Delivering Weekly Censorship Updates to the Adult Entertainment Industry
Vol. X, No. 29, July 27, 2007 - A Member Service of the Free Speech Coalition Stories without byline submitted by FSC contract writer, Scott Ross
Contributing writers: Matt Gray and Dave Grimaldi
X-Press Editor-in-Chief: Scott L. Lowther
Special thanks to Cubik Corp. for formatting and Val Vizmanos for distribution
Copyright 2007 Free Speech Coalition. Permission to reprint granted to FSC members; please give credit.
FSC Launches 2257 Public Comment Campaign
CANOGA PARK, CA - Today, the Free Speech Coalition released its "2257 Guide for Public Comment" and launched a campaign to garner industry participation during the DOJ's public comment period for the 2257 proposed rules and regulations.
The guide educates members of the adult entertainment industry about how and what to communicate during the public comment period. Input about the new rules and regulations released July 12, 2007, will be accepted by the Department of Justice through September 10, 2007.
"Government regulations must not pose an undue burden on the industry they regulate," said Diane Duke, Free Speech Coalition Executive Director. "The Department of Justice has taken the position that the burden 2257 imposes on the industry is 'negligible'. It is up to us to prove otherwise."
The current regulations are just proposals; therefore, they have no force of law at this time. They merely represent the current thinking of this administration. After the public comment period, the Department of Justice reviews comments and then issues final regulations with an effective date. The process typically takes many months.
Unless the proposed regulations are radically changed in ways more favorable to the adult entertainment industry, it is the intention of FSC to seek a court order preventing implementation of the proposed "final" regulations after they are announced, but prior to the effective date.
"Full industry participation in the public comment period is critical," Duke said. "Failure to speak up now is tantamount to agreeing with the DOJ's assessment of 2257's burden on the industry. If the Department of Justice disregards our input, at the very least, we will have built a solid foundation for our next phase of litigation."
In addition to the 2257 Guide for Public Comment, FSC released a Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQ) document to help answer industry questions raised by the release of the proposed rules and regulations. Both documents will be posted on FSC's website at www.freespeechcoalition.com by Monday July 30th. They will also be included in next week's X-Press e-newsletter as a service to FSC members.
FBI Inspects Gentlemen's Video 2257 Records
CHATSWORTH, Calif. - FBI agents visited the offices of Gentlemen's Video last Thursday to inspect the company's 2257 record keeping.
"They picked about 15 movies, and we were compliant on everything," Gentlemen's Video President Michael Esposito said. "We're lucky that our movies only have three to four scenes in them compared to other companies that maybe have seven or eight. We've had our records pretty well in order and we just cooperated with them. They were out of here in about four hours."
Esposito continued, "We passed with flying colors. They gave us a suggestion on how to make it easier if in the future if we ever get inspected again. It was relatively quick and painless. We were cooperating. They were nice. And it was all relatively newer stuff they were looking for; there were only one or two titles that were 2257 exempt."
The stop was the latest in a series of random inspections the FBI has conducted over the past year as it continues to check on adult companies' compliance with the regulations.
In June, FBI special agent Chuck Joyner indicated that the Bureau planned to conduct at least one inspection of an adult company every two weeks for the foreseeable future. As of late June, the FBI had already inspected the 2257 record-keeping of 19 companies.
http://avn.com/index_cache.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=292167
FSC Membership Meeting Features 'Presidential Debate'
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - The Free Speech Coalition's first membership meeting under new executive director Diane Duke took place last week after the close of the Adult Novelty Expo, and the invited guests delivered all-star information and entertainment.
Hustler editor Bruce David filed in for scheduled keynote speaker Larry Flynt, who'd been invited at the last minute to appear on the “Larry King Show” to discuss Hustler's outing of Sen. David Vitter as a client of D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey.
David lauded Flynt's unswerving activism for free speech causes, and dished details of how Hustler crime reporter Dan Moldea had managed to link up with Palfrey, and managed to discover Vitter's number on the Palfrey’s list of clients. David described a flurry of phone calls between Moldea, himself and Flynt as to how to handle the matter – a debate settled by Flynt saying, "Get the son of a bitch."
