ROB BLACK & co. vs. US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Obscenity case dismissed for film showing rape, killing

Friday, January 21, 2005

 

By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

The Justice Department today lost the first major test case of the federal obscenity laws when a judge in Pittsburgh threw out an indictment of Extreme Associates, a California company that makes films of women being gang-raped, defecated on and having their throats slit.

 

 

U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster granted a motion to dismiss filed by Extreme owners Rob Zicari and Janet Romano, who argued that the obscenity statutes as applied in their case violate the constitutional protections of liberty and privacy.

 

 

Zicari and Romano were indicted in Pittsburgh in 2003 by U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, and the case was being closely watched by the porn industry.

 

 

Lawyers and federal prosecutors were still reading the 45-page opinion this afternoon.

[Slickster 0]

XPW! XPW!

[Guest scratch]

How long till the XPW reunion show?

[Jingus 0]

How long til Messiah loses his other thumb?

[Guest LooneyTune]

How long til Messiah loses his other thumb?

That wasn't called for... did Messiah ever have the thumb surgically attached, or does he wrestle now with a thumbless hand? (does he wrestle period, actually? Haven't heard much about him lately)

[MrRant 0]

Oh. Yay.

[Guest netslob]

How long til Messiah loses his other thumb?

That wasn't called for... did Messiah ever have the thumb surgically attached, or does he wrestle now with a thumbless hand? (does he wrestle period, actually? Haven't heard much about him lately)

yep, he wrestles thumb-less and still for CZW, i think.

[Jingus 0]

Man, I feel like shit now for making that joke, I really shouldn't have done that. The moral of today's story is: NEVER fuck Rob Black's wife, even if she is a porn star.

[Placebo Effect 0]

YES!!!!!

 

Thank God. The First Amendment will continue to be protected. There's a line Black said. Something to the extent of, "I'm the test case. If you can't prosecute someone for making a movie where a girl blows a guy, and then he stabs her, how can you prosecute consentual wife and husband condom sex?"

 

I actually did a speech about this two weeks ago when I had to do a 10 day Public Speaking class for college.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

How long till the XPW reunion show?

Not happening. Rob hates wrestling. The closest we'll get to that is Kevin Kleinrock's SCCW (SoCalCW.com).

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Sorry to ask, but what happened to Messiah's thumb? Guess I missed that one.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

While he was in LA at his apartment, two men broke in and tried to sever his thumb and his penis from his body. Messiah fought them off after half of his thumb was gone, penis still intact, and ran them out of his apartment. It is heavily believed by everybody that Rob Black sent the two men, since Black was the only man in LA that Messiah had much beef with (due to Black believing that Messiah slept with Lizzy Borden, Black's wife).

[LucharesuFan619 0]

AVN.com

 

Extreme Associates Case Dismissed; Obscenity Laws Ruled Unconstitutional

By: Jared Rutter

Posted: 10:57 am PST 1-21-2005

 

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - In a decision that is bound to have enormous impact on the Adult entertainment industry, obscenity charges against producer Rob Black and his wife Lizzy Borden of Extreme Associates were thrown out of court today by a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

 

-advertisement-

“I’m still speechless,” Black told AVN.com. “All ten counts against us were dismissed.” He said that U.S. District Court Judge Gary Lancaster made the dismissal on the grounds that obscenity laws are unconstitutional.

 

“We find that the federal obscenity statutes place a burden on the exercise of the fundamental rights of liberty, privacy and speech,” wrote Judge Lancaster in his opinion (printed in full below).

 

“I now have made fucking history,” said the jubilant Black.

 

The Extreme Associates case was the first federal obscenity prosecution against a video manufacturer in over a decade.

 

“It makes everything perfect,” he added. “The business has been going great and all of a sudden my lawyer calls up and said I won.”

 

“This is the greatest news I’ve ever had,” Black said.

 

Black’s laywer, H. Louis Sirkin, told AVN.com, “It’s very gratifying to have been a part of what I think is a historic landmark decision. Even though it’s on the first level, hopefully this will have a catalyst effect across the country on any federal obscenity cases that are currently pending.”

 

Sirkin said it shows the importance of the Bill of Rights, not just the right to free speech but the right to substantive due process. “We have a liberty interest to find sexual entertainment and to find media material that might be stimulating, and we have a right to view that, for whatever purposes we want to use it for,” he said.

 

Noting that the judge based his decision on the Supreme Court’s Lawrence vs. Texas ruling last year, which struck down a Texas sodomy statute, Sirkin said, “This court has adopted the language of what Justice Scalia had said in his dissenting opinion in Lawrence.” Scalia wrote in part that the decision “called into question” laws against obscenity and various other offenses.

