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. 8, January 2, 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). We will begin with cocktails at 5:30 and the meeting 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.

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 specializing in these issues and at least one retail member, Sid Grief of AAA News in Texas, who is facing a patent infringement lawsuit.
Hors d’oeuvres will be served and a modest donation is requested to offset our expenses. RSVP is very much appreciated! Call Neva, toll-free at 1-866-FSC-9373. We look forward to seeing you there! __________________________________________________________

CLUB MANAGERS CHARGED WITH RACKETEERING
TAMPA, FL Four managers of an exotic dance club chain here, as well as a company executive for Galardi South Enterprises, owner of the chain, have been arrested under state racketeering laws. The five, along with a club security officer, were also charged with aiding and abetting prostitution

. “It’s a different approach than we’ve taken in the past," said police Captain Paul Driscoll. “In the past, we’ve focused on the prostitutes. With this approach, we have targeted the management and the people who’ve allowed this to happen." Under Florida racketeering laws, managers risk first-degree felony convictions for allowing or encouraging repeated crime as part of the business.

Luke Lirot, one of the attorneys representing the six men, said the case is a result of a long-standing battle between the city and its adult entertainment industry. The racketeering charges, he said, will not hold up. Officers, Lirot said, have mistaken fantasy for reality. When an officer asks a dancer whether she will perform a sex act, the woman uses suggestive language without actually offering sex, he said. “Most of these women have no intention of consummating that."

John Sluckis, a detective in the city’s Adult Use Enforcement Unit said detectives have physical evidence of sex in the clubs, have witnessed sex acts and have sworn depositions from employees who say sex for hire is part of the business. In the past 16 months, Sluckis said, more than 30 women have been arrested in the four clubs on prostitution charges.

Galardi Enterprises, headed by Jack Galardi, has a chain of adult businesses throughout the country. His son, Michael Galardi of Galardi Enterprises in Las Vegas, is the subject of a federal indictment alleging bribery and wire fraud in Las Vegas and San Diego.
From Thomas W. Krause, The Tampa Tribune, 12/25/03
http://www.tampatrib.com/MGA4M5PXKOD.html
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BARBIE DOLL LAMPOON PROTECTED SPEECH
SAN FRANCISCO, CA The U.S. 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court decision dismissing a lawsuit brought by toy maker Mattel Inc. against photographer Tom Forsythe. Forsythe had used Mattel’s Barbie dolls for parody in a photo series titled “Food Chain Barbie" to criticize “America’s culture of consumption and conformism." Photos included Barbie dolls naked in a blender, wrapped in a tortilla and sizzling on a wok.

Mattel alleged copyright infringement and claimed the pictures, which often showed Barbie posed in sexually provocative positions, could confuse consumers into believing the company was behind the works.

The appeals court, however, said Forsythe had a First Amendment right to lampoon Barbie.
“Mattel cannot use trademark laws to censor all parodies or satires which use its name," Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the three-judge panel.

Forsythe has said he uses Barbie to criticize “the materialistic and gender-oppressive values" he believes the dolls embody. He said that with the help of the attorneys who worked for free on his case, “I wasn’t scared off. It was a ridiculous lawsuit."
From David Kravets, The Associated Press, 12/29/03
http://www.newsobserver.com/24hour/entertainment/story/
1099351p-7688175c.html
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FREE SPEECH HERO LENNY BRUCE PARDONED
ALBANY, NY -- Governor George Pataki has granted a posthumous pardon to comedian Lenny Bruce, thanks in large part to the efforts of Seattle University School of Law professor David Skover, who spent five years researching and writing about Bruce’s obscenity crimes and then led a six-month national petition drive to get him pardoned for his 1964 conviction.

Bruce was arrested nine times, tried six times and convicted twice (one conviction was overturned) for his nightclub bits on the pope, Eleanor Roosevelt, bigotry and official hypocrisy -- sprinkled with the occasional profanity. Many thought the ongoing trials hastened Bruce’s comedic demise and eventual death from a heroin overdose in 1966 at the age of 40.

“Lenny Bruce paid the dues, and no one has been arrested since him; performers are free because of him," said Skover. Following the trials, prosecutors across America “realized that the Lenny Bruce charge was impossible. The injustice of his prosecution "shut the door on that type of prosecution," Skover said.
Skover said “Lenny Bruce was prosecuted because of his message, not because of his words. He had an undoubted political right to expression, but obscenity gave the prosecutors a method."

Skover and Ronald Collins, co-author with Skover of “The Trials of Lenny Bruce" (Sourcebooks) enlisted Robert Corn-Revere to be a pro-bono First Amendment attorney to represent Bruce in the petition drive. Celebrities, including Robin Williams and the Smothers Brothers, implored Pataki to act.
From J. Patrick Coolican, The Seattle Times, 12/25/03
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001823204_bruce25m0.html
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WEB POSTINGS DRAW PUBLIC NUDITY CHARGE
LINCOLN, NE -- Melissa Harrington, 21, has been ticketed by police here for violating the city’s public nudity ordinance after she posted nude photos of herself on her website. The photos were taken at Marz Intergalactic Shrimp & Martini Bar when customers were inside.

