DECISION DEFERRED ON DOT-TRIPLE X
        WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND -- Under intense pressure to approve a decision the organization ratified in June, 2005, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has once again deferred a final go-ahead on the controversial .XXX Top Level Domain. The non-decision was made after a series of intense meetings involving the ICANN Board, the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which includes members from the U.S. and Australia, and the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration -- which advises President Bush and the Commerce Department. Pressure against the .XXX idea from the United States, Australia and the European Union reportedly led to the deferral.
        The proposal for a .XXX TLD had been advanced by ICM Registry, whose President and Chair Stuart Lawley was present at the meetings. Lawley said he was disappointed, but it was not realistic to expect a decision on .XXX in Wellington. He said this was the third time the U.S. Government had delayed progress on .XXX. He blamed the influence of "religious conservatives in the U.S that appear to have access to the powers that be."
        Also present at the meetings in Wellington were FSC Communications Director Tom Hymes and Fiona Patten of the Australian EROS Association. We look forward to reports from Hymes after his return from Wellington, and for Patten’s comments in EROS Newsletters.
        FSC Communications Director Tom Hymes will attend the meeting in Wellington, seeking to influence the decision on behalf of the American adult entertainment industry. Fiona Patten of EROS Foundation, the trade association for the Australian adult industry, plans to join with Hymes to present a united international front on the .XXX TLD issue.
This report includes information and quotes from New Zealand writer Tom Pullar-Strecker in Stuff.com, 3/28/06
See also: The Register (U.K.), 3/30/06
And Louisa Hearn, SMH.com (Australia) 3/28/06
And Simon Hayes, Australian IT, 3/30/06
__________________________________________________________

STATEWIDE ADULT ZONING BILL ADVANCES
PHOENIX, AZ -- A bill ( HB 2490) which would require future adult businesses to be located at least a quarter-mile from homes, schools, churches and playgrounds has passed the state Senate Judiciary Committee and goes now to the full Senate for a vote. Also included in the bill are hours limitations. Adult businesses must close between 1 AM and 8 AM and Sundays until Noon. Additionally, HB 2490 has provisions which allow any citizen of a county or municipality to take legal action against adult businesses which violate the proposed law. There is a “grandfather clause” allowing existing businesses to remain in present locations. HB 2490 has already passed the House.
        The bill cites negative secondary effects as justification for the proposed law. However, rather than relying on secondary effects studies done in Arizona, HB 2490 vaguely states that hearings and reports from major secondary effects cases -- including Los Angeles v. Alameda Books, PAP's A.M. v. City of Erie, and Renton v. Playtime Theatres -- are enough to show that “adult oriented businesses… are associated with a wide variety of adverse secondary effects, including negative impacts on surrounding properties, personal and property crimes, illicit drug use and trafficking, lewdness, prostitution, potential spread of disease and sexual assault.”
        Whether this boiler-plate assertion will be enough to validate the law remains to be seen. The Supreme Court, in the very Los Angeles v. Alameda Books case the Arizona Legislature cites, has made clear that laws must be fairly supported by evidence. Once again, the “ Myth of Secondary Effects” feeds itself. Never mind that contemporary studies done using scientific methods do not show those results. (See X-Press report, “Victory in Secondary Effects Trial,” 1/27/06)
This report includes information compiled from The Arizona Daily Sun, 3/28/06
And from the text of HB 2490
__________________________________________________________

