Intellectual Property Law

Feds Charge Porn Producer With Selling Adult Content to Adults

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

John Stagliano at an adult entertainment conference in Las Vegas, January 6, 2005
Creative Commons photo by lukeisback.com

Federal prosecutors in the nation's capital this week charged Los Angeles adult-film producer John Stagliano with seven felonies for selling his films to Washington, D.C., residents over the internet.

Stagliano, also known as "Buttman," wasn't producing kid porn, selling to kids, or forcing his films on anyone who didn't want them. So it's heartening to see that in the middle of a war, and under the ever-present threat of terrorism, the Bush administration can find the resources to target someone for offering titles like Milk Nymphos and Storm Squirters 2: Target Practice to the public.

From adult news site Xbiz.com:

Al Gelbard, who represents Stagliano, told XBIZ that his client's case raises interesting constitutional questions.

"The charges are what they are; I disagree with them politically and morally,? Gelbard said. "It's a waste of the government's resources. We're very confident that we'll prevail at trial." ...

Gelbard plans to make a pretrial motion to have the court define what the appropriate community is when relating to alleged obscene works delivered via the internet. 1st Amendment attorney Louis Sirkin filed a similar motion in the Extreme Associates obscenity case. Gelbard said that he expects Sirkin to be involved on Stagliano's defense team in some capacity. The courts have not definitively ruled on the identity of who comprises the internet community.

A 1973 Supreme Court decision defines "obscenity" in visual media as content depicting "patently offensive sexual conduct" appealing "to a prurient interest" and lacking "serious artistic, literary, political, or scientific value." Under that ruling, local standards in the community where the content is purchased apply, so Stagliano's films have to offend Washingtonians for him to be convicted -- assuming the case gets that far.

If convicted, Stagliano faces prison time and $7 million in fines. Prosecutors are also demanding that Stagliano turn over all "original masters and copies" of the movies in question. The indictment (.pdf) doesn't say what they want with them.

Full post as published by Threat Level on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).