Police Chief Tom Casady said police had received a tip that led them to Harrington’s Web site
Jerry Luth, owner of the bar, was reportedly furious. He said the photos were taken on the upper balcony on a slow night, and employees had no idea what was happening up there.

“I don’t want that going on here," Luth said. “That’s not the kind of place this is. We’re a martini bar."
Luth said he was concerned pornography Web site operators could snap pictures anywhere without permission, such as in schools or churches.

“What’s to stop them from doing it there? They should not be able to walk into your business and do whatever they want without asking anybody."

Harrington notes on her site that, “I like being naked in public, and I like it even more when there’s a lot of people there to watch." She said she wasn’t hurting anybody and planned to plead innocent at her upcoming court appearance. She also has no plans to stop her nude posing. She says she’s scheduled to pose for Penthouse in a spring issue, and her Web site is flourishing.

“If you have a beautiful body, why not show it?" Harrington said. “That’s how I look at it."
If convicted, Harrington could face a maximum of six months in jail and a $500 fine.
From Leah Thorsen, The Lincoln Journal Star, 12/30/03
http://www.journalstar.com/printer-friendly.php?story_id=110315
And from The Smoking Gun.com, 12/30/03
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/nakedlincoln1.html
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ADULT VIDEO STORES FIGHT HARASSMENT
SAN ANTONIO, TX After a series of vice officer tickets earlier this month -- many for violations such as not having an unobstructed view into the stores' video viewing areas -- Adult Video Megaplex and Adult Video have fought back by filing a lawsuit here charging that the city’s ordinance on adult arcades illegally chills free speech. In response, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia issued an order stipulating that the city will write no more tickets until a hearing in early January.

In the suit, the shops argue that the city failed to meet a legal requirement -- established in prior court cases -- that government entities show why a law is needed, and whether the regulations specifically target secondary effects without stifling free speech.

The video stores argue that the ordinance contains requirements -- such as lighting restrictions, demands for health warning signs and configuration of the video viewing areas -- that have nothing to do with the law’s intended purpose.

Cynthia Orr, one of the lawyers representing Adult Video Megaplex, said her client runs a clean operation within the law.

“We provide a service -- a place for adults to go see adult entertainment," Orr said. “It’s not obscenity. It’s protected speech."

John Fahle, a lawyer representing Adult Video, said the city is “traveling down a dangerous path towards censorship."

City Councilman Chip Haass, whose District 10 contains many of the adult entertainment stores and dance clubs in the city, disagrees. “This is simply asking these businesses to operate as good community partners," said Haass. “Laws have been broken in the past, and in some cases are currently being broken."
From Guillermo Contreras, San Antonio Express-News, 12/29/03
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?
xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=1105751&xld=180 __________________________________________________________

HACKER OFF THE HOOK IN PIRACY RULING
OSLO, NORWAY -- An appeals court here, upholding a verdict by a lower court, has cleared Jon Johansen, 20, of DVD piracy charges. The court said the Norwegian had broken no law by helping to unlock a code and distribute a computer program on the Internet enabling unauthorized copying of DVD movies. The seven-strong panel of judges and data experts was unanimous in their ruling, which applies only in Norway but has been widely seen as a test for cyberspace copyright rules around the globe.

The U.S. movie industry, which brought the case in a bid to stifle piracy that it says costs $3 billion a year in lost sales, slammed the verdict as an encouragement to hackers.

“The actions of serial hackers such as Mr. Johansen are damaging to honest consumers everywhere," the Motion Picture Association of America said in a prepared statement.

“While the ruling does not affect laws outside of Norway, we believe this decision encourages circumvention of copyright that threatens consumer choice and employment in the film and television industries," it said.

Johansen, dubbed “DVD Jon" by fans who see him as a hero for free speech, was on a holiday in France when the verdict was announced.
From Reuters News Service, 12/23/03
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2315728 __________________________________________________________

UpComing Events

JAN 5-7, 2004 Internext, Las Vegas, www.internext-expo.com

JAN 8-11, 2004 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, http://www.homeentertainmentevents.com/

JAN 9, Legends of Erotica, Las Vegas, 323-436-0060

APR 26-27, 2004 Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days, Sacramento, CA, 800-476-7813

MAR 24-27, 2004 -- Nightclub and Bar Owners' Expo Las Vegas http://www.nightclub.com

MAR 3-7, 2004-- Lifestyles, Miami Radisson Hotel http://lifestyles.org/

Subscriptions to Free Speech X-Press are FREE to FSC members. Contact us at Sunlove@direcway.com or 800-476-7813.