 

In a statement from the Justice Department, U. S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said, “We are very disappointed by the court’s decision to dismiss the indictment in U.S. v. Extreme Associates, et al. As we set forth in the pleadings we filed in the case, we continue to believe that the federal obscenity statutes are valid and constitutional, including as applied in this case.

 

“We are reviewing the ruling and examining our options, which could include an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.”

 

Internet attorney Lawrence G. Walters, a partner in the firm of Weston, Garrou & DeWitt, called the decision “a tremendous victory for Rob Black, for the Adult industry, and for the First Amendment.”

 

He told AVN.com that before the Supreme Court’s Lawrence v. Texas ruling, government had been able to show it had a “compelling interest” in restricting sexual activities. But Lawrence v. Texas said in effect that the government can no longer use “compelling interest” as a rationale for suppressing what adults many do in private.

 

The Black ruling extends this concept to Adult entertainment. In effect, Walters said, “you should be able to see what you’re able to do.”

 

Quoting once again from Judge Lancaster’s opinion: “After Lawrence, the government can no longer rely on the advancement of a moral code, i.e., preventing consenting adults from entertaining lewd or lascivious thoughts, as a legitimate, let alone a compelling state interest.”

 

Walters cautioned that since the case ended in a dismissal, not an acquittal, the government will likely appeal. “You can’t count your chickens too soon,” he said. “But we must have faith that the appellate courts will do the right thing.”

 

Well-known First Amendment attorney Paul Cambria told AVN.com, “I applaud this judge for the decision and, furthermore, his standing up and being counted.”

 

Cambria compared the case to his own successful fight on behalf of Al Goldstein in the 1970s. Then, he said, the government chose not to appeal, stating that by appealing it elevates the case to a higher level, which means that it will have a broader scope.

 

This means, he said, that if it is appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, the only aspect of X-rated films that will be illegal will be child porn. “If this case is elevated through a higher court and is dismissed, on up to the Supreme Court and gets dismissed, that will change everything. Everybody will get into the business of making Adult entertainment,” he said.

 

Greg Piccionelli, an Internet and patent attorney with the Los Angeles-based law firm Piccionelli & Sarno, told AVN.com, "This is a banner day for the First Amendment, and the equivalent of Pearl Harbor for the Religious Right.

 

“If the ruling is appealed and ultimately upheld – and I can say with absolute certitude that [this ruling] will be on the front burner for every conservative and religious right-winger in the country – it means that privacy law has evolved. It will alter what is permissible for the government to do, and it will obliterate the notion that community standards trump personal privacy."

 

Regarding an appeal, Sirkin said, “I’m certain the government will explore it. They don’t take losses well. If they appeal it we’re prepared to defend our position. We’ll just take it a step at a time, but it’s a beginning, and it’s a very important beginning.”

 

Asked about the decision’s effect on new federal obscenity indictments, Sirkin said, “I should think it would make [the Justice Department] start to think again about the prosecutions. I think this is a momentum-shifting event. It will hopefully slow them down and cause them to rethink the positions that they’re taking.”

 

Perhaps most importantly, he said, the adult industry “can really feel protected that they are making available to the public that which the public is entitled to receive.”

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Questions

 

What are chances of XPW running shows and/or Black promoting some crazy porn acts online with animals or girls?

[nl5xsk1 0]

This means, he said, that if it is appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, the only aspect of X-rated films that will be illegal will be child porn.

Like UTSU asked, does that mean bestiality will be available at my local porn stores soon?

[Placebo Effect 0]

Questions

 

What are chances of XPW running shows and/or Black promoting some crazy porn acts online with animals or girls?

"You want to know what's obscene to me? A child getting fucked or a dog." - Black

 

Children and animals are the two things Black has always said he'll never touch.

 

XPW will never run again, and ExtremeAssociates.com (NWS) will always be there for crazy porn acts if you want to pay for it.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Questions

 

What are chances of XPW running shows and/or Black promoting some crazy porn acts online with animals or girls?

Part 1: very, very slim; it would have to be under XEG's banner, and they have no plans that I know of to run XPW shows

Part 2a: animals - not very good

Part 2b: girls - absolutely 110% certain

[Guest sek69]

Questions

 

What are chances of XPW running shows and/or Black promoting some crazy porn acts online with animals or girls?

"You want to know what's obscene to me? A child getting fucked or a dog." - Black

 

Children and animals are the two things Black has always said he'll never touch.

 

XPW will never run again, and ExtremeAssociates.com (NWS) will always be there for crazy porn acts if you want to pay for it.

