Rob Zicari better known as Rob Black and his wife Janet Romano (stage name Lizzie Borden) were each sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison after pleading guilty to once count of conspiracy to distribute obscene materials last March.

As part of the guilty plea, Zicari and Romano admitted that through the parent company of XPW, Extreme Associates, Inc., they mailed three obscene movies to Pennsylvania, where this whole thing started.

The movies that essentially brought down the company were Forced Entry - Director's Cut, Cocktails 2 - Directors Cut, and Extreme Teen #24.

They also got in hot water for distributing the material through Internet streams.

As part of of their plea agreement the couple was also sentenced to a two year probationary term upon their release from prison.

BNET are reporting a tiff between The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) and the MPAA

CARU has sent out a stream of press releases indicating it believes that sexy, violent movies are being wrongly advertised to kids — and the MPAA, per its agreement with CARU, has done nothing about it.

Often, CARU discovers that the movie studio intentionally placed the ad on kids’ TV. That happened recently with an ad for Star Trek. The film is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and violence, and brief sexual content, but was advertised during children’s programming hours. CARU’s rules state that advertisers should take care to assure that only age appropriate videos, films and interactive software are advertised to children.

MPAA tells BNET that it has never found a movie studio in violation of its advertising rules, even though CARU has referred dozens of movies to MPAA over the years for alleged violations just like Paramount’s.

It turns out that MPAA’s idea of what’s appropriate for kids is different from CARU’s. MPAA notes that PG-13 is a cautionary rating, not a restrictive one. It suggests 13-year-olds shouldn’t see the movie, but 12-year-olds can still buy their own tickets if they want to. So PG-13 movies can be advertised to under-13s.

Update: Nutters whinge at advertising Transformers to children

29th June 2009. Based on article from commondreams.org

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has sent a letter to Chairman Jon Leibowitz of the Federal Trade Commission urging the FTC to stop the marketing of violent PG-13 movies targeted to children. CCFC cited over 2,700 ads shown on children’s television stations for four of this summer’s violent PG-13 blockbusters including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The commercials were shown between 6:00 am and 8:00 pm on children’s stations such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, and include ads for the films, as well as movie-related licensed toys and Burger King Kid’s Meal promotions.

CCFC’s appeal comes two years after the national advocacy organization first urged the FTC to act on the marketing of PG-13 movies. CCFC’s initial request was spurred by the 2007 premiere of the first Transformers film which was marketed to children as young as two through ads, toys, and food promotions.

Because the MPAA continues to ignore the FTC’s request, this summer preschoolers are once again being subjected to a barrage of advertising for violent PG-13 blockbusters, said Susan Linn, CCFC’s Director and a psychologist at Judge Baker Children’s Center: When it comes to the film industry and children’s wellbeing, it’s clear that self-regulation has failed.

Added Dr. Linn, It’s bad enough that movie companies advertise violent, PG-13 films on children’s channels before 8:00 pm. But marketing the films through ads for licensed toys and kid’s meals is especially unfair and deceptive. For years, the FTC has expressed concern about violent, PG-13 movies being promoted to children. Now the Commission needs to act.

Marilyn Manson has lashed out at his record label bosses who tried to censor his new album The High End Of Low because it features a song called Pretty As A Swastika.

Manson said that he can’t understand the controversy surrounding his new album and why his record company pushed for censorship.

It’s shocking to me that it’s easier to buy a gun at Wal-Mart than it is to buy my record. And it’s entertainment, it’s music, but that doesn’t mean it has no value, Contactmusic quoted him as telling Spin magazine.

But it’s just ironic that they can sell a CD in a store, and they won’t put the title Pretty As a Swastika on the cover, but at the same store they’ll have Valkyrie’ for example, which has a Swastika on the cover. Now, I’m not even using the symbol, I’m using the word, so the record company sort of created a new curse word, by default, for me.

The Watergate investigation's Mark Felt was behind the FBI's attempt to block the release of the 1972 porn film Deep Throat in a vain bid to prevent a cultural shift toward more permissive entertainment.

FBI agents from Honolulu to Miami, where the movie was filmed, seized copies of the film, had negatives analysed in laboratories and interviewed everyone from actors and producers to the messengers who delivered reels to cinemas, newly released FBI files have revealed.

Mark Weiner, a law professor at Rutgers University said: The story of 'Deep Throat' is the story of the last gasp of the forces lined up against the cultural and sexual revolution and it is the advent of the entry of pornography into the mainstream.

Felt was then second in command at the FBI and his name appears on the top of the files along with other top agents. He was later given the alias "Deep Throat" after he leaked the crucial information about corruption in the Nixon administration to the Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, but also as a reference to his role in the bid to suppress the pornographic film.

