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Free Speech X-Press
Delivering Weekly Censorship Updates to the Adult Industry

Vol. VI, No. 15, February 27, 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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SIGN UP NOW FOR LOBBYING DAYS
It’s time to sign up for Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days 2004, to be held on Monday and Tuesday, April 26-27, in Sacramento. If you have previously taken the training, you are invited to join us on Monday morning for a brief review and update on legislation, as well as for Tuesday’s lobbying activities.

Monday evening we will host our popular Legislative Reception and this notice is an official invitation to our adult entertainment stars to join us at the reception, even if you’ve never attended CFSLD before. There you’ll meet other lobbyists, state legislators and their staff and have a chance to demonstrate to them just how bright and articulate so many of our performers really are.

Please don’t delay in responding to this invitation, as we must finalize plans soon. Call Kat Sunlove toll-free at 1-866-FSC-9373 or e-mail Sunlove@inreach.com.

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EXTREME ASSOCIATES CASE MOVES FORWARD
PITTSBURG, PA -- Robert Zicari and Janet Romano, known in the adult entertainment industry as Rob Black and Lizzie Borden, have been arraigned here, both pleading not guilty on charges of distribution of obscene materials. The two are facing the first major federal prosecution for obscenity in more than a decade. If convicted on all counts each could get 50 years in prison and a fine of up to $2.5 million. As Zicari commented on ABC News’s Nightline, that’s double the amount of prison time faced by Hemant Lakhani, the British national who was recently charged with trying to sell a surface-to-air missile to government agents posing as terrorists seeking to shoot down a commercial airliner. The five videos, which the Feds call obscene, are, by most standards, pretty rough stuff. One of the videos, Forced Entry, features graphic scenes of women being spat upon, raped and murdered. However, the scenes are, of course, not recordings of actual crimes. They are fantasy portrayals.

"There’s nothing wrong with what we do," said Zicari. “We’re not drug dealers or murderers, you know. We make movies. That’s it. The funny thing about my business is I don’t force it on anybody. The only people that are going to be forced to watch my movies are the 12 people that sit on that jury."

Says Columnist Dan Kennedy in the Boston Phoenix:
"In a culture in which sex and violence are part of mainstream entertainment, who is to say whether Zicari and Romano have crossed the line?" Kennedy asks whether Attorney General John Ashcroft has declared a new holy war against what adults like to look at in the privacy of their own homes. By going after small-time operators whose movies gross out even porn aficionados, the government may have come up with a strategy of divide and conquer, says Kennedy.
Ashcroft’s boss stands to gain from a holy war as well.

"This is an election year," said Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt in a Wired Magazine interview, “and Bush doesn’t look too good in the polls. He has to pull a rabbit out of a hat, and that could very well be the adult industry. His base is the religious right, and he wants to keep them happy."

However, just because the government comes after you doesn’t mean they will win.
"Paul Cambria, the attorney who’s been with me over 20 years, just tried a case for another client in St. Louis," said Flynt. “This client had some really rough stuff, and a jury of 12 women with an average age of 60. He thought he was going to lose the case. The jury was out for two hours and returned a not guilty verdict. The overwhelming consensus was that ‘this isn’t my cup of tea, but I don’t want to tell other people how they should live their lives.’”
From Jake Tapper, ABC News, 2/28/04
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/porno030828.html
And from Xeni Jardin, Wired News, 2/19/04
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,62343,00.html?tw=wn_culthead_17
And from Dan Kennedy, The Boston Phoenix, 2/26/04
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/dont_quote_me/
documents/03134927.asp

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HOWARD STERN’S JOB ON THE LINE
SAN ANTONIO, TX -- Sliding swiftly down the slippery slope of broadcast censorship since the controversial Super Bowl half-time show, Clear Channel Radio, the nation’s largest radio chain, recently announced a new “zero tolerance" policy for indecent broadcasting. Then, within a weeks time, Clear Channel proceeded to fire “Bubba the Love Sponge," a Florida radio personality, and suspend broadcasts of the Howard Stern show. Clear Channel said the latter action came after "assessing the content" of a recent Howard Stern show.

"Clear Channel drew a line in the sand with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content and Howard Stern’s show blew right through it," said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio.

Viacom, which owns Infinity Broadcasting (Infinity syndicates the Howard Stern show) has so far not commented on the Clear Channel decision. However, Viacom President Mel Karmazin was recently grilled unmercifully by members of a House Commerce subcommittee over the Viacom/MTV Super Bowl half-time show -- which aired on Viacom-owned CBS. Afterwards, Karmazin issued an order saying, “Any station airing programming that has any sexual or excretory content needs to take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that the programming in not even arguably indecent." Karmazin said anyone refusing to comply with the directive would be “fired for cause."

