AmateurAction.net Owner Indicted on Obscenity Charges

[tony286]

http://avn.com/internet/articles/31434.html

AmateurAction.net Owner Indicted on Obscenity Charges

By: Justin Bourne

Posted: 07/24/2008

MILPITAS, Calif. - The owner of adult website AmateurAction.net has been indicted by a California grand jury on charges related to the distribution of obscene material.

Robert Alan Thomas, 52, of Milpitas, Calif., was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose with three counts of mailing obscene materials and one count of engaging in the business of selling or transferring obscene matter.

According to court documents, Thomas mailed two allegedly obscene DVDs to a person in Washington, D.C., in December 2006.

AmateurAction.net offers a selection of $3.99 adult DVDs featuring extreme content such as pissing, fisting, BDSM and "extreme insertions," according to the site.

The Justice Department is seeking the forfeiture of assets earned through the site, including all property used to commit the offenses. Thomas faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each of the four counts if convicted.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

I knew that name sounded familiar - the same guy did 2-3 years in jail during the 90's on similar charges against his Amateur Action web site (it was a BBS back then).

I was surprised to hear that he is still around in the adult biz, and even more so that he is heading to court once again for the same sort of stuff that got him into trouble, and thrown into the pokey, the first time around.

ADG

[tony286]

Originally Posted by AsianDivaGirlsWebDude

I knew that name sounded familiar - the same guy did 2-3 years in jail during the 90's on similar charges against his Amateur Action web site (it was a BBS back then).

I was surprised to hear that he is still around in the adult biz, and even more so that he is heading to court once again for the same sort of stuff that got him into trouble, and thrown into the pokey, the first time around.

ADG

really? this is his second time. damn

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Originally Posted by tony404

really? this is his second time. damn

Yup...Google his name:

BBS Sysop Gets Another Sentence

California computer bulletin board system owner Robert Alan Thomas, convicted
of distributing pornography after images were downloaded in Tennessee, now
has been sentenced to more time in Utah, where a judge rejected claims of
double jeopardy. Reporting from Salt Lake City, Utah, The Associated Press
says the 40-year-old Milpitas, California, man was sentenced to 26 months in
federal prison and fined $50,000. The sentence will be served concurrently
with his prison term in Tennessee.

Says AP, "The Utah authorities said they acted on a citizen's tip before
downloading 16 images from the same computer system of naked and semi-naked
minors that a Memphis postal inspector used to build a case against Thomas in
Tennessee." Thomas' attorneys argued the second prosecution amounted to
being tried twice for the same offense, adding the criminal charges should
focus solely on the board's operation, not on each time a customer logs on.

However, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins rejected the argument, and Thomas
pleaded guilty to one count of supplying child-pornography to undercover
officers in exchange for 15 others being dismissed. Said Judge Jenkins,
"While it was the same bulletin board, it was different events. Different
events, different consequences."

Thomas and his wife, Carleen, are serving 32-month prison sentences for their
convictions last year in a much-publicized Tennessee case involving images
of men and women engaging in sex acts with animals. As noted, the case is
believed to be one of the first in which the prosecution took place in the
locale where the materials were received, rather than where they originated.
AP says none of the images in the Utah case depicted sexual acts, but,
according to federal prosecutor Richard Lambert, all were accompanied
bygraphic and explicit descriptions making it clear they were intended as
pornography.

"Free-speech advocates," notes AP, "said the precedent threatens to replace
the Supreme Court's longstanding 'local community standards' test for
pornography with a new 'anything offensive to anyone anywhere' standard that
could hobble the rapidly growing Internet." Meanwhile, Thomas attorney Tom
Nolan told the wire service the double jeopardy issue likely will be raised
in an appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

As reported, the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati already ruled against the
Thomases, upholding their Tennessee convictions in January. "That ruling,"
AP reports, "said every individual community can judge for itself
theobscenity of material downloaded from computer bulletin boards - no matter
where that board is based."

You would think he would have learned a lesson...

ADG