Deep Throat achieved fame unlike any pornographic film in history, becoming the most widely known adult film to reach a general audience. Shot for around $25,000, it earned hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office and became a cultural catchphrase.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI was forced to release 498 pages from its 4,800 page file on Gerard Damiano, the director of the film who died in October. Many parts of the released files have been blanked out, but the seriousness with which the agency treated the investigation is unquestionable.

By a 35-0 vote, the Louisiana Senate passed SB 152, a bill which would make a pattern of distributing sexually explicit material to children a deceptive trade practice under state law.

SB 152 was drafted by disbarred Miami attorney Jack Thompson as a back-door means of enforcing ESRB content ratings. The original SB 152 mirrored Thompson's Utah bill, which was vetoed by Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman  in March. However, bill sponsor Senator A.G. Crowe subsequently gutted Thompson's focus on age ratings from the bill, amending it instead to its new focus on the distribution of sexually explicit material to minors.

Unlike the Utah bill, SB 152 doesn't make reference to video games, advertising, age ratings or any specific product, for that matter.

The basic idea is that any retailer that sell prohibited material to minors aren't allowed to describe themselves as family friendly or similar.

Now that it has been passed by the Senate, the next stop for SB 152 is the Louisiana House of Representatives.

Update: Game Over

20th June 2009. Based on article from gamepolitics.com

Louisiana Senate Bill 152 began life as a clone of Jack Thompson's failed Utah legislation and died quietly this week in the Commerce Committee of the Louisiana House, according to The Old River Road, a blog which tracks Louisiana politics.

Although Crowe's Senate colleagues passed the bill overwhelmingly, House members seemed less impressed. At a hearing earlier this week the bill was diverted to the Commerce Committee.

The US Justice Department and its Obscenity Prosecution Task Force has posted a list of frequently asked questions and answers pertaining to the most recent revisions for 18 U.S.C. § 2257 regulations, which were issued in December.

The 18 U.S.C. § 2257 regulations govern name- and age-verification, record-keeping and labeling requirements on producers of visual depictions of actual human beings engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct.

The Justice Department’s FAQs attempt to define terms including lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area and simulated sexually explicit conduct. The FAQs also include information about which parts of a performer's ID can be redacted, whether records can be kept electronically and the appropriate dating of content.

Adult industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition has announced plans to challenge the revised 2257 regulations. In ongoing litigation against the Justice Department and the 2257 regulations, FSC has asserted that the regulations are burdensome for producers of sexually explicit content and a violation of content producers' First Amendment rights.

Last week’s fatal shooting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the US capital by a man authorities say has deep ties to white supremacist and neo-Nazi organisations has renewed calls by some for Holocaust denial groups to be shut down on popular social networking sites.

Brian Cuban, an attorney in Texas who writes a blog called The Cuban Revolution, is seeking to have groups such as Facebook’s Holohoax and Holocaust: A Series of Lies removed from the site, calling them a hateful form of speech that promotes violence. It’s not a historical theory.

Facebook, for its part, has said the existence of such groups – while repulsive and ignorant – does not violate the site’s terms of service. Those terms disallow hateful and threatening speech, but officials say the Holocaust groups Cuban is seeking to have removed have not crossed that line. In some countries, Holocaust denial is a crime, though not in the US.

Just being offensive or objectionable doesn’t get it taken off Facebook, Barry Schnitt, a Facebook spokesman, told CNN last month:We want it to be a place where people can discuss all kinds of ideas, including controversial ones.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish rights organisation, released a report last month titled Facebook, YouTube: How Social Media Outlets Impact Digital Terrorism and Hate, which said that the extremist use of such sites has grown. It documented a 25% increase in the past year of problematic groups on those sites.

Facebook has taken action in some cases. The site recently disabled the group I Hate Muslims in Oz because it contained an explicit statement of hate. It also removed a Ku Klux Klan group, a blog at CNET.com reported.

It’s silly games with semantics, Cuban said in an interview. Because the site doesn’t say ‘We hate Jews’, and they call it Holocaust denial instead, that does not qualify it as a hate group. It’s semantics. It’s ignorant semantics and it’s naive semantics.

The Holocaust denial groups are relatively small. Holocaust is a Myth listed 64 members on Friday, while Holohoax had 59. A counter-group that has sprung up, United Against Holocaust Denial on Facebook, has grown quickly to 49,000 members.

The Jewish internet Defense Force (JIDF), an online organisation that works to remove material from the internet that supports Islamic terrorism and racial hatred, has launched a letter-writing campaign to 20 companies – including Radio Shack, Sprint, AT&T and Microsoft – that it says advertise on Facebook side-by-side with material which denies the Holocaust. They are asking the companies to pull their ads.

