Kink.com

Kink.com was founded in 1997 by Briton Peter Ekvort, who at that time worked as a graduate student in finance at Columbia University . Ekvort became interested in the business in the field of the porn industry , having read an article in the British tabloid about a fireman who, thanks to a pornographic site, was able to earn £ 250,000 over a short period of time ^[2] . Trying to repeat his success, Ekvort created his own website called Hogtied.com ^[2] . At first, Ekvort did not have the capacity to produce his own products, so the site published and sold content licensed from other distributors, initially primarily fetishistic photographs of related women ^[3] .

Work on the site took a considerable amount of time, so Evort quit his research activities in order to work on his brainchild for the whole working day. The site quickly became quite successful, bringing in a few thousand dollars in revenue per day. The following year, in 1998, Peter Ekvort moved from New York to San Francisco . In order to compete with other porn sites, he began to produce his own content, first conducting the shooting in his own apartment, then hired the first employees ^[4] . In 2000, Peter created another site called Fuckingmachines.com. Soon after, he founded several additional sites, which in 2006 received the common corporate name Kink.com ^[5] .

The main themes of films and photos produced by Kink.com are bondage , sexual domination, staged torture and rape. A characteristic feature of the company's films is that each of them ends an interview with an actor or actress who / has been subjected to humiliation, torture and violence, in which they share their impressions of filming, thereby confirming the voluntary nature of all their actions ^[6] . In general, company-owned sites are divided into the following areas: heterosexual BDSM, sexual fetish (foot-fetish, female battles, and the like), BDSM with gays and female domination (including dominance over both men and women, with elements of lesbian games) ^[7] .

As of 2018, Kink.com owned 38 porn sites. In the building of Arsenal daily excursions were arranged, there was a bar in it. In addition to pornographic films, Kink.com sells BDSM paraphernalia and sex toys ^[8] . Since January 2017, filming of films in the arsenal of weapons has been suspended due to cost savings. Further filming takes place in different places in the United States ^{[9] [10]} .

At the end of 2006, the Kink.com company purchased a weapon arsenal building in San Francisco for $ 14.5 million to house production studios here ^[11] . However, such a move provoked a protest among some residents of the city, dissatisfied with the fact that a porn studio will be located in the building, which is a historical monument and entered into the National Register of Historic Places of the USA ^[12] . Dissatisfied founded a community group called the Mission Armory Community Collective , in order to oppose the management of Kink.com in its intention to use the arsenal at its own discretion. In early February 2007, a public protest passed in front of the building. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom met the demands of the disgruntled by setting up a special meeting of the planning committee to discuss the use of the building. On March 8, 2007, a hearing was held in which both opponents and supporters of Kink.com participated. The main opponent, public activist Melissa Farley, known for her feminist views on pornography , compared the company's products with images of bullying of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison ^{[13] [14] [15]} . Despite this, the planning commission concluded that Kink.com did not violate any provisions of the law or the requirements of land zoning ^[16] . The company got the opportunity and began to use the building at its own discretion, including making films within it. The frames showing the building from the outside, became the screensaver with which all the films of the company, created by it after the acquisition of the building, begin.

In 2014, the company organized a party called “Prison of Love”: in the promotional video of this party accompanied by dance music, the jailer performed by Van Darkholme locks the actor Sebastien Kees in his cell. The video caused a number of protests: according to protesters, such an advertisement devalues ​​the problems of LGBT prisoners ^{[17] [18]} . The public debate that followed this protest revealed that not everyone can equally enjoy the successes that the LGBT community has achieved in recent years, and that the sexualization of the penitentiary system taking place in the video harms LGBT people ^[19] .

• 2009 XBIZ Award - FSC Leadership Award ^[20]
• 2009 XBIZ Award - Original Web Content ^[20]
• 2011 AVN Award - Best Alternative Web Site ^[21]
• 2014 AVN Award - Best Alternative Website ^[22]
• 2014 AVN Award - Best Web Premiere - Public Disgrace 31515 ^[22]
• 2015 XBIZ Award - Adult Site of the Year - BDSM ^[23]

• Kink Website