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Ruling In Fsc 2257 Challenge
DENVER, CO -- United States District Court Judge Walker D. Miller has granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of certain key provisions of U.S.C. 18 §2257 as regards FSC members. The ruling is currently being assessed by the FSC legal team and an analysis of the ruling will be made available as soon as possible on the FSC website. Initial readings of the ruling are heartening, especially for FSC members who fall in the category of so-called hahaha147;secondary producers.hahaha148; Until there are further legal proceedings, such as a trial or appeal process, or until there are further orders by Judge Miller, the government may not enforce §2257 against FSC members whose hahaha147;activities do not involve the hiring, contracting for, managing, or otherwise arranging for the participation of the depicted performerhahaha148;; in other words, those who are not the primary producers of sexual materials. This is in line with the 1998 10th Circuit Sundance v. Reno decision which many secondary producers, such as webmasters, have relied on -- and properly so, according to Judge Miller -- in deciding that secondary producers did not fall under §2257 record-keeping requirements.
In addition to the injunction against government prosecutions of secondary producers, FSC scored a crucial victory in convincing Judge Miller of the substantial likelihood that requiring producers to maintain URLhahaha146;s for websites that are outside their control will be found to be overly burdensome. FSC attorneys also convinced Judge Miller of the substantial likelihood that the mind-boggling government insistence that chat rooms should have to store huge video recordings of chat room activities will be found overly burdensome. As a result, under this injunction, for now, the government may not enforce §2257 against members of FSC with regards to websites they do not control, or against FSC members as regards keeping video records in the operation of Internet chat rooms. Please note that the foregoing injunctions cite specific clauses of the revised §2257 and will need careful analysis by FSC attorneys to clarify the exact nature and full implications of the ruling.
FSC plans just such a timely clarification at the membership meeting in Las Vegas on Thursday, January 5, 2006, in Room 403 of the Sands Expo, Las Vegas, Nevada, adjacent to the Venetian Hotel and Casino. By then, FSC attorneys will have had time to analyze the ruling and will be in attendance to answer questions.
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