This tragicomedy is more than a week old, but to recap: Michael Lucas rushed up on stage during the GayVN Awards, at a point in the event where he was not invited to speak, to chastise the industry for celebrating Brent Corrigan by nominating him for a total of ten GayVN Awards, including Performer of the Year, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Bottom.
Lucas' beef with Brent is that Brent performed at the age of 17 for four Cobra Video porn movies, causing havoc when it was discovered that he was underage and all copies of those videos then had to be pulled from the market.
Admittedly, this is an irresponsible act and could have potentially exposed people to criminal prosecution. That said, nobody seems to be mentioning the fact that Brent was only seventeen at the time and by definition did not have an adult's powers of judgment.
Child pornography laws are intended to keep people aged 17 and under from being exploited in porn films; in other words, they were designed to protect Brent in that situation. People may disagree with what he did (I do), but at the same time the onus was on Cobra Video owner Bryan Kocis to ensure Brent had valid ID.
Considering that Bryan Kocis had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy he met over the Internet in 2001, with the defense that the boy claimed to be of legal age, I think it is bit much for anyone to try to paint the 17-year-old Brent as a predator intent on damaging the gay porn community via his involvement with Cobra Video.
People should give Brent a second chance now that he is an adult. In this case it's true that he did something dumb, even criminal perhaps, but he was also taken advantage of by a person with a history of sexual involvement with underage boys.