Free Speech Coalition



Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Free Speech X-Press
Delivering Weekly Censorship Updates to the Adult Industry

Vol. VIII, No. 49, October 20, 2006 -- A Member Service of the Free Speech Coalition
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Free Speech X-press is researched and edited by Layne Winklebleck.
Copyright 2006 Free Speech Coalition. Permission to reprint granted to FSC members; please give credit.
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VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR FSC MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com
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FSC OPENS NOMINATIONS FOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CANOGA PARK, CA -- FSC has opened nominations for its 2007 Board of Directors election and invites all FSC members to submit names as nominees for the positions. Five incumbents will be automatically in the list of nominees, plus two additional seats are open on the Board of thirteen members. The incumbent nominees include Jeffrey J. Douglas, current Board Chair and First Amendment attorney; Mara Epstein, business development consultant with X-Biz and Crush; Mark Kernes, senior editor at AVN; Reed Lee, First Amendment attorney; and Tim Valenti, CEO of Naked Sword. Each candidate will be running for a two-year term on the FSC governing body.
   The nomination and election process will adhere to the following schedule:

        10/09/06 – Nominating ballots mailed by U.S. Mail to FSC membership
        10/31/06 – Nominating ballot deadline for return to FSC
        11/17/06 – Final ballots mailed by U.S. Mail to FSC membership
        12/08/06 – Final ballots due for return to FSC by members

