JM Productions, its owner, Jeff Steward, and a distributor, Five Star Video, were slapped with a seven-count obscenity indictment on May 23 for “knowingly” transporting DVDs or digital content judged to be obscene to an area of the country, Northern Virginia, that has not been traditionally porn-restrictive.
The videos were two Gag Factors, an American Bukkake, and a Filthy Things.
Before porn could be delivered digitally, via web streaming, download, and VOD, companies needed to be aware of interstate restrictions and not send certain content to certain places.
One DVD clearinghouse notes “a history of obscenity prosecutions” in various locations and will not send material to zip codes in places like northern Florida, several cities in Texas, Cincinnati, and the whole of Utah. But Northern Virginia is not on that list.
“I have seen counties added to the Do Not Send list, but I haven’t seen any come off,” a representative of another adult DVD retailer (and a Five Star competitor), said.
The rep noted that Adult DVD Empire, which was the unnamed distributor in Extreme’s indictment a few years ago and is considered by many to be the most cautious adult e-tailer, did not have Northern Virginia on its Do Not Send list, either.
Various companies have thousands of zip codes they will not ship to but, similar to Adam & Eve‘s practice, the zips are not publicized, so consumers would only be told at the point of purchase or by a customer service representative that their area was off limits.
Northern Virginia was not on Five Star’s radar, either, despite the “knowingly” verbiage in the indictment.
“My suspicion is that the Feds chose a place that hadn’t had an obscenity prosecution previously,” the competitor’s employee said. “so no one would be blocking it.”
I am reminded of Mark Twain’s book “Life on the Mississippi“, which talks about the challenges faced by riverboat captains. The mud deposits on the riverbottom shifted so rapidly that the waterway was different each day.
“The terrain does seem to change constantly and no one really knows the rules – because, in reality, there are none,” she added.
I talked with a JM employee who, naturally, was not at liberty to say too much.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
“There’s nothing bad happening here,” he said.
That reminded me of another high school book, “The Diary of Anne Frank”:
Anne’s sister, Margot, died of typhus at the end of February (or the beginning of March), after having been critically ill and in a coma for days. Anne was already sick at the time, and she was not informed about her sister’s death. After a few days, however, Anne sensed what had happened, and soon afterward, she herself died, peacefully, feeling that nothing bad was happening to her, shortly before the camp was liberated by the Allies.
Who are the Allies?
See also: JM Productions Indicted on Federal Obscenity Chgarges (AVN), JM Productions
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