Originally Posted by DCMAdee

BARCELONA ? Digital Playground performer Katsumi has been forced to permanently change her stage name to Katsuni, after a year-long trial in France found that the exotic French-Vietnamese beauty?s name was too close to that of Mary Katsumi, a French communications advisor.

"The main reason is a problem of morality," Katsuni told AVN. "Mary Katsumi complained against me because my name and reputation was a problem."

Katsuni had appealed the French court's decision in January and lost the case Sept. 27.

?I had no choice but to accept a change of name," she said. "I didn't really communicate it to the United States [while the appeal was in progress], but now I don't really have the choice.?

According to Katsuni, the French court ruling allows Mary Katsumi to ask for financial compensation every time the porn performer is identified with her previous moniker. ***

Katsuni wrote about her ordeal in a passionate entry on her MySpace blog:

In November I found in my mail-box , a letter written by a lawyer who was defending the interests of a young woman called Miss Katsumi and who was ordering me to stop to use my stagename « Katsumi » IMME DIATLY . I won't lie to you. I was absolutly surprised and chocked. I didn't know that a japanese firstname, because it was rare in France and because an unknown woman in France owned it as a lastname, gave her the right to take it from me! Just write « Katsumi » on google and you will see millions of websites where Katsumi ca be sometimes an anime hero, a famous sumo,or a painter for exemple ; you will also find many dictionnaries of japanese firstnames where we can see that it's a common firstname for boy and girls!

However this is against me that this young lady complained. Why? The fact that she's compared or assimilated to a famous pornostar causes important damages to her life: she failed when she looks for a job,( but never showed up any letters from an employer who certified that it was because of her name..which would have been a kind of discrimation anyway), she had to put her name on red list (strange isn't it, when we know that it wasn't herself but her father who was in the white pages!), and of course she was victim of some unpleasant remarks and daily insults...(I still take the subway and in 7 years I've never been insulted in the street). In brief, you probably understood well : if it's obvious that it must be embarrassing to carry the same name than a pornostar, the reasons of her complaint have been far to be proved. However, even if I was quite surprised and indignant, I felt some commiseration for this girl , an ex- scout, desperate because of the unfair bad words that she seemed to be the victim.

Unfortunatly the judge who pronunciated his verdict on January 10th 2007 , had all the commiseration for her. While it was proven that I was practising my activity as an porn actress since 2001 that since I've started I was communicating on this pseudonym which was nothing else than a common firstname in Japan, while it was also shown that my career took an international largeness, that I was under contract in the United States and that I had stopped my career in France as an actress in order to develop my restructuring through my TV show on TPS Star, my tours of feature dancing, my new activity as a producer...and as a journalist....while I had expressed the will to protect my name by depositing it as a trademark to not have any problems of competition , the judge decided that I had to stop to use it. I know, for many people it seems trivial and for many of them to be an adult performer is even not a real job. ... ***

You must understand something. In our job and for anybody else who is an artist, this is your name which makes your work. Talent is the start and this is talent wich will make you last, but without any fame you're nobody and if you're nobody you still can sing in karaokes.What about me? What do I have left without my stagename? A pretty face? My pseudonym is a trademark, a quality guarantee ; write it on a boxcover, you will sell 3 times more.This is not me who's telling that...but an american producer who was telling me it already 3 years ago : « Your name make our movies sell. It's a chance for us to have you in our scenes! » Today I don't have the right anymore to use this name. In order to tranquilize things we found a deal : to not have any confusion anymore between the porno actress and the young parisian , a letter will be changed. The actress will be called « KATSUNI ». The difference is so subtle that it is absurd, but what do you want? It was the price of the peace....a peace which was supposed to start on April 19th 2007, date when both parties fell agree for this new stagename. So, my heart quite sad , I started immediatly to communicate on this new stagename which seemed to me so foreign. Yes « Katsuni », it's almost like « Katsumi », that's cute. But the fact is that it's a greek name and there's no link anymore with my asian backgrounds! And believe me , when you've carried a name for 9 years ( I was using it when I was a stripper), when even your friends call you like that, believe me, this name has something more than just a commercial value. I had to accept the Justice. Porn is dirty and it splashed an « illustre inconnue « . (« famous unknown »). ***