Gene Simmons sex tape goes viral

Reuters

LOVE GUN: A sex tape reportedly featuring Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has been leaked onto the internet.

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Lawyers representing Kiss bassist Gene Simmons are furiously trying to stop the spread across the internet of a leaked sex tape featuring the ageing rocker.

The sex tape, which hit the web this week via a website, GenesSecret.com, shows Simmons, clad only in a T-shirt, purportedly having sex with an Austrian model.

The site sought to sell the video but clips from it have since spread virally across the web. Lawyers representing Simmons are now sending cease and desist letters to websites that have published the video, claiming copyright infringement.

The sex tape is particularly damaging for Simmons because he has been dating long-term partner Shannon Tweed for more than 20 years and the pair have had two children together.

Simmons allegedly made the type while on a promotional tour for Frank's Energy Drink. The model he appears with, named only as Elsa, reportedly works for the drinks company.

"The video in question was surreptitiously filmed without Mr. Simmons' knowledge by a woman named Traci Anna Koval," the letter, published by Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag, reads.

"To the extent that Ms Koval ever claimed to have any interest in the video, which is both disputed and inconceivable, given its surreptitious filming, such rights were acquired by our client Allied Industry in 2003, pursuant to a written assignment and release agreement in which Ms Koval assigned all of her interest in the video to Allied Industry, including the copyright, represented and warranted that no additional copies would be exploited or distributed and expressly consented to injunctive relief."

Valleywag has refused to remove the clips, saying they were "newsworthy".

In a blog entry, Simmons referred to the tape as "garbage that has sprung up from my past" and said his legal team was "looking at all ramifications and options".

But past events suggest Simmons' legal team won't have much luck.

Last year, YouTube was banned in Brazil after a tape showing steamy footage of Brazilian supermodel Daniela Cicarelli and her boyfriend showed up on the site. But the ban was lifted after the video continued to spread across the web faster than their lawyers could have it taken down.