gay pornography founded 1999 headquarters miami florida united states products pornographic films magazines and internet services website http www.flavaworks.com flava works inc. is a company that produces gay media featuring black and latino men . its headquarter s are in miami florida and it has a satellite office in chicago illinois . contents 1 overview 2 products and services 3 blatino awards 4 the chicago controversy 5 the house next door controversy and its legal resolution 6 flava works inc. v. gunter lawsuit 7 awards and recognition 8 see also 9 references overview edit flava works was founded in 1999 and is owned and operated by ceo phillip bleicher . it began with its cocoboyz website showcasing african american men in nude and erotic photos and videos . in 2000 flava works started thugboy and a year later expanded with the creation of the cocodorm . flava works moved its operations to miami florida in 2006 and continues to operate a satellite office in chicago illinois . flava works titles are available in europe through a distribution partnership with xy studios . 1 in january 2009 flava works announced its production and distribution partnership with rocafellaz entertainment . 2 in april 2009 flavaworks announced a distribution partnership with black rayne productions . 3 in may 2009 flava works signed its first white exclusive model . 4 products and services edit flava works operates several websites offering pornographic images and videos to its patrons including cocodorm.com papicock.com thugboy.com cocoboyz.com and flavamen.com . thugsforsex.com is an online dating portal for black and latin men . it has a chat room with video chat capabilities to its users . the cocodorm is a live interactive residence where models are hired to live together in a dorm like environment . the miami herald described the operation as follows cocodorm offers its young muscular males 1 200 a month along with free room and board while requiring they masturbate and have group sex in front of web cameras . 5 flava works produces a quarterly magazine flavamen which showcases the flava works models and contains editorials from contributing writers . blatino awards edit in may 2009 flava works announced that it was launching the flavamen blatino awards which will honor ethnic clubs adult performers and websites in a variety of categories . the chicago controversy edit in 2006 a report surfaced from the chicago department of public health which alleged that there was a high level of sexually transmitted diseases including hiv among the models of the cocodorm . allegations were also made that the cocodorm models were engaging in bareback sex . 6 flava works denied the accusations contained in the report . 7 the house next door controversy and its legal resolution edit on may 8 2007 nbc 6 aired a news investigation entitled the house next door . 8 the investigation surfaced when neighbors and zoning authorities were sent anonymous printed copies of webpages a dvd of a sex show and of a fight that happened at the dorm and photos of the red brick home . 9 in the documentary models were shown half dressed behind windows and these images were juxtaposed with those of children playing in the street and unsuspecting neighbors being interviewed . the miami department of code enforcement visited the residence on may 8 2007 and imposed five citations illegal rooming house . flava works denied these allegations on the grounds that the company was not charging any of its models for rent while they were residents in the cocodorm . adult entertainment not permitted in c 1 zone property . flava works responded stating that they do not run an adult entertainment service on the property . failure to maintain exterior of commercial or residential property . flava works maintained in response that the property s landscape was well maintained and cleaned . failure to maintain lot in safe clean condition ; not allowing accumulation of debris trash or dense growth of grass . flava works maintained that the yard was in good condition . illegally operating a business in a residential zone . flava works responded that the company was not operating a business at the property ; all business activities and internet servers are located off site . on august 13 2007 and after three acrimonious public meetings in sessions going past midnight 10 miami s code enforcement board ruled that flava works was illegally running an adult entertainment business out of a single family home and ordered that those operations cease . 11 however flava works filed a lawsuit against the city of miami in response to the verdict invoking first amendment rights and arguing that it was not running an adult oriented business out of the house next door . flava works also argued that business transactions do not take place in a residential neighborhood in miami but rather in virtual space . 12 the case attracted some interest in legal circles . 13 ruling on the case was made in january 2009 when judge marcia g. cooke of the united states district court southern district of florida miami division ruled in favor of flava works . 