"We're going after hypocrites and liars," David announced, noting that of the 280 responses Hustler had received to its ad in the Washington Post seeking information on Washington insiders' sexual indiscretions, the staff was following up on the 25 most promising ones.
The highlight of the meeting, however, was the "presidential debate" -- that is, a panel of past FSC presidents responding to questions from moderator Robert Raben, FSC's Washington lobbyist.
The panel, which consisted of Nick Boyias, Julie Stewart, Gloria Leonard, Jim Everett and Scott Tucker, represented all of FSC's past presidents except Lenny Friedlander, who was kept away by a family emergency.
Boyias took Raben's invitation to contrast adult industry productions with Hollywood's to recount his travails in producing the award-winning mainstream feature Quinceanera, helmed by adult industry director Wash West at a final cost of over $900,000. Boyias noted that just about everyone connected with the film, including distributor Sony Pictures Classics, made a profit except himself, then warning, "Stay in porn; that's where the money is."
Stewart used her five minutes to talk about how she got involved in FSC in the first place -- she'd grown tired of complaining that she didn't know what Free Speech did for the industry, so she joined to find out -- and noted that the current political scene presents many challenges for industry members, whom she saw as adrift in an "atmosphere of political malaise." Her answer for that condition was the recognition that people need to be informed of what the industry's enemies are doing, and suggested that manufacturers slip political "fact sheets" into product boxes .. and possibly even postcards pre-addressed to legislators, letting them know that, "I'm a happy sex toy user" or "I'm a happy porn viewer."
Leonard was asked to comment on what changes she had seen in the present-day industry from her perspective as an early porn star. Leonard decried the lack of storyline features currently being produced, saying that today's content is much the same as the 8mm loops that were popular when she was first starting out; that adult features are much more readily available now, and in more varied forms, than in the mid-'70s, noting that in those days, movies played for a week in theaters and were then forgotten.
"I do sort of miss the good old days," she concluded.
Current FSC president Jim Everett, who works as a consultant for, among others, the Lion's Den chain of retail stores, was asked about how the recently-enacted SB 16 will affect his home state of Ohio, as well as the rest of the country. Everett then detailed the fight being waged by the Buckeye Association of Club Executives, whose members include both adult cabaret and adult bookstore owners, and the newly-formed Citizens for Community Standards to gather enough voter signatures to put the new law on the November ballot.
Noting that he expects to have obtained over 100,000 signatures by this weekend, Everett stated, "This is about a serious loss of freedoms."
Topco Sales owner Scott Tucker batted clean-up for the panel, assessing what he considered to be the most important issues facing the industry today -- and not surprisingly, he dealt with the "obscene device" laws currently on the books in seven states, which he noted represent 14% of the country.
"They can buy guns but they can't buy a dildo," Tucker exclaimed, suggesting that perhaps some group should be formed which has as its slogan, "Save the Dildos."
Finally, FSC board chair Jeffrey Douglas took the microphone to give the group a short update on the new 2257 regulations, much of which was summarized on a "fact sheet" distributed by ASACP executive director and FSC board member Joan Irvine.
On the down side, Douglas noted that "lascivious exhibition of the genitals" had been added as a category triggering the requirement to keep 2257 records, and that such exhibition need not even be nude; a "filled jockstrap" could be sufficient to trigger compliance.
Declaring that 2257 was not about child porn, but is "designed to entrap you," Douglas warned that 2257 compliance "is something you must discuss with a lawyer," and that "This is potentially a life or death fight for the industry."
He urged attendees to check out the Free Speech website in the near future for tips and forms on how to comment to the Justice Department on the new regulations, and stated that Free Speech will be taking legal action to protect the industry from the harmful effects of the new regs.
http://avn.com/index_cache.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=292120
Senate Committee Approves New Indecency Measure
WASHINGTON - Last week a Senate committee gave its stamp of approval to yet another piece of legislation that purports to protect children from “indecent” material.
Last Friday the Senate Commerce Committee approved the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act, legislation that would enable the Federal Communications Commission to maintain a policy that a single word or image may be considered “indecent” and result in fines, accordingly.
