Fergie's Tech Blog

California Obscenity, Florida Conviction: Max Hardcore

Kevin Fayle writes on The Register:

A federal jury in Tampa, Florida convicted a pioneer of gross-out "gonzo" porn last week on obscenity charges stemming from the delivery of his movies over the Internet, despite the fact that he lives and works entirely in California.

Paul Little creates porn in Altadena under the names of "Max Hardcore" and "Max Steiner." Unfortunately for him, the company that hosts his websites has servers in Tampa. Federal prosecutors jumped on this fact to prosecute him in the Sunshine State.

The reason for this move has to do with the dynamic between obscenity law and the First Amendment in the US. Speech is generally protected in America, but not all speech gets full First Amendment benefits, and obscene speech can be outlawed entirely.

posted by Fergie @ 6/11/2008 06:22:00 PM