

Wait, I thought they fell under Fair Use?
posted by cjorgensen at 4:49 PM on September 7, 2011

I remember when Nick Carter posed on the cover of XY Magazine. But only barely. Because no one whined about it. Which, for a boy band member, was kinda cool.
posted by PapaLobo at 4:50 PM on September 7, 2011

Hermitosis: Mind tagging this with StreisandEffect?
posted by schmod at 4:52 PM on September 7, 2011

+------------------+
| Streis & Affeck  |
| Attorneys at Law |
+------------------+
        | |
        | |

posted by cortex at 4:55 PM on September 7, 2011 [13 favorites]

cjorgensen : Wait, I thought they fell under Fair Use?

<IANAL>

While a third party (including the employer of the subject of those pictures) has no right to demand you take something down, they do still fall under a valid copyright.

Whether the photographer holds that copyright, or some entity almost impossible to clearly identify after XY went under, someone has it.

So random lawyer for "gay in a past life" boy, I'd ignore. The (provable) original photographer, I'd probably think twice before just sending his nastygram to the bozo bin.

That said, I would think fair use could also apply here, so long as you used them either to parody or document Haynes' "transformation" from starving gay actor to wannabe ambisexual-for-PR-reasons.

</IANAL>
posted by pla at 5:03 PM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm sorry let's go back to the part about Music Television having "a new show called Teen Wolf" fuck Jesus fuckballs this is an I'm old thing isn't it.

Yes, it isn an "I'm old thing". You're so old, you don't even know that MTV stopped meaning Music Television over a year and a half ago.
posted by hippybear at 5:04 PM on September 7, 2011

MTV stopped meaning music television a lot earlier than that, but I digress...
posted by darkstar at 5:06 PM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh, wow from the DoorQ post where the guy pimps his own movie with Sean Paul Lockhart/Brent Corrigan.

Now Corrigan's story? THAT is some sordid shit right there.
posted by PapaLobo at 5:07 PM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

uh, NSFW warnings -- just to be be safe -- should be applied to all three of my links above
posted by PapaLobo at 5:07 PM on September 7, 2011

Dustin Zito? Who the hell's that? Wasn't there some other MTV dude who had a gay-cheesecake past?
posted by box at 5:43 PM on September 7, 2011

> Well, as far as we know....

All those cat-food-porn vids I did working my way through veterenary school? They were all over alt.binaries.videos, but do you ever catch any of them being seeded now? Not. You've just never seen the net scrubbed by an IT PROFESSIONAL.
posted by jfuller at 5:44 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

If those photos count as pornography then tea with my grandmother is two girls one cup.
posted by munchingzombie at 6:23 PM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

MTV does not mean Music Television anymore, folks. Come on. My high school buddy (who was not a music nerd or media nerd) was making jokes about MTVTV back in 1995.
posted by infinitewindow at 6:46 PM on September 7, 2011

Three fucking cheers for a site that knows to fight back instead of roll over on this stuff. Colton Haynes? My first impulse is to tell him to just fuck off, but then my (ahem) more mature side shows and I start feeling bad for him. Pretty boys who think they're winning as they get chewed up by the star machinery are a dime a dozen, and it rarely ends like they think it will. If he survives, he'll cringe when he thinks back on this particular episode.

But if this is a publicity stunt that means he's really fine with these pix being out there and is just using fake legal threats to boost his career? Shit. Then Colton Haynes is a pretty boy asshole.

Those are also a dime a dozen.
posted by mediareport at 7:31 PM on September 7, 2011

Why the "someone who claims to be an attorney" lead-in? He's pretty clearly a real attorney.

Mr. Freedman has therefore either lived in a closet (no pun intended... Seriously, it just came out that way - Ack! No pun intended again!)

I was thrown by his law firm bio's mention of Freedman's male "partner" until I got to the part about his wife and children and realized, duh, it meant law-partner-partner.
posted by jayder at 7:38 PM on September 7, 2011

'Porographic'? If there's one thing porn doesn't need to be it's porous.
posted by i_cola at 2:13 AM on September 8, 2011

He should just own up to his Republican past.
posted by srboisvert at 2:15 AM on September 8, 2011

'Porographic'? If there's one thing porn doesn't need to be it's porous.

shut up

who are you to judge me
posted by LogicalDash at 4:52 AM on September 8, 2011

i don't think this is a marketing stunt - or if it is, it's a bad one. i've been reading about the scrubbing of these images in random places since he was announced for the role. also, way back in 2009 he was allegedly dating zachary quinto.

i am eager for a day when obviously gay men and be gay and still get work in "straight" shows.
posted by nadawi at 5:54 AM on September 8, 2011

that should read "can be gay"
posted by nadawi at 6:01 AM on September 8, 2011

Oh XY, both a teeny gay mag that can mean a lot for teeny gayboys AND an endless source of wank material for chickenhawks. That ambivalence was there from the start.
posted by LMGM at 6:58 AM on September 8, 2011

OMG they remade Teen Wolf????
posted by Theta States at 7:50 AM on September 8, 2011

OMG they remade Teen Wolf????

And how many of the werewolves are gay? puh-lease???
posted by Theta States at 7:52 AM on September 8, 2011

All those cat-food-porn vids I did working my way through veterenary school? They were all over alt.binaries.videos, but do you ever catch any of them being seeded now? Not. You've just never seen the net scrubbed by an IT PROFESSIONAL.


jfuller, the Internets may forget, but I never do.

And if I can ever get these Zipdrives(tm) to load, you are my blackmail gravy train.

/ 400x600 scans in B&W, but your hand is completely recognizable.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:09 AM on September 8, 2011