This newsletter is
sent free of charge to FSC members and supporters. For
personal contact, call 1-800-476-7813.
Free Speech X-Press
Delivering Weekly Censorship Updates to the Adult Industry
Vol. VI, No. 9, January 16, 2004 -- A Member Service of
the Free Speech Coalition
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Free Speech X-press is researched and edited by Kat Sunlove
and Layne Winklebleck.
Copyright 2004 Free Speech Coalition. Permission to reprint
granted to FSC members; please give credit.
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VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR FSC MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com
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GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Please plan to attend a General Membership Meeting on Friday evening, January
23, at the Warner Center Marriott, 21850 Oxnard, in Woodland Hills (818-887-4800).
Cocktails will be available at 5:30 and the meeting will begin at 6:30. This
first meeting of the year will provide an opportunity to meet your newly
elected directors and officers of the FSC Board. (See story below) The topics
for discussion will include the recently passed Burns-Wyden “Can-Spam Act"
as well as patent and intellectual property issues. Our speakers will include
attorneys Ira Rothken of the Ira P. Rothken law firm, and Jon Leader of Leader,
Kozmor, Macias law firm, and Sid Grief of AAA News in Texas, a retailer and
new board member who is facing a patent infringement lawsuit.
Hors d’oeuvres will be served and a modest donation is
requested to offset expenses. RSVP is very much appreciated!
Call Neva, toll-free at 1-866-FSC-9373. We look
forward to seeing you there!
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FSC ANNOUNCES NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Free Speech Coalition is pleased to announce the election of seven new members
to the Board of Directors. Over 200 ballots were cast in the election last
month as FSC members chose from among a strong slate of ten candidates to fill
vacancies for a two-year term.
The new members of FSC’s governing body are Kim Airs, proprietress
of Grand Opening!, the bi-coastal sex boutique; Julie
Stewart, a principal in the innovative
fetish company, SportSheets; Sid Grief, Texas business owner of AAA News
Inc; William Murphy, who runs Fair Villa Video, the groundbreaking
superstore chain in Florida;
Joan Irvine, Executive Director of Adult Sites Against Child Pornography;
Adam Glasser, actor, director and producer; and returning
board member, Nick Orlandino
of Pipedream Products. They will join the existing board composed of criminal
defense attorney Jeffrey J. Douglas, AVN Senior Editor Mark Kernes, Chicago
First Amendment attorney Reed Lee, Michael Ocello of PT’s Cabarets and president
of ACE, the Association of Club Executives; Mara Epstein, long-time marketing
pro now with Mile High Media and Nick Boyias, owner of Marina Pacific.
"We’re delighted that our new board members represent such
a diverse range of adult interests and geographic regions,"
said FSC Executive Director Kat
Sunlove.
“With the addition of these industry leaders, our board will truly reflect
the national scope of our organization."
Be sure to come meet your new board members at our General
Membership Meeting on Friday, January 23, 2004.
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CHILD PORN WEBSITE LAW CALLED INEPT
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- The ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Washington-based
Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), seeking to overturn
a state law aimed at fighting Internet child pornography,
have told U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois in opening trial
statements that the law is “well-intentioned but technologically
misguided."
Under the law, after receiving notice from the state attorney
general of child porn reports, an ISP has five days to
block users access to the website. Failure
to comply carries fines of up to $30,000 and jail terms of up to seven years.
Over 500 such notices have been sent out and ISPs have all reportedly complied
with the law.
However, according to some ISPs, including America Online,
Verizon and Worldcom, there was no choice -- given technical
issues and time frame for compliance
-- but to block the access to sites that did not contain child pornography.
In some cases, these blocks denied access to the sites for all North American
subscribers. Attorneys for the CDT argue that over 1 million websites not
containing child pornography have been blocked since the attorney general’s
office started
sending out notices to ISPs in April 2002.
"The idea of Pennsylvania blocking sites was a misguided
attempt of censorship by clueless public service officials,"
said networking consultant Mike
Sweeney. “If they had taken the time to talk to knowledgeable technical
people the
state of Pennsylvania would have been spared the embarrassment of looking
like a
bunch of luddites who are technically inept."
Besides arguing that there are techniques to reduce over
blocking websites, the attorney general’s office said
blocking access to websites doesn’t
interfere with free speech because Internet addresses aren’t real.
"A URL is neither a person, nor a real forum, nor a limited
commodity. It is a little string of letters and numbers
that acts as a superficial
label," argued
the AG’s office.
From Jason Straziuso, Associated Press, 1/7/04
http://www.newsobserver.com/24hour/nation/story/1109147p-7738989c.html
And from Michelle Delio, Wired.com, 1/8/04
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61840,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_7
And from Andy Sullivan, Reuters, 1/6/04
http://news.findlaw.com/business/s/20040106/techpornographypennsylvaniadc.html
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STUBBORN TOWN SLOW TO LEARN
FALL RIVER, MA -- From FSC member Dick Kimball comes this
local item on a protracted legal war between the City Council
here and Paul Viveros, a businessman who wants to convert
Oliver’s Restaurant on Airport Road into an exotic dance
club. In the latest battle, Viveros' attorney, Thomas Lesser,
is
in Superior Court again challenging the legality of the adult
entertainment ordinance the City Council passed in May 2003.
