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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. 37, August 6, 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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COURT DECISION CREATES PRIVACY LOOPHOLE
NORTHEASTERN U.S. -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled recently, in United States v. Councilman, that an email provider does not violate federal wiretap laws when it opens emails to its customers and uses them for its own competitive business purposes. The court found that because the email messages were very briefly stored (literally for milliseconds) on the ISP’s computer before going into the recipients’ mailboxes, the emails come under the Stored Communications Act rather than the federal Wiretap Act (also called “Title III”).
This means, at least for Northeastern states in the First Circuit area, all email could be accessed while in “storage.” This is because all digital transmissions are stored in RAM or on hard drives at each step along their path while computers process them and send them on their way. Thus, most acquisitions of email would fall outside the strict rules of Title III.
This has significant privacy ramifications with regard to both law enforcement and ISP access to Internet communications. Under the lower standards of the Stored Communications Act, government may sometimes get access with a mere subpoena -- meaning there is no court approval at all. Even the Department of Justice has always assumed that ongoing access to Internet communications requires a wiretap order under Title III. The Councilman decision calls that interpretation into question.
From Center for Democracy and Technology, 7/30/04
http://www.cdt.org/mailman/listinfo/policy-posts
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ADULT STORE OPENING ROUSES CHURCH GROUP
WILDWOOD, FL -- The Sumter Ministerial Association recently organized a “Community Decency Meeting” at the Oxford Street church here. Fliers, packets, pledge cards and information about the effects of pornography were distributed. Volunteers were recruited for a Community Decency Task Force. Orlando Sentinel reporter Rosemarie Dowell described the scene as like an old-fashioned revival service.
The cause of the commotion was a new local store called the X-Mart Supercenter. The store’s opening caught many in the rural community off guard. In addition to impassioned public testimony, various public officials pledged their support to close X-Mart and received enthusiastic applause. Sheriff Bill Farmer said his investigators had made purchases and determined that the goods violated community standards.
“In the past, we would have backed up a truck and looted the place and taken them all to jail,” Farmer said. “But we can’t do that anymore. We have to take it slow and easy and do what’s right under the law.”
State Attorney Brad King said he anticipates arresting the owner and clerks of the store for selling obscene materials. “We may lose, but we’re not going down without a fight,” King said.
Gainesville attorney Gary Edinger, spokesman for 75 Retail Inc., which owns the business, said prosecuting someone because people in the community object to the business is irresponsible and violates the First Amendment. “It’s either a crime or it isn’t,” said Edinger. “The materials sold at the store are typical of what can be found at other adult stores in Florida,” he said.
From Rosemarie Dowell, The Orlando Sentinel, 7/31/04
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lklstorefolo31073104jul31,1,2851525.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-lake
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COUNTY FACES REALITIES OF THE LAW
HOWARD COUNTY, MD – Before Florida State Attorney Brad King makes his arrests in Wildwood (see above story) he should have a chat with someone on the Howard County Council in Maryland. The council just passed an ordinance putting new adult business zoning standards in place. Although some residents had urged the council to be more restrictive, the new law allows up to 101 locations for adult businesses, compared with 12 to 23 under the old law.
The county tried to restrict adult bookstores, including the Pack Shack five years ago but the Maryland Court of Appeals declared the law unconstitutional last year because it restricted the store locations so severely as to violate freedom of speech guarantees. The county is now liable for court costs up to $200,000.
From Larry Carson, The Baltimore Sun, 7/25/04
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.council25jul25,
1,5831860.story?coll=bal-local-howard
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PEER TO PEER DEMO SHOWS BENEFITS
WASHINGTON, DC – To prove a point, a coalition of tech groups and free-speech advocates have “seeded” copies of last week's Senate hearings on the Induce Act -- a bill also known as the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act (SB2560) -- onto to various P2P services such as BitTorrent, eDonkey, Gnutella, Morpheus and TrustyFiles. The Senate hearings were broadcast online, but archives are not available for people who couldn't catch the hearings live. Organizers of the coalition, P2P Congress, said they wanted to prove that peer-to-peer file-sharing technology can be used for a broad range of purposes, and they hope the online experiment will help kill the Induce Act.
