In the last few years, the Federal Government has IMO embarked on a campaign of financial terrorism against makers of adult movies. The list is long and growing of those who have been hauled into court, and forced to spend millions in their defense for simply showing people having sex.These are not kiddie porn deviants, but those showing consenting adults engaged in common sexual practices.

The Feds are smart though. Originally, obscenity prosecutions after the Meese Report ("Attorney General's Commission On Pornography: Final Report; June, 1986) were handled by the National Obscenity Enforcement Unit at the Department of Justice. When the public and legislators balked at the expenses racked up by the Unit, DOJ changed the name to Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. Opposition quickly was silenced as no legislator wanted to appear to support child pornography. However, the Section's purpose remained the same: to eliminate First Amendment Rights to view pornography. Unable to stamp it out by prosecuting small time vendors (adult bookstores, etc.) and the viewing public, the Section refocused on the makers of porn. They felt it was easier to eliminate porn at the manufacturing level than at the retail level.

The initial government spearhead was successful. Paul Little (aka as Max Hardcore) got 46 months in a minimum security prison because someone in Florida resold European videos he had produced after he told them they were not to be sold in the US. The offending material did not feature children. The objection was to urination scenes where the actor/actress showed pleasure from the urination. The Government argued you could show them pissing, but not enjoying it; huh?

The Government also succeeded in putting Rob Black and Lizzy Borden of Extreme Associates in jail for a 10 month sentence for what they termed obscene material. Again, the material involved consenting adults engaged in common sexual practices. Several other producers (including JM Productions, Evil Angel, and Ira Isaacs) were targeted by the Federal Government. Lately, the tide has been turning as the Government spent millions in prosecuting Evil Angel founder John Staglino and lost after a 2-year battle. Of course, Staglino was nearly financially ruined by the costs of his defense.

Recently, Ira Isaacs has been the focal point of government legal action for making "scat" movies. Ira defends himself as a shock artist, not a pornographer. However, the Judge in the latest case barred him from claiming to be an artist. I say latest case because the Government had already tried and lost the case in a mistrial two years before the latest trial. The mistrial was declared when it was revealed that the Judge in the case maintained a sexually explicit website for others. Normally, once a jury is selected and seated and the trial begins; a defendant is protected by the notion of "double jeopardy" from a second trial on the same charges. However, you need to rely on the DOJ to defend your rights against "double jeopardy" and when they are the ones suing you, you are out of luck!

As with the Max Harcore and Extreme Associates cases, the principal penalty the DOJ inflicted on the defendants was financial rather than personal freedom. While Ira Isaacs has again beat the charges against him, he is now facing bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the DOJ is contemplating a third trial on the same charges. Since Ira will be hard pressed to pay for a defense team, it is IMO likely that the Government will win. The millions wasted in this senseless travesty of justice at a time when the Government is telling people it can not support our Schools and that Medicare and Social Security are in danger is an example of the dangers to our personal liberties by an overbearing bureaucracy that thinks it knows what is best for you.

While many of these cases started under the Bush administration, the Obama administration has done nothing to curtail the abuses by the DOJ. Republican or Democrat, the Government is not concerned with your personal liberties. Demand of your local Congressional representative that they live up to their oath to defend the Constitution of the United States from enemies, both foreign and domestic; even when that enemy is our own Government.

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Here is a link to a FOX news report from John Stossel entitled "Illegal Everything". While it does not deal with porn, it touches on many of the same things regarding Government's rampant disregard for individual freedoms in their quest for The American Ideal (as they see it).
John Stossel's Illegal Everything - YouTube

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As if everything in the world is in such good shape they have nothing else to worry about than people watching porn....

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UPDATE - On Friday, 04/27/2012, Ira Isaacs was convicted of obscenity in the third trial in Los Angles. The attached article indicates that beastiality was involved, something that was not included in previous articles on this trial or previous court documents. I question this inclusion in the charges until I review the Court documents.
Adult film producer convicted in obscenity trial - Road Runner

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Beastiality?

That does seem hard to believe that any large porn producer would do anything related to that...

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