So I talked to a friend who's a law STUDENT about the recent drama...
 

I'm talking about:
-Rob Black arrest
-COHF/cashtitans arrest

He said he wasn't an expert on porn law, but his take on it is that the Feds want to make sure these obscenity cases make it to the Supreme Court, so they are filing against companies in conservative jurisdictions...

He suggested that they probably will not target any companies in Northern Cali, because they won't want the case to go through the liberal Appeals court in SF, where it would probably get struck down.

Of course, he then advised me to consult with an expert.

But I was wondering what people in the biz thought about this. Any comments?

its a conspiracy involving the man...

No comment, I will consult with an expert

Due to it being a few years, I'm not exactly sure who this happened to, but they were in Florida. The last time I remember something like this happening, they got the people on not having a permit to conduct business, in their shooting locations, the house they were working out of, etc, etc. They basically just made life really difficult for them.

COH is not feds its state.

Let's hope for the best

You don't think the timing is suspicious? Wasn't COHF exactly one week after Rob Black?

And didn't they file under RICO, which is federal?

You could be right, I am just saying...

bump? far fetched?

Rob Black actually tried to take his case to the Supreme Court and it got tossed back down

Actually, if the Feds do want to CHALLENGE the existing Miller Obscenity standard, they would do best to do it via the 9th Circuit since the 9th Circuit is routinely reversed by the Supreme Court.

What happend? Arrests? I've been gone for a while, does anyone have any links?

Rob black has been a couple of years now, cohf did porn where the locals are antiporn thats a big no no and they placed ads somewhere that fed the fire. The pissed off locals complained to the local cops.

Well Pensacola is right on the border of 2 states so I'm sure the feds have some "evidence" that "crimes" were committed over state lines.

Hmmm...

Is 9th circuit N. Cal?

Interesting.

:1orglaugh :thumbsup :1orglaugh

Yeah, I saw where they said that. But they also said that they have been investigating COHF for over a month gathering evidence, which seems like lot of effort for just a few neighborhood complaints. And the press release that they did certainly wasn't local - the story was released nationally.

it wouldnt surprise me at all

Good logic with the Nocal theory.

All those buckaroos, and no time to enjoy them (in jail).

:(

Just a quick comment... It doesn't matter so much where your company is, but where you do business. Typically the feds prosecute in remote, conservative jurisdictions. All they have to do is go online, and order a DVD to some po-dunk county in West Virginia, and as soon as you ship it to them, the government has a "community standard" that is very different than anything most of us have ever seen. That standard of that particular area is what matters at trial, not the social norms where it was produced. The way the obscenity standard now stands (and a reason why so many people have a problem with it) allows it to change. The "standard" exists in a specific place at a specific time. It can change from town to town and from day to day. In short, the feds file in conservative jurisdictions because that's the only place they have a hope of winning.

Additionally, obscenity statutes are written under Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce (if I remember correctly from my Con Law class), and it can only be prosecuted once an allegedly "obscene" item is entered into the stream of commerce. The government does't go after the production of obscene material, it goes after the material's sale. The jurisdiction has much less to do with where a company is located, and much more to do with where it does business.

Thanks for the info.

Also, for what it's worth, freespeechcoalition.com has some useful information and links to actual cases and primary sources. Very educated, intelligent people have pretty different opinions on this stuff, so it might be worth it to do some of your own research.