The bill, introduced by Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W. Va., would “require the FCC, in enforcing its regulations concerning the broadcast of indecent programming, to maintain a policy that a single word or image may be considered indecent,” according to current text of the bill.
Committee Vice Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who co-sponsored the bill, said Thursday that he was “pleased to see the Commerce Committee swiftly approve this bill.”
“It is important to give the FCC the tools it needs to continue to protect the American public from indecency on radio and broadcast television,” Stevens said.
The proposed act, also known as S1780, is one of several bills that have been introduced in response to a recent decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case Fox Television Stations vs. FCC.
In the Fox case, the court found that the “FCC’s new policy sanctioning ‘fleeting expletives’ is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedures Act for failing to articulate a reasoned basis for its change in policy.”
In June, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin reacted angrily to the court’s ruling, saying that he was “disappointed for American families.”
“I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that ‘shit’ and ‘fuck’ are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience,” Martin said at the time.
Friday, Martin hailed the Commerce Committee’s approval of S1780.
“I appreciate the actions by the Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation, which affirmed the commission's ability to protect our children from indecent language and images on television and radio,” Martin said. “Significantly, members of Congress stated once again what we on the commission and every parent already knows: Even a single word or image can indeed be indecent.”
Martin’s appreciation for the Commerce Committee vote is not necessarily shared by free speech groups, 1st Amendment attorneys and broadcasters, of course.
Attorney Reed Lee, president of the 1st Amendment Lawyers Association, told XBIZ that while the introduction of such legislation following the 2nd Circuit’s recent ruling as “certainly predictable,” the bill would not alter the fundamental constitutional issues at play in cases like Fox vs. FCC.
“Congress can’t affect the contours of the 1st Amendment,” Lee said. “It can force the courts to reach such issues — if it really wants to — but it cannot change the constitutional issues that loom behind all the statutory interpretation.”
Several free speech advocacy groups including the ACLU and the Center for Democracy and Technology have issued statements condemning the bill and urging the Senate to vote it down.
http://xbiz.com/news/legal/82153
British Hotel Chain Bans PPV Porn
LONDON - A British hotel chain announced last week their decision to cease offering adult entertainment at their properties. The move is unusual because most hotel chains enjoy significant profits from adult pay-per-view movies.
Travelodge operates 318 discount hotels in the United Kingdom, in addition to a small number of properties in Ireland and Spain. The company is not associated with the American chain of the same name.
In lieu of adult entertainment, the company is introducing a new service that offers 18 free, family-friendly channels.
Travelodge’s chief operating officer Guy Parsons said the decision to remove pay-per-view adult channels was made to "appeal to the ever-growing number of families” that constitute the chain’s primary customer base.
"Our other customers tell us that they would prefer to use a hotel without adult content available so we have responded to meet their needs," Parsons said.
Ironically, at the time of the announcement, the hotel chain’s website was running a “Sex in the City” promotion, offering a deal for women looking for a weekend-getaway.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001330003-2007340007,00.html
Va. Start-up Expelled from Incubator after Adult Business Plans Become Public
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A start-up company that aims to provide secure money transfers for the online adult entertainment and gambling industries was kicked out of a business incubator at the University of Virginia this week after their business model came to light.
Following a July 7 report in the Daily Progress about Pmints, a company modeled after PayPal with a business plan that includes transactions for online porn and gambling, alumni and community members began calling for the removal of the company from the school’s business incubator.
As a result of having been expelled from the incubator at the university’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, Pmints has lost its office space, stipends, and access to faculty advisors and legal support.
“The school, as a public institution of the commonwealth of Virginia, cannot directly support, financially or otherwise, his startup venture, Pmints, because of the nature of some aspects of the business,” Darden Dean Robert F. Bruner said.
Rafael Diaz-Tushman, Pmints’ chief executive officer and a graduate student at Darden, told the Daily Progress that the payment processing start-up intends to launch later this year despite the setback.
Diaz-Tushman said that Pmints’ business plan was no secret at Darden, as the company was one of seven firms invited to join the incubator. “They all definitely knew about us,” he said.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--u.va-incubator0724jul24,0,2246843.story?coll=dp-headlines-virginia
