Hi Isabeau
How does anyone in any country get away with doing something illegal? One thing though -- people need to constantly remind themselves that every country doesn't have America's legal system. In some countries, there three kinds of laws: laws that cannot be broken, laws that are in place to look good to the rest of the world even though they aren't enforced, and there are laws that are in place in order to create a neccessity/opportunity for bribes. Many countries actually rely on bribes as income for government officials. The regular pay isn't very much, but the government knows that officials will supplement their income with bribery money. When talking about global affairs, you have to remember that there are lots of places around the world where you aren't in Kansas anymore...

I think it's interesting how the truth is starting to come out here and things are begnning to unravel... I have zero interest in getting personal with anyone here. This is an issue being discussed, not a vendetta being exacted. I do feel strongly that we, as a community, need to embrace our responsibilities to police ourselves in order to make sure the government doesn't step in and do it for us. Sometimes all we have is our gut feeling about what our eyes see. Sometimes that has to be enough. Sometimes we have more. We have other facts we bring to the table. Sometimes we have to ask ourselves on which side of the fence we ought to err.
I have 20 years' experience in the real bdsm world. I've seen a lot, and I mean a LOT. I saw something here that provoked a gut response that I trust deeply, and others confirmed. That's good enough for me to speak up.