Public transport passengers now may face hefty fines for what Utah Transit Authority (UTA) calls inappropriate use of its free Wi-Fi service.

The UTA Board of Trustees approved an ordinance May 27 which targets people viewing pornography, gambling or gaming Web sites using UTA's Web service. Transit police can issue a $300 fine for the first violation and a $500 fine for repeat offenders.

UTA can impose fines for those visiting naughty Web sites while on the train. When it's in the presence of others it should have a certain amount of respect, one passenger told KSL. There are some people on the train who wouldn't want to be exposed to that type of thing, another said.

The new ordinance does not apply to riders using their own wireless card or viewing images they downloaded before they got on, but another ordinance does. People who violate the disorderly conduct ordinance face a $100 fine.

First Amendment lawyers question the policy, largely over what constitutes pornography.

UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter said, There is some question about the subjectivity of what's appropriate and what's inappropriate. He said the new ordinance allows for passengers to appeal a fine.

A bill in the US to stop libel tourism has been passed by the House Judiciary Committee, the first step to becoming law.

Sponsors of the bill say it has been designed as a way to protect US journalists from libel suits in foreign courts which do not have the same protections for free speech as the US constitution.

Libel tourism is a growing phenomenon, where people travel to the UK to sue for material which would be protected elsewhere.

Congressman Steve Cohen is one of the sponsors of the bill, which aims to prohibit recognition and enforcement of foreign defamation judgments. According to Cohen, who is chairman of the Commercial and Administrative Law Sub-committee, UK libel laws are stifling free speech. He said in a statement: Libel tourism threatens to undermine the principles of free speech because foreign courts often don’t place as difficult a burden on plaintiffs in libel cases.

Press Gazette understands that the bill is expected to come up for a vote in the full House of Representatives on Monday. No amendments will be allowed and the bill will require a two-thirds majority rather than a simple majority in order to be passed. The bill would then need to be approved in the Senate.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the city of Troy, New York and its Public Works Commissioner suppressed free speech by shutting down a controversial video game exhibit in March, 2008.

Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal via his Virtual Jihadi exhibit employed a modded PC game which included a mission to blow up then-President George W. Bush. Bilal said that the exhibit was intended to express his view that US policy in Iraq helped create terrorists.

Bilal was offered space to display Virtual Jihadi at the Sanctuary for Independent Media.

The gallery, however, was suddenly shut down for building code violations by Troy's Public Works Commissioner, Robert Mirch. Mirch, who is named as a defendant in the suit, had earlier led a demonstration protesting the exhibit. He called the suit politically motivated.

The Albany Times-Union commented: City officials cannot selectively enforce building codes to shut down an art exhibition they find distasteful. Mr. Mirch abused his authority to suppress the free speech rights of people he disagree with, an unconstitutional act that must be challenged.

According to the Times-Union report, the NYCLU seeks a court order to block the city from using its building code to infringe on civil rights. The suit also seeks damages on behalf of the non-profit which owns the Sanctuary for Independent Media as well as for the gallery's executive director.

AT&T has dealt another blow to the internet service known as Usenet.

Sometime next month, the American telecom giant will terminate its entire newsgroup service. Please note that on or around July 15, 2009, AT&T will no longer be offering access to the Usenet netnews service, reads a note sent to AT&T and posted on the company's Usenet servers.

Last July, bowing to pressure from grandstanding New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, AT&T eliminated access to all alt.binary newsgroups. As he had done with AOL, Time Warner Cable, Sprint, and Verizon, Cuomo coaxed AT&T into signing an agreement that cut the cord to 88 newsgroups where state investigations had turned up child abuse images

But like many of its ISP brethren, AT&T chose to extend this ostensible porn crackdown beyond those 88 groups. First they censored the entire alt.binary newsgroup architecture, Now they are halting the entire service.

Emerging news stories on the ongoing battle between the state of Minnesota and the online gambling world indicate a victory for online gambling and Internet freedom is near.

The ongoing dispute between Minnesota’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) of the states Department of Public Safety and the online world dates from late April, when the division ordered eleven Internet service providers doing business in the state to block access to 199 different Internet domains associated with online gambling. Several prominent poker sites were among those listed.

However, the order was met with a widespread public outcry and appeared to be based on shaky legal ground, using the 1961 Wire Act as its base. Among the first actions against the order was a lawsuit filed by the Interactive Media and Entertainment Gaming Association (iMEGA), which sought to block enforcement of the order. iMEGA represents several online interests and has been involved in other actions on both the state and federal level.

