Federal investigators and prosecutors wasting our taxes on abysmal failure to prosecute "obscenity"
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 8:15 amAs some of you might have gathered from my occasional but unnecessarily verbose rants, I like to keep up with issues involving actual internet innovations (as opposed to the way marketers use that word) and technology advances in general, free speech vs. censorship issues, intellectual property issues, and the balance of personal freedoms. The big high-profile crossroads where all those topics meet is the adult entertainment industry.
Yes, I read news about porn. Even if it doesn't come with pictures.
Really.
Okay, so there are usually some pretty pictures nearby too, so it's not always very "safe for work" unless you work at home like I do, but it really is the news I want to talk about.
I mentioned a big "criminal obscenity" trial I was following last week. It finally got to trial and completely fell apart. Once the FBI utterly failed to provide half their evidence and looked thoroughly unashamed at how they wasted taxpayer dollars gathering the completely inadequate rest of their evidence, it was over. All counts dismissed due to woefully insufficient evidence.
The fact that officers of our federal government chose to spend three years building a case to prove trafficking of "obscene materials" across state lines and persisted with it all the way to trial, yet failed so completely that the defense didn't even have to present their case, doesn't actually surprise me. I really wish it did.
What I got a kick out of was reading the very professional reports of the case journalled by Aurora Snow, a porn star sitting in the courtroom. Her job is to look and sound good having sex in front of a camera, but here she is writing like a "real" newspaper journalist, hitting the same points that I would have commented on.
So instead of babbling on, I'll just link you to her article in Adult Video News. Some "real professional" reporters call it a "banner day for free speech" but I agree with Aurora. This isn't so much a First Amendment victory as the FBI and federal prosecutors dropping the ball. I'd actually prefer a slightly different phrase for that, but in a public post, that'll do.
Yes, I read news about porn. Even if it doesn't come with pictures.
Really.
Okay, so there are usually some pretty pictures nearby too, so it's not always very "safe for work" unless you work at home like I do, but it really is the news I want to talk about.
I mentioned a big "criminal obscenity" trial I was following last week. It finally got to trial and completely fell apart. Once the FBI utterly failed to provide half their evidence and looked thoroughly unashamed at how they wasted taxpayer dollars gathering the completely inadequate rest of their evidence, it was over. All counts dismissed due to woefully insufficient evidence.
The fact that officers of our federal government chose to spend three years building a case to prove trafficking of "obscene materials" across state lines and persisted with it all the way to trial, yet failed so completely that the defense didn't even have to present their case, doesn't actually surprise me. I really wish it did.
What I got a kick out of was reading the very professional reports of the case journalled by Aurora Snow, a porn star sitting in the courtroom. Her job is to look and sound good having sex in front of a camera, but here she is writing like a "real" newspaper journalist, hitting the same points that I would have commented on.
So instead of babbling on, I'll just link you to her article in Adult Video News. Some "real professional" reporters call it a "banner day for free speech" but I agree with Aurora. This isn't so much a First Amendment victory as the FBI and federal prosecutors dropping the ball. I'd actually prefer a slightly different phrase for that, but in a public post, that'll do.