    The top seven nominees plus the five incumbent candidates will be included on the final ballot. The results of the election will be announced at the FSC annual membership meeting to be held during Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas in January 2007.
    The FSC Board of Directors serves an important leadership role in the organization, providing oversight of key functions. Members are highly encouraged to make nominations, to become informed of the nominees and to vote, so that the FSC leadership reflects the diverse composition of the adult industry and the organization’s membership.
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HEADS UP ON CALIFORNIA BALLOT MEASURE
SACRAMENTO, CA -- Proposition 90 on the California ballot, which includes laudable provisions to protect Californians against the power of the government to condemn private property in order to promote other private projects or uses (as allowed by the highly controversial 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London) contains a clause that seeks to write adult entertainment out of the protection: (From the text of Proposition 90 -- Section 3e) “Nothing in this section shall prohibit the use of condemnation powers to abate nuisances such as blight, obscenity, pornography, hazardous substances or environmental conditions, provided those condemnations are limited to abatement of specific conditions on specific parcels.” Since “pornography” is a term that includes protected speech, that clause might not pass constitutional muster if challenged.
For an essay on Prop 90, see Adam B. Summers, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/20/06
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UNSPAM GOES “IN YOUR FACE” TO MARKETING GROUP
NEW YORK, NY -- Taking advantage of the terms of an antitrust exemption granted the Direct Marketing Association by the Federal Trade Commission which specifically delineates when the DMA can expel a member, Unspam Technologies has become a member of the DMA and there is apparently not much the organization can do about it.
    “Satan in the House,’ says the headline in a Ken Magill piece on the DMA website. Magill goes on to call Unspam “arguably the most despised company in e-mail marketing circles.”
    Unspam is, of course, the creator and promoter of the Utah and Michigan “child protection registries,” schemes which pose serious problems for legitimate e-mail marketers and which have been challenged by FSC in a lawsuit.
    Said Unspam Matthew Prince (AKA Prince of Darkness?): “We’re always looking for ways in which we can be more engaged with the marketing community and responsive to its concerns.”
No word on whether Prince plans to join FSC.
Information is from Ken Magill, DirectMag.com, 10/17/06
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CLUBS REPORT ON SECONDARY EFFECTS STUDY
SEATTLE, WA -- A secondary effects study done by UC Santa Barbara Professor Daniel Linz analyzed eight years of police responses at three Seattle exotic dance clubs and concluded that there is no evidence the clubs were more often the source of police attention than other businesses. The study looked at Rick's in Lake City, Déjà Vu near Pike Place Market, and the Sands in Ballard. Linz found that the dance clubs (which don't serve alcohol) attracted less police attention than some nearby bars. For example, Déjà Vu had fewer police calls than downtown nightclubs and bars such as the Crocodile Cafe and The Whisky Bar.
    Similar results were found near Rick's and the Sands. For example, the study found that police responded to more than 1,200 calls for service at a Fred Meyer store on Lake City Way between March 1998 and June 2006, compared with 375 for Rick's. And most of those responses stemmed from undercover vice inspections conducted occasionally to check if dancers are violating city rules by sexually touching patrons rather than crime reports.
    The research results come as no surprise to the adult industry, where we have long known that the secondary effects cited in many city ordinances as justification for laws discriminating against adult entertainment are not grounded in fact. (See Mark Kernes, “The Myth of Secondary Effects.”) Myth or no, municipalities have been free to high-handedly throw around loose secondary effects arguments without having to answer for them -- until the Supreme Court decision in City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books (2002). In that case, the court concluded that a municipality may rely on any evidence that is “reasonably believed to be relevant” for demonstrating a connection between speech and a substantial, independent government interest.
    “However,” wrote Justice O’Connor for the majority, “this is not to say that a municipality can get away with shoddy data or reasoning. The municipality’s evidence must fairly support its rationale for its ordinance.
“….If plaintiffs [the adult businesses] succeed in casting doubt on a municipality’s rationale… the burden shifts back to the municipality to supplement the record with evidence renewing support for a theory that justifies its ordinance.”
    Increasingly, in courts across the nation, the full implications of Alameda Books are changing the legal landscape in terms of secondary effects, primarily because dance clubs and adult stores are commissioning studies (a large share of them done by Linz) that bring the bright, clear light of scientific research into play. (See X-Press reports, “Victory in Secondary Effects Trial,” 1/27/06; “Another Shoddy Ordinance Challenged, 5/26/06; and “Court Cites Myth of Secondary Effects,” 10/13/06) When the clubs and stores bring in their own solid research, thereby, in O’Connor’s words, “casting doubt on a municipality’s rationale,” the burden of proof, under Alameda Books, goes back to the governments; and they are hard pressed, because truth is not on their side. Adult dance clubs and stores do not cause negative secondary effects.
    In the case of the Seattle clubs, of course, they may not need a court battle if they win in their referendum campaign to overturn the new ordinance the City Council approved last year. A "no" vote November 7 on Seattle Referendum #1, which the clubs got on the ballot with a petition drive, (See X-Press report, “Clubs Fund Seattle Dance Club Referendum,” 7/7/06) will overturn the ordinance, which requires dancers to stay 4 feet from patrons, bans direct tipping and calls for brighter lighting.
Recent information is from Jim Brunner, Seattle Times, 10/14/06
See also, Darklady, Ynot.com, 10/16/06
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STUDY CLAIMS MANY ADULTS “ADDICTED” TO INTERNET
STANFORD, CA -- Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have released findings from a telephone-based study of so-called Internet addiction in which 2,513 adults responded to questions designed to determine if the Internet has become a problem in terms of addiction or other impulse control disorders. Interviewers asked eight questions, which yielded the following results: 5.9% of respondents felt their relationships suffered as a result of excessive Internet use; 8.7% attempted to conceal non-essential Internet use; 3.7% felt preoccupied by the Internet when offline; 13.7% found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time; 8.2% utilized the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood; 12.3% had tried to cut back on Internet use, of whom 93.8% were successful; and, 12.4% stayed online longer than intended very often or often.
    Adult entertainment was not singled out for special attention, being lumped in with online gambling, email, blogging and other forms of Internet use in the study. However, the study was picked up on the wire services, where sensationalistic headlines warn of the dangers of Internet addiction, thereby adding fuel to the fire for those who would censor the Internet. The study also adds momentum to the concept of addiction as dubiously applied to an ever-wider range of behaviors. “Internet is as addictive as drugs,” said a story in the San Jose Mercury News. “Like a roll of the dice or a sip of bourbon, the glow of the computer screen has an irresistible and dangerous allure to many people, according to a new nationwide study by Stanford University,” said the newspaper.
    Actually, the research did not claim that the Internet was as addictive as drugs. Indeed, reading between the lines, the study falls short of showing any such thing. Consider this: If a series of questions similar to those listed above were asked in instances of alcohol addiction, alcoholics who say their relationships had suffered would frequently also have attempted to conceal it, used it to escape problems, etc. In most cases, virtually the whole list of markers would apply. In this study, however, when any combination of four proposed sets of four diagnostic criteria were considered, there was a dramatic fall-off (to 0.7%) in terms of how many respondents reported all four. The proposed criteria sets may have set the bar too high, said the researchers in the study abstract. There was no mention of a high bar in the press releases.
    In any case, the authors of the study dramatically concluded that potential markers of problematic Internet use seem to be present in a sizeable proportion of adults and recommended future studies to decide whether problematic Internet use constitutes a pathological behavior that meets criteria for an independent disorder, or represents a symptom of other psychopathologies. That seems like a pretty strong statement to us, so we Googled around a bit on the background of the researchers. It is worth noting that this study is not the first one of its kind conducted by the lead researcher, Elias Aboujaoude, M.D., Director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at the Stanford School of Medicine. Doctor Aboujaoude has also done research showing significant results through the use of the drug Celexa to help those afflicted with compulsive shopping; and in a 2004 study investigated the efficacy of the use of the drug Lexapro to treat Kleptomania.     For the record, the Internet addiction study obtained major funding through a grant from Forest Laboratories, which makes Celexa and Lexapro. Aboujaoude and co-author Lorrin Koran, M.D., serve on Forest Pharmaceuticals' speaker’s bureau. No word on whether Celexa or Lexapro might be under consideration for those poor souls suffering from Internet addiction.
From the International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine Abstract, 10/11/06
And from a Stanford School of Medicine Press release, 10/06
For Compulsive Shopping study see WCHSv.com
For Kleptomania study see International Society for Pharmacoeconomics, May 2004
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OTHER NEWS OF THE WEEK

                Seven men and eight women have been arrested on charges of public lewdness in a raid of an exotic dance club in Odessa, Texas.

                NBC has decided not to show pop star Madonna suspended from a giant cross and wearing a crown of thorns when the network airs a special of her "Confessions" tour.

                The City Council of Fairview Heights, Missouri, is considering a tax on adult materials -- to the maximum extent possible -- in order to discourage adult businesses.

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UpComing Events

OCT 17-22 -- CineKink NYC

OCT 19-22 -- Venus-Berlin, Berlin, Germany

OCT 20-26 -- Everything To Do With Sex Show, Toronto, Canada

OCT 21 -- Exotic Erotic Ball, San Francisco, CA

DEC 1-3 -- Black Rose 2006, Washington, DC

JAN 10-13, -- Adult Entertainment Expo, Sands Expo, Las Vegas

JAN 15-17 -- Internext , Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas

FEB 7-8 -- XBIZ Awards and Industry Conference, Hollywood, CA

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Subscriptions to Free Speech X-Press are FREE to FSC members. Contact us at Layne@inreach.com or 800-476-7813.

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