Wasn't Rob Black the guy who was going to kill puppies on his website and made that guy who wrote at 411mania freak the fuck out and try to get him arrested?

[Placebo Effect 0]

Questions

 

What are chances of XPW running shows and/or Black promoting some crazy porn acts online with animals or girls?

"You want to know what's obscene to me? A child getting fucked or a dog." - Black

 

Children and animals are the two things Black has always said he'll never touch.

 

XPW will never run again, and ExtremeAssociates.com (NWS) will always be there for crazy porn acts if you want to pay for it.

Wasn't Rob Black the guy who was going to kill puppies on his website and made that guy who wrote at 411mania freak the fuck out and try to get him arrested?

Yep. It was all a publicity stunt, and Jay freaked out.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

There was never any intent whatsoever to harm the puppy. It was all a publicity stunt like Placebo Effect said, although perhaps the most tasteless publicity stunt I've ever seen.

[Guest sek69]

There was never any intent whatsoever to harm the puppy. It was all a publicity stunt like Placebo Effect said, although perhaps the most tasteless publicity stunt I've ever seen.

When people do stuff like that for publicity, it makes you wonder what they expected to happen...I mean, shit, I wouldn't even joke about something like that.

[bob_barron 0]

Rob Black was on Nightline tonight talking about the case

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Really? What'd he say? Nightline did a special on August 27, 2003 where they interviewed him about the case, also.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Video message from Rob:

 

http://extreme-2.com/e2/012405.htm

 

He has some pretty bad words to say about the XPW experience.

 

Pic of him from last night's Nightline with Ted Koppel (which he was featured on the 8/27/03 edition of, when they first covered the indictment):

 

http://socaltomw.home.comcast.net/pics/rb03.jpg

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Nightline report from last night - http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Business/s...d=433956&page=1

[Placebo Effect 0]

I didn't see a video link on the Extreme Associates page. Can you link me or point out where it is?

[LucharesuFan619 0]

I didn't see a video link on the Extreme Associates page.  Can you link me or point out where it is?

http://extreme-2.com/e2/012405.htm

 

It's a streaming file. It should play after loading.

 

Or you can download it to your hard drive: http://extreme-2.com/e2/notguilty/notguilty.WMV

 

Like him or not, Rob is one funny mo'fo.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

UPDATE...

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...ity_appeal_4%22

 

Gonzales Seeks to Reinstate Obscenity Case

 

Wed Feb 16, 6:27 PM ET

 

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer

 

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Wednesday it would seek to reinstate an indictment against a California pornography company that was charged with violating federal obscenity laws.

 

Billed as the government's first big obscenity case in a decade, the 10-count indictment against Extreme Associates Inc. and its owners, Robert Zicari, and his wife, Janet Romano, both of Northridge, Calif., was dismissed last month by U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster of Pittsburgh.

 

Lancaster ruled prosecutors overstepped their bounds while trying to block the company's hard-core movies from children and from adults who did not want to see such material.

 

The Justice Department (news - web sites) said it will appeal the ruling to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) in Philadelphia. While acknowledging the importance of the constitutional guarantee of free speech, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said selling or distributing obscene materials does not fall within First Amendment protections.

 

"The Department of Justice (news - web sites) remains strongly committed to the investigation and prosecution of adult obscenity cases," said Gonzales, who pledged during his confirmation hearing to pursue obscenity cases.

 

If allowed to stand, Lancaster's ruling would undermine obscenity laws as well as other statutes based on shared views of public morality, including laws against prostitution, bestiality and bigamy, the department said in a statement.

 

Zicari said he was not surprised by the decision to appeal. "They touted my case for almost a year and a half about this being an important step in kind of stamping out the adult product as we know it," he said in a telephone interview. "You'd think our government has a lot more things to worry about with the war in Iraq (news - web sites)."

 

Prosecutors charged Zacari and Romano and their company with distributing videos to Pittsburgh through the mail and over the Internet. Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, has said the case was not about banning all sexually explicit materials, just reining in obscenity. Extreme Associates' productions depict rape and murder, Buchanan said.

 

When she announced the indictment in August 2003, Buchanan said the lack of enforcement of obscenity laws during the mid- to late-1990s "led to a proliferation of obscenity throughout the United States."

 

In his opinion, Lancaster said the company can market and distribute its materials because people have a right to view them in the privacy of their own homes.

 

Lancaster relied in part on the Supreme Court's June 2003 ruling that struck down Texas' ban on gay sex, which it called an unconstitutional violation of privacy.

[Placebo Effect 0]

God damn it. I saw it coming, but I was always hoping they'd give up.