News & Media
An Inside Look at the Adult Entertainment Industry’s Fight to Stamp Out Child Pornography
Many anti-porn activists like to try to connect adult entertainment with child pornography as a means to build support for their desire to roll back the First Amendment. Let’s face it, screaming “protect the children,” is a good way to get a lot of people to set aside logic and get them on your side. However, those who have any regular contact with the adult entertainment industry already know that the industry has zero involvement with productions involving children. In fact, the adult entertainment industry is the child pornographer’s worst enemy. Robert D. Richards and Clay Calvert recently published an
Max Hardcore Convicted
Yesterday, Paul Little (a.k.a. Max Hardcore) was convicted on 10 counts of distributing obscene materials. (source) The short version: Consenting adults decided to make a movie. Consenting adults starred in the movie. Consenting adults bought the movie. Nevertheless, your government decided that someone should go to prison for it. And yesterday, twelve of the dumbest motherfuckers in Florida bent the Constitution over and fucked it in the ass. I don’t like Max Hardcore’s movies. You probably wouldn’t either. I have exercised my right to watch something else, but I certainly don’t mind if my neighbors want to watch his movies.
Mind your own business, please.
From the Seattle Times Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss in the stands at Seattle Mariners games. The crowd hardly even pays attention when fans smooch. But then last week, a lesbian complained that an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date because it was making another fan uncomfortable. (source) If two girls making out makes you uncomfortable, well… you aint no friend of mine. The only thing hotter than two girls making out is two girls who like baseball making out. (For the record, these don’t seem to be the kind
Congratulations to Alexis Lambert, Florida's New Sunshine Law Attorney!
On Monday, June 2nd, Florida’s Attorney General announced the appointment of Alexis Lambert as the new Sunshine Law Attorney for the Office of the Attorney General. In Florida, every person has been granted the Constitutional right to inspect or copy any public record with some exemptions, and the Sunshine Law provides a right of access to government proceedings at both the state and local levels. These essential laws afford citizens of the state the ability to see behind the curtain of government and remain involved in the processes that affect their lives. Without this access there is little accountability, and
And the Auto Admit Drumbeat Continues
The latest installment in Teh AutoAdmit Lulz hit PACER yesterday. That’s how crappy it is, I didn’t even bother to blog on it the day it was posted. You will recall that Anthony Ciolli filed a pro se motion to quash a subpoena filed in the Western District of Virginia. The response is here. As they say, this is TTT.
Lesbian Humor
No, that isn’t an oxymoron. I’m not directing you to Feminist Law Profs (which is the humor equivalent of sucking on a dirty sock full of charcoal ashes), but to Stuff Lesbians Like! No, you won’t find any pr0n there, but you very well might waste like two hours laughing so hard that your dog looks at you funny. Yeah, I know my blogging has been thin lately. Newly-married, secretary on vacation, baby on the way… All I can say about the last one is that I’m glad that I dated so many alcoholics in the past. The only difference
A Witness to an Obscenity Trial Speaks
Honoring Our Nation’s Heroes—By Looking At Crap By Anonymous I’m spending Memorial Day wrestling with the First Amendment. The Constitution lays it out perfectly clearly: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” So what part of “Shall make no law” is confusing? I’m spending Memorial Day looking at crap. Disgusting, stupid, un-sexy crap. Crap that, because it features penises, vaginas, and buttholes, is under indictment. That is, the people who make it and sell it are under indictment. If they lose,
Domain History Blocking Comes to Domain Tools
More than once, Domain Tools’ domain history has proven quite useful to me in domain disputes. It is always nice to be able to show a panel that the respondent is lying about the date of acquisition of a domain name — especially since the date of each transfer is considered to be a “new registration” under the UDRP. See this post (and scroll down to “Relation Back of Rights”). A few weeks ago, word leaked out on the International Trademark Association list serv that Domain Tools was bought by a domain monetization company. A DMC is a company that
Word/Trademark of the day – "PWNAGE"
For you old folks (over 18) who aren’t up on the latest lingo, the word for the day is Pwn, and its derivatives: Pwned, Pwnage. Urban Dictionary definition . Internet for beginners explanation. The authoritative Wikipedia entry for Pwn. Wiktionary entry. A Finnish company, Futuremark Oy Corporation, has filed for trademark registration for PWNAGE for the following goods and services: Computer game software for communication devices; computer game software and computer game programs enabling users to play games with mobile phones and personal digital assistants; computer software and programs enabling users to communication devices to simultaneously access databases and global
Supreme Court: Solicitation of Child Porn Categorically Unprotected by First Amendment
In a 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court held today in United States v. Williams, (Source), that “offers to provide or requests to obtain child pornography are categorically excluded from the First Amendment.” I’ll leave most of the analysis of this case to the professionals, but I’d have to agree with Eugene Volokh that the decision is not so much about child pornography as it is about the government’s ability to restrict speech that solicits illegal activity. (Source.) That said, it appears the Court went out of its way to construe the statute so as not to implicate its earlier decision
Bashaway v. Cheney Bros.: Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal hands same-sex couples a small defeat
Last Thursday, the 1st DCA handed down an opinion denying members in committed, long-term, same-sex relationships the ability to bring claims for loss of consortium. (source) The plaintiff, Judith Bashaway, proposed two arguments in favor of extending loss of consortium claims to members of same-sex couples. First, she argued that the status to bring such a claim should hang on the seriousness of the relationship and not on whether the couple was legally married. Second, she argued in the alternative that the court should create an exception to the marriage requirement because same-sex couples are not legally allowed to be
A New Challenge to the Sanctity of Marriage in Florida…
CONGRATULATIONS: PROFESSOR RANDAZZA & MRS. PROFESSOR RANDAZZA FROM: First Amendment Squad / Blogsitters
A House Divided?