Stern, calling Clear Channel “fear channel," said that the “fascist right-wing" is “getting so much power."
From Susan Jones, Cybercast News Service, 2/26/04
http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\
archive\200402\NAT20040226a.html

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FACING LAWSUIT, COUNCIL BLINKS
PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, MD -- The county council here, facing a legal challenge, has repealed the law it passed last year regulating exotic dance clubs and proposed a watered-down version to take its place. The original law banned nude dancing and lowered the minimum age for patrons and performers to 18. The new bill lifts those demands while maintaining requirements that strip clubs, managers and performers be licensed, that dancers and patrons be separated by buffers and that violations be met with criminal penalties.

"On advice from legal counsel, we felt it makes sense to have a piece of legislation that would hold up better under a court challenge," said council member Peter A. Shapiro (D-Brentwood). “I think the new piece of legislation will still have a positive impact."

Council attorney Ralph Grutzmacher told the council members that repealing the law probably will end a lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court by the owner of the Showcase Theater, a Beltsville exotic dance club.

Council member Thomas R. Hendershot (D-New Carrollton), who sponsored the original bill last year and voted against the repeal, argued that the council’s action amounts to a legal victory for the strip club owners.

The Showcase club’s attorney is Jonathan L. Katz, President of the Free Speech Coalition for the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Katz argued that the law violated the constitutional right of free expression.
From Ovetta Wiggins, The Washington Post, 2/25/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3602-2004Feb24.html

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LIBRARIES FIGHT FILTERS LAW
LOCAL LIBRARIES, USA -- Scott Wyman, writing for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, reports that the result of the Supreme Court decision upholding the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is that about half of America’s library systems now have anti-porn filters on their computers.

Worse, that number is growing because of the impact of losing federal assistance. CIPA requires filters on all library computers as a condition for receiving federal grants, but allows librarians to unblock Internet sites at the request of adult users.

In Florida, 34 of the 67 counties have filters on all library computers. Palm Beach is among those meeting the federal guidelines, while Miami-Dade has filters on most terminals. In contrast, Broward County’s library system has been turning away federal aid for Internet access rather than install pornography filters. Instead of filters, the library system uses administrators and security guards to monitor computer use in adult sections and has set up computers in the children’s section for a set of recommended educational sites -- and no others.

But while the decision has cost Broward less than $100,000 so far, it soon could be far more expensive. Federal officials are becoming more forceful in pressing the library to act and threaten to withhold $500,000 in aid this year.

"This should be a local decision, and our philosophy has been there should be access to all information," said Broward Library Director Bob Cannon. “These filters don’t work. They don’t protect children or adults from these sites because they change all the time."

Cannon said his staff is attempting to negotiate with the federal government. But he said if the county is faced with forgoing $500,000 in aid as seems likely, he will ask county commissioners whether they want to consider installing filters. Commissioner Ben Graber said he would rather give up the $500,000.

"We should not be blackmailed into doing the wrong thing," he said.
From Scott Wyman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 2/24/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-clibrary
24feb24,0,982258
.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

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CENSORSHIP? IN DENMARK?
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK -- The government here has halted the distribution of 60,000 CD-ROMs for sexual education classes throughout the country. The discs, intended for ninth graders, contained information about threesomes, bestiality and partners relieving themselves on each other while having sex.

"What is the point of telling children and young people about that," asked Health Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen. “That has, in no way, anything to do with birth control."

Rasmussen said the discs for the most part contained valid lessons on sexual education and family planning, but the few questionable inclusions resulted in the ban.

Christian Graugaard, a doctor and the leader of the Danish Family Planning Association, regretted the government’s decision. "When ninth graders encounter terms like animal sex and think that sounds weird, we would prefer that the person didn’t go on the Internet and find 300,000 suspect porn sites but had sober information on a CD-ROMs instead," said Graugaard.
From The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 2/13/04
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/custom/fringe/sfl-213sexed,0,5611001.story?coll=sfla-news-fring_

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UpComing Events

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

MAR 11, 2004 Gay AVN Awards -- RAGE Nightclub
West Hollywood, CA -- http://www.gayvnawards.com/

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, 866-FSC-9373

JUN 18-20 Erotica L.A., Los Angeles, CA
http://www.erotica-la.com/

JUL 24, 2004 Night of the Stars Sheraton Universal Hotel Los Angeles, CA - 866-FSC-9373

JUN 9-12 Cybernet Expo, San Diego, CA www.cybernetexpo.com

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