square peg in a round hole
The Max Hardcore website is offline. Closed down by the government. This is a very troubling and disturbing thing, but NOT for the reasons everyone is saying.
To understand the root of the issue, you have to realise that the Max Hardcore trial was a mail fraud trial and not a obscenity trial. The website closer notice points out that the relevant sections of the law are 18 United States Code 1461 and 1465. the first deals with using the post office and the second is interstate transportation. It was the use of the post office that was the heart of the issue, not wether or not the items were obscene.
The first question that pops to mind is if charges of misusing the US post office to conduct interstate commerce even still apply in todays world. Back when the law was originaly writen it might have been reasonable to say that since a branch of the US government was the only way to mail stuff, then the US government had the right to say what went through thier system. But now that you can FedEx stuff anywhere you want, do those olden days rules still have any weight?
But the real big question is the issue of secondary libality. You see, it wasent actualy Max Hardcore or Max World Entertainment that did the mailing. They were the manafacturer but not the distribuitor. The people who actualy put the videos into boxes and sent them through the mail was a company called JKG, Inc. Max World Entertainment outsourced the distribution process to that company so that it could focus more on production.
Now think about this for a moment. Say it was some other ‘iligeal’ item besides porn. For example, what if a convince store clerk sells cigerates to someone under the age of 18 (selling cigerates is not againt the law, but selling them to a minor is). However, instead of the store clerk being charges with a crime, the CEO of philip moris gets taken to court. Or another example. What if a gun dealer sold a assault weapon to someone without conducting a background check or doing a 3 day waiting period (selling guns is not againt the law, but sellign them without the proper paperwork is). However, instead of the dealer being charged with a crime, the CEO of Smith and Wesson gets taken to court. ….. That is what happened here. The person giving it to the customer was the one who broke the law, but it was the manafacturer who wound up in court.
Such a situation raises very serious concerns about the freedom to operate a business. Its especialy troublsom for me seeing as I am a retailer. Several products I sell, I dont actualy make myself. Now I am known for being willing to engage in a bit of civial disobediance in order to stand up for what I feel is right. I do this with the confidence that if shit ever hits the fan nobody will be harmed besides myself. Im a grown up and Im willing to take the conciquences of my actions. But with manafactures now being legaly libal for the ~crimes~ of the distrributer Im a bit more hesitant to do this. I dont mind me taking the heat for my actions, but if I know my suppliers might take the heat instead, I would be less likely to rise up in disobeadence againt a law I think is unfair.
But I say all this knowing that Im the only person in all of existance to actualy be worried abotu the mail fraud charges. To everyone else this is just miller-test junior. In their eyes, the key issue is nitpicking the semantics of what the word ‘obscene’ is and gettign worked into a tizzy about how those evil fundementalist christians are trying to force their uptight and prudish views of sex onto everyone else.
Heck, even the Max Hardcore lawers themselves want to make this into an obscenity trial. Their primary defence argument was that the max hardcore videws were not realy porn, but rather political satire againt the feminist movement. And as such it should be granted the same freedom of speach rights as other political protests since its not realy techinalky ‘onscene’ material.
I dont think anyone would buy that line of shit. Of cortse MaxHardcore videos were obscene. Thats what was so great about them. They were pervy, kinky, filthy, gloriously obscene. Trying to claim it wasent obscene and was instead ‘political speach’ is an insult not only to porn but to political satarists as well. But thats the line everyone keeps chanting. Miller test. Comunity standards. Vague and overly broad. Baddly writen law. Come hell or high water people were going to paint this so that it looked as if it were a case of right wing religious zealots trying to shut down anything and everyting having to do with sex.
Charges wernt pressed by the FBI ‘pon squad’. They were charged by the US Post office. That right therte should clue folks in to the fact of the real dangers involved here. But no. Instead of paying attention to the real dangers, folks are going to push with all their might untill this case squeeses into the ‘christians hate sex’ template.