Lesser likened the ordinance to one the city enacted in
2000, which created an adult zone on several hundreds
of acres of wooded land. Superior Court Judge
Robert J. Kane ruled the zone unconstitutional in 2002, after determining
the area was inaccessible. Kane’s decision also ordered
the city to pay Viveros
$158,057 in legal expenses.
"The new special permit provision for adult entertainment
establishments is still unconstitutional. It didn’t get
any better. It didn’t change," said
Lesser.
“Also, it’s wholly discretionary as to whether they get a special permit,"
he said.
Interestingly, City Corporation Council Thomas McGuire,
who would normally be the town’s counsel in the case,
was dropped from consideration because
he had publicly stated his opposition to the current ordinance, claiming
it was
unconstitutional. McGuire had favored an ordinance designating 600-plus
acres of forested land for adult use that could be reached by access
roads the
city would have allowed potential developers to construct.
But the proposal was blasted by hundreds of residents and
members of the business community, who saw it as potentially
destructive for the
rural
area and its
residents. Dissatisfaction with the proposal prompted the ordinance
the council ultimately passed in May.
"They knew it was unconstitutional and it still passed," said Lesser.
“Their own city attorney told them it was unconstitutional."
From James Finlaw, The Herald News, 1/2/04
URL not available
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ALERT COP NABS MOM
INDIANAPOLIS, IND -- Erica Meredith, 25, has been arrested
here and charged with disseminating matter harmful to minors,
a Class D felony, for driving her boyfriend’s vintage Buick
with an image of a naked exotic dancer painted on the flat
part of the trunk. The painting shows a naked woman hanging
on to a stripper pole as men watch from the audience.
Meredith and her boyfriend Keyon Johnson said the car usually
sits locked in a garage because its primary use is to
make an impression at sport shows and
major cultural events.
Meredith said her own car’s transmission was not working,
so she used the vehicle to get an infant to an emergency
room and then to pick up her 8-year-old
daughter
from school.
"She rushed the baby to the emergency room," said Johnson.
“She (the infant) was crying, and Meredith could not
figure out what was wrong with her.
From there
she "picked up our other child from the after-school program."
"Now they want to put the D felony on a woman who has never
been locked up before and works everyday," Johnson said,
likening the car’s mural
to artwork
such as
a tattoo.
Police said the Meredith’s children and children who attend
Indianapolis Public School 83 could possibly see the
mural. Meredith lives near
the school.
The Marion County prosecutor’s office has not decided how
to proceed. Patrolman Kevin Kern, who made the arrest,
could not be reached by
reporters for
comment.
From Tom Spalding, The Indiana Star, 1/10/04
http://www.indystar.com/articles/7/110230-2727-103.html
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BILL WOULD BAN BAD WORDS FROM AIRWAVES
WASHINGTON, DC -- Representative Doug Ose (R-CA) has introduced
a bill specifying seven words that would be banned from the
public airwaves in all their forms and all their meanings,
"including verb, adjective, gerund, participle and infinitive
forms."
The words are “s... p... c... a..h... c...s..... and
m.....f.....[abbreviated here because of email filters].
Ose’s bill was inspired by an FCC decision not to fine
television stations for airing the Golden Globe awards
show during which U2 singer Bono blurted out,
“This is really, really f.....g brilliant." The five-member FCC ruled that
Bono’s words didn’t measure up to its standard for indecency
because he was using the
word as an adjective, not in a sexual context.
So far, Ose has one co-sponsor, Representative Lamar Smith,
(R-TX) but he expects many more when House members return.
The Senate is considering similar
bills.
One, by Senator Jeff Sessions, (R-Ala) condemns the FCC decision on Bono’s
words and calls for stiffer penalties. Another, by Senator Ernest Hollings,
(D-SC)
also calls for tougher action.
Broadcasting expert Robert J. Thompson of Syracuse University
said the proposal was “just so infantile, so juvenile,’’
especially because Ose’s
bill spells
out the words it says should be banned.
"It reminds me of a bunch of 8-year-olds looking those
words up in the dictionary and laughing uproariously,’’
he said.
From Edward Epstein, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/9/04
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=c/a/2004/01/09/MNG6C46SU31.DTL
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CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS CLAUSE CHALLENGED
COSMOS, MN -- Exotic dance club owner Dale Peterson and two
prospective buyers of his club, Kenneth E. Yates and Brooke
Wise, are asking Federal District Judge Donovan W. Frank
to void the city’s new adult-entertainment ordinance. Under
the ordinance, no license can be issued to anyone within
two years of a conviction for a gross-misdemeanor offense,
or within five years for a felony offense. In December, Meeker
County District Judge David Mennis ordered Peterson to sell
his interest in the club after he was convicted of promoting
prostitution, even though the club opened in 2001, before
the adoption of the ordinance.
The problem is that Yates, as a potential buyer, was convicted
in 2002 of gross-misdemeanor domestic assault, which
under the ordinance bars him from owning the club.
The plaintiffs say the ordinance violates their First Amendment rights to
free expression and their 14th Amendment rights to due
process.
From The Associated Press, 01/12/2004
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4313290.html
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Upcoming Events
MAR 3-7, 2004-- Lifestyles, Miami Radisson Hotel
http://lifestyles.org/
MAR 24-27, 2004 -- Nightclub and Bar Owners' Expo Las
Vegas http://www.nightclub.com
APR 26-27, 2004 Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days, Sacramento,
CA, 800-476-7813
Subscriptions to Free Speech X-Press are FREE to FSC members.
Contact us at Sunlove@direcway.com or 800-476-7813
