Sean Cody is a gay pornography studio founded in fall 2001. The website predominantly features young, muscular men in solo and hardcore bareback scenes. Sean Cody has a strict model selection, with contracts requiring no prior pornographic experience. Sean Cody was run by the company Cody Media Inc from 2003 until 2015 where it was sold to porn conglomerate MindGeek. This raised some questions around the quality and exclusivity of the content, as the same parent company owned the content-sharing websites that have negatively affected many other studios. A 2014 article by Internet magazine Slate explained how "MindGeek has become the porn monopoly, putting industry members in the paradoxical position of working for the very company that profits from the piracy of their work."
Models
Notable models
Sean Cody alumni include underwear model Simon Dexter; Aaron Savvy, a fitness model and Ultimate Fighter performer who has appeared on Hole in the Wall, a reality TV show; and Dayton O'Connor, Colby Keller, Paul Wagner, Brady Jensen, Ryan Rose, Justin Matthews, Jake Porter and Kaleb Stryker, now professional porn actors. Dakota Cochrane, who appeared on the 15th season of The Ultimate Fighter on FX, modeled as "Danny" on Sean Cody during the latter half of 2007, a decision he now regrets. "Sean" appeared on MTV's True Life in December 2015, in an episode entitled "I Am a Gay-for-Pay Porn Star," where he talks about his family and his career in gay porn. Fellow Sean Cody performer Forrest also appears in the episode.
Controversy
Jason Andrews, who appeared on the site as "Addison" in 2008, was arrested for first-degree murder in 2010. Addison was very popular among fans and he appeared in seven videos from April to July 2008. Andrews later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In June 2010, Devon Hunter, an escort and model who had performed in SeanCody videos under the name "Ryan", wrote a detailed account of his experience while filming for the company, claiming that he experienced homophobia on set and went on to criticize "gay for pay" scenes. An intense debate across many blogs began over the "gay for pay" situation in porn. It intensified when SeanCody released Hunter's personal information in retaliation to Queerty.com, which came under intense criticism for the outing and deleted the post. In January 2012, SeanCody.com's parent company, 808 Holdings, filed suit in a federal court against 122 unidentified file sharers for allegedly trading unauthorized copies of the site's first condom-free video, "Brandon & Pierce Unwrapped", in December 2011. This was the first time Sean Cody sued over online file sharing. In March 2015, Teofil Brank, who had modeled for Sean Cody under the name Jarec Wentworth, was arrested for allegedly extorting a Magicjack Vocaltec Ltd. executive, Donald Burns, who is also a prominent Republicanpolitical activist. Brank was found guilty in July 2015. In October 2015, Brank was sentenced to six years in prison.