14 she based her judgment on the precedent of a very similar case involving a heterosexual porn site voyeur dorm operating webcams in a tampa florida residence . the judge ruling on the voyeur dorm case came to the conclusion that the residence provided no offer ing of adult entertainment to members of the public . the offering occurs when the videotaped images are dispersed over the internet and into the public eye for consumption 15 cooke agreed writing on the cocodorm because the public offering by flava works inc. occurs via cocodorm.com in cyberspace and not in a particular geographic location the city of miami zoning ordinance can not be applied to the 503 residence . 16 furthermore the servers necessary to transmit the live and recoded video feeds to subscribers are not housed in either the 503 residence or the north miami avenue business office . here although the performers are paid to be at the residence and captured on video the processing and transmitting of the resulting images is done at a different location ; a location not at issue in this case . 17 cooke s decision was featured on nbc 6 on february 3 2009 in a story entitled porn house can stay . the report indicated that the city of miami s intended to appeal the decision 18 the city appealed and in june 2010 the eleventh circuit court of appeals ruled that regardless of whether the cocodorm was an adult entertainment establishment it was a business operation and miami zoning ordinances forbid operating a business in a residential zone . the court distinguished the voyeur dorm case by pointing out that the latter involved a tampa ordinance against adult entertainment establishments not business operations in general . flava works inc. v. gunter lawsuit edit main article flava works inc. v. gunter in 2010 flava works filed a lawsuit against gunter who was operating myvidster.com claiming copyright and trademark infringement . this case became an important case in copyright law as it shows the boundaries of the safe harbour provisions in the digital millennium copyright act . the case resulted in a preliminary injunction in favor of flava works . 19 awards and recognition edit 2010 xbiz award nominee gay studio of the year 20 see also edit internet pornography list of male performers in gay porn films list of gay pornographic movie studios pornography references edit xy studios celebrates 10 years . avn . 18 february 2010 . retrieved 2010 03 13 . flavaworks announces production partnership with rockafellaz . xbiz . retrieved 24 july 2015 . black rayne productions flavaworks distribution team up . xbiz . retrieved 24 july 2015 . flava works signs cody kyler as exclusive . xbiz . retrieved 24 july 2015 . michael vasquez miami fights to shutter house where online porn is filmed the miami herald august 14 2008 p. a1 . see investigation of a cluster of syphilis and hiv infections associated with an internet pornography site chicago 2006 chicago department of public health std hiv aids chicago winter 2006 pp. 1 2 . available online at http egov.cityofchicago.org webportal cocwebportal coc editorial stdhivaidschgowinter06.pdf . see bejata.com for a response by the cocodorm dated may 1 2006 . the investigation can be viewed on the nbc 6 website . rod 2.0 . typepad.com . retrieved 24 july 2015 . cynthia archbold the best little sex dorm in miami the miami sunpost august 16 2007 . laura morales miami code enforcement porn house illegal city rules the miami herald august 15 2007 p. b1 . see michael vasquez miami fights to shutter house where online porn is filmed the miami herald august 14 2008 p. a1 . arthur s. leonard summer 2008 . internet porn business challenges application of local adult zoning ordinance pdf . lesbian gay law notes 134 135 . order granting plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment united states district court southern district of florida miami division case no. 07 22370 civ cooke balestra . order granting plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment united states district court southern district of florida miami division case no. 07 22370 civ cooke balestra p. 6 quoted from voyeur dorm l.c. v. city of tampa 265f .3 d 11th cir . 2001 1236 7 . order granting plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment pp. 9 10 . order granting plaintiffs motion for partial summary judgment p. 10 . the nbc 6 report can be viewed here http video.nbc6.net player id 986581 . grady john f. 27 july 2011 . memorandum opinion pdf . court rule in favour of plaintiff s motion for preliminary injunction . retrieved 21 november 2011 . xbiz announces finalist nominees for 2010 xbiz awards xbiz wednesday dec 16 2009 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title flava works & oldid 743550194 categories ethnic pornographygay male pornography in the united statesgay pornographic film studioshispanic and latino american culture in chicagohispanic and latino american culture in floridaafrican american lgbt organizationslgbt hispanic and latino american culturepornography in illinoispornography in floridacompanies based in chicagocompanies based in miamilgbt culture in chicagolgbt in florida navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 04 34 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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