Some genius in south Flori-duh thinks the best way to solve the State’s fiscal callousness is to pass a idiotic nonbinding, ineffective resolution declaring it “in the best interests of the citizens and residents [of North Lauderdale]” to divide Florida into two separate states – North Florida and South Florida. (Source). I don’t know, maybe this isn’t such a bad idea. Divide the State in two -or better yet three (North, South, and Central)- with all the crazies, asshats, and arsonists concentrated in the Northern and Southern portion of the State, while the remainder of us in the Central reap the
Hiatus
This is the hottest girl I’ve ever met, so I figured that I might as well marry her this Saturday. Therefore, I’ll be incommunicado for a few days. I have left a few of my former students with the keys to the car though. It doesn’t get any better than this.
California Gay Marriage Case
Today is a great day for civil rights! Calif. Supreme Court rules that it is unconstitutional to prohibit gay marriage. [I]n light of the conclusions we reach concerning the constitutional questions brought to us for resolution, we determine that the language of section 300 limiting the designation of marriage to a union “between a man and a woman” is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute, and that the remaining statutory language must be understood as making the designation of marriage available both to opposite-sex and same-sex couples. In addition, because the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples imposed
Fair Use Friday (On Wednesday!)
With a baby on the way, I’m getting to re-discover all my old childhood joys. Naturally, the world will be a different place in 2008 than it was in 1969 — obviously given the music that the Muppets are performing these days. Turn up your speakers (not too loud if you are at work), and enjoy. These are priceless. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jE-2luMiCs] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-TToJwQwXg] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIz3b1yyeqI] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCtToN9Ixpw] I can’t freakin wait for my kid to get here (some time in November)… yeah beeeyotches!
I found out why there are so many songs about rainbows!
If this gives you woodyou might be a high schoolprincipal from the panhandle In Gillman v. Holmes County School District, a federal judge ruled today that a Florida panhandle school could not suppress student speech that promoted solidarity and support for gay classmates. “Standing up to my school was really hard to do, but I’m so happy that I did because the First Amendment is a big deal to everyone,” said Heather Gillman, a junior at Ponce de Leon High School and the plaintiff in the case. The Court issued an order that the school’s censorship must stop, and that
Guest blogging – "Land of the Almost Free"
Rogier van Bakel is on vacation and has asked me to mind the store over at “Nobody’s Business.” See Land of the Almost Free.
The Robots (.txt) and the UDRP
Any web savvy lawyer knows the value of the Internet Wayback Machine. This website contains a historical directory of web pages, as they appeared on a given date in time. Naturally, being able to look at the history of a website can be an extremely valuable evidence-gathering tool, and I have used it both to support arguments and to demonstrate that other parties are clearly lying. Web savvy cybersquatters know the power of the Wayback Machine. Accordingly, when they receive a demand letter or a UDRP complaint, cybersquatters increasingly seek to erase their web history from memory by using a
Hillary needs to fire her speechwriter
I swear, I’m not making this up. Hillary Clinton likened herself to a teabag yesterday when asked why she refuses to drop out of the Democrats’ presidential nomination race. Quoting former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, she said: “A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she’s in hot water.” (source) Teabag… heh heh Trust me… this video is hilarious. (Safe for work, no teabagging involved)