Kevin Duane

Kevin Duane (born April 2, 1959), also known as Assinio, is best known for creating a number of furry erotica CD-Roms, such as Animal Magnetism and Stripe Tease, in the late 1990's.  He distributed the CD-ROMS under the name Digital Impudendum. Kevin is an accomplished raconteur, with a repertoire of amazing and bizarre con stories from both furry and SF cons. While some of his stories may be less than strictly truthful, none of them are boring.

Facing mounting difficulties and a divorce in Canada, Kevin left the country and currently lives in Philadelphia with friends.

Fandom involvement
From 1995 to 2000, and perhaps later, Kevin frequently hosted room parties at the cons he attended. These featured large amounts of free food for everyone, sometimes ice cream, or sometimes hot foods such as pizza or pastrami. It's fairly certain that a sandwich or slice of pizza from Kevin was the only hot food that some congoers got all weekend. He has from time to time helped with the travel expenses of various artists who might otherwise have been unable to attend particular cons. On at least one occasion he's given away a free CD to a congoer who couldn't afford to purchase it.

Charity
At one ConFurence there was a charity to raise money for Jim Hardiman to get eye surgery, and Kevin agreed to help. Everyone who paid a certain monetary amount get to hit him in the face with a cream pie. After so many enthusiastic donations, Kevin cheerfully walked into the Dealer's Den looking as if he had lost a battle with a million seagulls.

Warez and loss of CD sales
With the increasing speed of downloading, the access to pirate sites, and the concerted efforts of data piracy advocates, the sales of the CD's took a profound decline in the mid-2000's, when with sales at a pitiful minimum, requests were still made to him as to when the next series of discs would be released. Without the revenue from previous projects to support it, and with nothing but the prospect of more piracy and harassment, the publications were terminated.

LawnCon 2002
The LawnCon 2002 furry convention was a tongue in cheek event held by Kevin Duane at the Philadelphia Adam's Mark Hotel's parking lot between July 12 (Friday) and 14 (Sunday). The year's theme was "Desperation", with the Guests of Honor being Kevin Duane. The Con Ops were Kevin Duane, while the Dealer's room consisted of one chair in the parking lot area.

History
Actually, "LawnCon" is one of the many anecdotes on the history of furry lore. This term was coined by furry publisher Mike Curtis during the actual Anthrocon 2002 event.

As the story goes, after the con had actually ended, Mike and Carole Curtis were about to be driven back to Connecticut by their common friend, Boyce Kline, after packing themselves and their belongings into Kline's car, when suddenly, Kline stopped the car and stepped out, after they had barely started to drive off the parking lot

Sitting right down on the lawn in front on the hotel, was furry art publisher Kevin Duane, with all the furry merchandise he had hoped to sell at the con. Kline walked over to him, Kevin opened up a small case, and they talked for a few minutes. After that, Kline came back with some merchandise he had bought from Kevin.

Mike Curtis then asked Kline: "How was LawnCon?."

To which Kline replied: "Pretty short, but the Dealer's Room was huge!."

Artwork compensation
A number of artists have claimed never to have received the promised compensation from Duane for the use of their art on the CDs, a claim denied by Duane himself. Similarly, many who paid for CDs report only receiving partial shipments or no discs at all. several of the artists claiming to have not been paid have according to Mr. Duane, been paid in public, in cash, at conventions with "as many witnesses as possible."

AC ban
Duane was the first of what has become a large number of individuals banned from Anthrocon for violations of its code of conduct. Despite his efforts to the contrary, he was charged with violating the rule against showing uncensored erotica in the dealer's room, often running his CD's on a laptop computer in plain view. He showed up at Anthrocon's hotel a couple of times after being banned; at least once deliver material and money to a contributor, and at no time made effort to attend the convention.

"Burn the chair!"
Kevin is somewhat of an icon on Something Awful and other heckler websites, as he allowed himself to be photographed naked in a computer chair. The photograph was stolen by an unscrupulous furry fan, posted to Something Awful, and the URL to the image was posted on FurryMUCK at least 45 minutes before the image was in fact available to the public.

The image has caused little irritation to Duane, and has only proven the degree of desperation in his detractors. The image is most often seen as BurnTheChair.jpg and near variants.