“Government shouldn’t be in the business of banning technology that makes free speech possible in new ways, and helps boost political participation and awareness,” said P2P Congress founder John Parres.
The Induce act would penalize technology companies and consumer electronics makers for creating any device that could “induce” or encourage users to make unauthorized copies of copyright material such as music, movies or software. Critics have said devices like the iPod could be illegal under the law.
From Xeni Jardin, Wired.com, 8/4/04
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64454,00.html
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ACLU WEIGHS IN ON 9/11 REPORT
WASHINGTON, DC – Good news/bad news, says the ACLU, commenting on the 9/11 Commission Report. The good news is that the report… “essentially says that the Justice Department and White House have not made a compelling case for either the administration’s obsession with secrecy or the Patriot Act,” according to Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director.
However, although the report should be commended for its attention to personal freedoms, it should not be adopted blindly, said Romero. Of particular concern is the report’s vision for intelligence reform, including the proposal to vest managerial control over the intelligence community in one White House “czar.” Having one person in charge of both domestic and foreign intelligence-gathering could result in the greater use of espionage against American citizens on American soil, said the ACLU analysis.
From an ACLU newsletter
Full Analysis is at: http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?orgid=n&
ID=16204&c=206&MX=1439&H=0
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ADULT VIDEO COMPANY SETTLES WITH FTC
WASHINGTON, DC – In a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, California-based Mantra Films Inc., marketers of the “Girls Gone Wild” videos and DVDs, has agreed to pay more than $548,000 to people who received the videos or DVDs and returned them but did not get a refund for shipping costs. The FTC said Mantra enrolled customers who responded to Internet and TV advertising for a single video or DVD in a “continuity” program. Once customers were enrolled, they received additional, unordered videos, and weren’t given an effective means to cancel the program. Customers’ checking accounts were debited without their consent, the FTC said.
The FTC said about 84,000 customers would receive refunds of at least $5. Mantra also will pay a civil penalty of more than $541,000.
From The Associated Press, 7/30/04
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-ftc-girls-gone-wild,1,5967626.story?
coll=chi-technology-hed
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UNRATED FILM SEEKS CONTROVERSY
LOS ANGELES, CA – A prominent billboard on Sunset Boulevard has stirred controversy in Hollywood with an image of a woman performing oral sex on a man. The billboard advertises “The Brown Bunny,” a low-budget, critically panned film starring Oscar-nominated Chloe Sevigny. When the film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, Sevigny’s graphic depictions raised a storm. Capitalizing on the controversy, the film’s distributor, Wellspring Media, spent $50,000 to put up the billboard for a month. So far, the strategy seems to be working. Pictures of the billboard appeared on popular blogging Web sites, and sparked an article in The Los Angeles Daily News.
Ryan Werner, distribution chief for Wellspring, said he wanted to embrace the film’s most notable scene. “We’re not avoiding the controversy,” he said. “It’s artfully done. I don’t think it’s obscene. It’s a radical billboard. The purpose of it was to say this is a different kind of movie. We wanted to make that clear visually. I hope it sells some tickets too.”
From Sharon Waxman, The New York Times, 8/4/04
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/movies/04BILL.html?adxnnl=1&
adxnnlx=1091721610-4Q1SAjf5nsMO3bu+tCWUTw
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UpComing Events
AUG 8 -- Fit For a King, John C. Holmes’ 60th Birthday -- Hollywood, CA (818) 501-6139
AUG 13-15 – Internext -- Westin Diplomat, Hollywood, Florida –
www.Internext-expo.com
AUG 31-SEPT 2 -- Gentlemen’s Club Owners Expo and Exotic Dancer Fan Fair, Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, www.ExoticDancer.com
SEPT 11-12 -- Gay Erotic Expo, Los Angeles, 212-352-3535 x. 40
SEPT 21-22 -- Home Entertainment Retail Expo, Baltimore, MD www.homeentertainmentevents.com
SEPT 30-OCT 2 -- Chicago Adventure & Erotic Fair
http://www.chicagoadventure.org/Chicago_Adventure_-_A_Lifestyl/chicago_adventure_-_a_lifestyl.html
OCT 10 – AdultCon, Los Angeles, CA www.adultcon.com
JAN 6-9, 2005 -- AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, Las Vegas, NV www.homeentertainmentevents.com
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