CHRONIC NUISANCE ORDINANCE CONSIDERED
LINCOLN CITY, OR -- City officials here are mulling ways to regulate adult businesses in the wake of a controversy over a sign for an adult superstore, a controversy that is still simmering during an appeals process. Planning and Community Development Director Richard Townsend told city council members that other states "have had a degree of success" in regulating adult businesses, but cities in Oregon have not.
        The reason censors in Oregon have problems is that the Oregon Supreme Court has, over the years, interpreted the state constitution as providing near absolute freedom of expression. In 1987 it ruled that there was no free speech exception for obscenity, a landmark decision that has generally been interpreted as meaning government has no business regulating the adult entertainment industry in Oregon. See for example, the recent Oregon Supreme Court decision in Nyssa v. Dufloth (9/29/05).
        However, if Lincoln City had a “chronic nuisance ordinance,” suggested Townsend, it might be possible to close down a business if the city can show that a certain number of negative activities and effects - connected to the business or patrons of the business - have occurred within a certain distance from the business during a specified period of time.
        Townsend then provided council members with a copy of a "work-in-progress" draft he and City Attorney Joan Kelsey had developed. It deals with specific undesired effects from all sorts of businesses -- not just adult businesses -- based on the conclusion that a valid regulation - one that would withstand Oregon's constitutional scrutiny - must focus on unwanted effects, not a business's content or expression.
        Actually, we would love to see Lincoln City enact just such an ordinance and then do their study, with the provision that the results be published even if they are not what the city expected or hoped for. It would be a nice addition to FSC’s legal library.
Information and quotes from Terry Dilman, The Newport News-Times, 3/29/06
__________________________________________________________

FEDS HAVE CAST WIDE SUBPOENA NET
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Department of Justice, it has been revealed, in addition to the much publicized subpoenas to Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, has also demanded information from at least 34 Internet service providers in its efforts to build a case defending the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA). (See X-Press report, “ Google Fights the Feds on Records Subpoena, 1/20/06)
        Using a Freedom of Information Act request, Information Week recently uncovered information regarding the additional subpoenas, which were issued to companies such as AT&T, Comcast Cable, Cox Communications, EarthLink, LookSmart and SBC Communications. Some ISPs objected to the subpoenas. Fernando Laguarda, an attorney representing Cablevision Systems Corporation, characterized some of what the government was asking for as "overly broad, vague, ambitious, and unduly burdensome."
From Thomas Claburn, Information Week, 3/29/06
__________________________________________________________

KOSHER CELL PHONES DEBUT
JERUSALEM -- Abrasha Burstyn, chief executive of Mirs Communications Ltd., an Israeli subsidiary of Motorola, has pioneered a “kosher” mobile phone which is stripped down to its basic functions in order to keep out all the worldly temptations of modern cell phones. The kosher version can only be used for making and receiving calls. There's no text messaging, no Internet access, no video options, no camera. In addition, more than 10,000 numbers for phone sex, dating services and other offerings are blocked. A team of rabbinical overseers makes sure the list is up to date. Some Arab companies have expressed interest in the features.
From the Associated Press, 3/31/06
__________________________________________________________

JUDGE PUZZLED BY BUREAUCRATIC SNAFU
JACKSON, MS -- In the latest chapter of the ongoing saga of the Major’s war on exotic dance clubs here (See X-Press Report, “Mayor Versus Exotic Dance Clubs, 2/17/06) U.S. District Court Judge Henry T. Wingate has asked for both sides to sort out the facts in conflicting testimony during a hearing on whether Babes Showclub had applied for an adult entertainment license for 2006. What began as a basic hearing for a restraining order turned into a lengthy examination of city bureaucracy. Bo Powell, Babes General Manager testified that when he brought in the application last fall, no one was available at the Police Department to file it with, so he paid the fee and left the application with the signs and licenses department, which gave him a receipt. However, the application got lost in the bureaucracy and Powell was never informed that anything was wrong with his club's license or application until police shut down the club.
Information drawn from Kathleen Baydala, The Clarion-Ledger, 3/29/06
__________________________________________________________