The Poker Players Alliance have now claimed victory in the battle between Minnesota and the online gambling world, claiming that the state was dropping enforcement action, citing an announcement by Minnesota State Rep. Pat Garofalo, who stated that the matter was concluded after the legal position underlying the issuance of the notices was reconsidered.

Update: Minnesota Withdraws Internet Blocking Instructions

9th June 2009. Based on article from pocketfives.com

In breaking news out of Minnesota, the Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division has sent letters to 11 of the world’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) withdrawing an earlier mandate to block 200 domain names.

Those at risk included Bodog and Full Tilt Poker, which were among a handful of rooms on the list that accept customers from the United States. On Monday, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) also withdrew its civil court case against Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division Director John Willems. In total, a crisis seems to have been averted.

David Carradine, the actor who starred in 1970s television series Kung Fu and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films, was found hanged in a Bangkok hotel room yesterday.
Thai police are investigating the twin theories that the death was either suicide or a sex game gone wrong. Carradine, 72, was found hanging in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck and other parts of his body.

The actor was in Thailand to shoot a film and checked into the luxury Nai Lert Park Hotel, situated next to the British Embassy. He failed to join crew members for dinner on Wednesday night but they did not raise the alarm, believing him to be resting in his suite. A maid discovered his body at 11.30am on Thursday.

Initially, police said they believed Carradine had committed suicide and were not seeking anyone else in connection with the death. There is no trace of fighting in the hotel room and the room was locked from inside. There is no sign of bruising on his body, police official Pirom Janthapirom said. We are investigating from where he got the rope because it does not seem it was from the hotel.

However, there was no suicide note and an unnamed officer claimed the death may have been an attempt at auto-eroticism.

Carradine is survived by his wife, Annie Bierman, and three children. His agent, Chuck Binder, said the news was shocking. The actor was full of life, always wanting to work... a great person, and had been in good spirits of late Binder said.

We will always remember David Carradine for the stature and strength of character that added so much to many of the low budget movies that he starred in.

Update: Thai Rath Wrath

8th June 2009. Based on article from inquisitr.com

The family of the late actor David Carradine are reported to be outraged over a picture of his body published in a Thai newspaper.

The Thai Rath newspaper, a Thai language newspaper ran the picture on its front page, and a larger version inside the paper. The image shows Carradine crouching, although does censor some of the more explicit parts of the shot.

Thai Rath is Thailand's best selling newspaper with a circulation of about a million. It is a tabloid style rag never shying away from lurid pictures of victims of accidents and crimes.

A lawyer for Carradine’s family said that The family is outraged about the release of these photos” and that the family sue for invasion of privacy and emotional distress if the David Carradine death photo is run in a United States publication.

Some 50 publishers, writers and other First Amendment supporters gathered to launch the Free Speech Leadership Council, an advocacy arm of the National Coalition Against Censorship, a non-profit founded in 1974.

Former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman is the council's chair.

Toni Morrison has long experience with censorship. Her novels Beloved, Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye have frequently been threatened with removal from library shelves - and sometimes pulled - because of sexual, racial or violent content.

Morrison said the problem was fear - fear of information, dating back to the book of Genesis and the fatal temptation of the Tree of Knowledge.

Knowledge is bad is the Bible's message, Morrison said: It is sinful. It will corrupt you and you will die. And that fear still floats around in the back of the brain.

Also attending was Judy Blume, whose books, too, often show up on lists of banned works. The author, whose novels include Forever and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, joked about being forbidden as a girl to read John O'Hara's novel of a woman's uncontainable sexual desire, A Rage to Live. She first became aware of the book around age 9, when her mother warned not to look at the book, especially a certain page. The library would not allow Blume to borrow it without written permission. When she finally got her hands on it, Blume found the novel very satisfying.

At the end of event, signed copies were handed out of a new release edited by Morrison, Burn This Book, which compiles essays by Morrison, John Updike, Salman Rushdie and others about writing and its risks and challenges.

Cuba have criticized Microsoft for blocking its Messenger instant messaging service on the island and in other countries under US sanctions, calling it yet another example of Washington's harsh treatment of Havana.

The technology giant recently announced it was disabling the program's availability in Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea to come into compliance with a US ban on transfer of licensed software to embargoed countries.

Messenger had previously been used on the island for a decade without Microsoft interference.

Dharmesh Mehta, director of Windows Live Product Management said Microsoft made the change late last year in connection with the last product release of Windows Live Messenger. Microsoft is one of several major Internet companies that have taken steps aimed at meeting their obligations to not do business with markets on the US sanctions list.

Mehta seemed to lay the blame of this censorship at the door of the US government. He said that Microsoft supports efforts to ensure that the Internet remains a platform for open, diverse and unimpeded content and commerce, and that governments should exercise restraint in regulating the Internet.