EXOTIC DANCE BILL STALLS

        In Huntsville Alabama, the owners of Fantasia Club have been indicted on stiff felony counts of “obscenity” because exotic dancers were allegedly baring themselves on stage. Fantasia Club is among a group of nightclubs that are suing to block enforcement of the anti-obscenity law, which was passed in 1998 but has been enforced only rarely amid a series of legal challenges.
        In Queens, New York, cops busted 14 dancers at the Day Dreams Sports Bar and Club Kahlua, both in predominately African -American neighborhoods. The arrests were for prostitution, narcotics and possession of weapons, including a gravity knife and a stun gun. Day Dreams attorney Tony Colleluori suggested that the cops were unfairly targeting minority employees in poorer neighborhoods because they would be easier to entrap in illegal activity.
        In California, the city of Murrieta has filed a lawsuit against the owner and landlords of Dream Box, a shop that sells sex toys, adult videos, lingerie, spike-heeled shoes, hookah pipes and bongs. The city is asking a Superior Court judge to close the shop.
        In Wildwood, Florida, Sumter County Deputies raided an X-Mart Super Store and hauled away an estimated 20,000 DVDs and Videotapes. It seems the movies had no official rating sticker, in violation of a Florida Statute. While it is obvious that the movies were primarily X-rated; and while it is true that there is no official X-rating for movies, that is no excuse, because the state law clearly states that if a movie for sale or rent has no official rating . . . "such video movie shall be clearly and prominently marked as 'N.R.' or 'Not Rated.'" Gottcha. Is the Sumter County Sheriff running for office this year? We wonder.
        In a classic example of how censorship to avoid online materials deemed “harmful to minors,” can reach too far, Yahoo! recently shut down a Foreskin Restoration discussion group, apparently because it included photos of flaccid and erect penises which might have been deemed pornographic.
        Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries. In the meantime, at New York University, a planned event in which the cartoons would have been displayed has been closed to the public.
        Controversy has roiled Durham, North Carolina and Duke University over an alleged rape and assault of an exotic dancer by members of Duke’s nationally ranked men's lacrosse team. Hundreds have marched in support of the dancer.
        The much discussed Indonesian pornography bill which would have outlawed public kissing and bare midriffs, after widespread protest has now been re-written to focus on media such as films and magazines.

UpComing Events

APR 3-5 – International Lingerie Show , Las Vegas, NV
APR 6-9 – SSSS Western Conference , Redondo Beach, CA
APR 7-9 – Leather Leadership , New York, NY
APR 18-19 – CELEBRATE FREE SPEECH LOBBYING DAYS, Sacramento, CA
APR 28-30 -- Venus 10, International Trade Fair, Berlin, Germany
APR 29 - 2nd Annual Sin City Chamber of Commerce Spring BBQ, Chicken Ranch Brothel, Pahrump, NV (Benefit for FSC)
May 5-7 -Leather Fest, Washington, DC
May 10-13 - Webmaster, Toronto, Ontario
May 25-29 - Mr International Leather, Chicago, IL
JUN 8-11 - Cybernet Expo 2006, Shelter Pointe Hotel, San Diego
JUN 9-11 - Exxxotica Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL
JUN 12-14 - XBiz Summer, Las Vegas, NV
JUN 14 - Celebrate Free Speech Day, Flag Day, Washington, DC
JUN 18 - Folsom Street East, New York, NY
JUN 17 - Leather Pride Night, New York, NY
JUN 23-25 - Erotica Los Angeles, Los Angeles Convention Center
JUL 12-14 - XBiz Summer, Las Vegas, NV
JUL 15 - Night of the Stars, Course TBO
JUL 15-22, Gay Games, Chicago, IL
JUL 16 - Bob Tremont Golf Tournament, Location TBO
JUL 26 - AUG 5 - Outgames, Montreal, Canada
JUL 19-22 - Lifestyles West, Las Vegas Stardust
AUG 4-6 - Internext Summer 2006, Weston Diplomat, Hollywood, FL
AUG 22-25 - Gentlemen’s Club Expo, Las Vegas, NV
AUG 25-28 - Erotica Expo -New Zealand
SEPT 4 - West Coast Rubber, Palm Springs, NV
SEPT 24 - Folsom Street Fair, San Francisco, CA
SEPT 23-24 - Adultcon 11, Los Angeles Convention Center
OCT 20-26 -- Everything To Do With Sex Show, Toronto, Canada
OCT 21 -- Exotic Erotic Ball, San Francisco, CA
DEC 1-3 -- Black Rose 2006, Washington, DC