Latest indictment marks the third time the DOJ has filed Internet obscenity charges against U.S. residents since mid-May

Grant Gross reports:

A U.S. grand jury in Los Angeles has charged a California man with operating an Internet-based obscenity distribution business and other offenses, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The indictment, returned Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, charges Ira Isaacs, with four counts of using an interactive computer service to sell and distribute obscene films on DVD, two counts of using a common carrier to distribute obscene DVDs and two counts of failing to label sexually explicit DVDs with the name and location of the custodian of records containing age and identification information for performers in sexually explicit films.

Isaacs did business as Stolen Car Films and LA Media, the DOJ said.

Jim B. posts on XPT:

The AP reports that Isaacs’ titles "mentioned animals and euphemisms for sexual acts."

His attorney, Roger Jon Diamond said Isaacs was unfairly targeted by the government.

"There’s no question the materials are disgusting to most people," Diamond said of the films. "The question is whether or not a free society should tolerate consenting adults seeing what they want to see no matter how disgusting the content may be."

He also contend none of the performers in the DVDs were underage.

"There might have been an inadvertent foul-up with respect to labeling," Diamond said. "They’re all adults."

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The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California notes that the case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Kenneth Whitted of the Justice Department’s Obscenity Prosecution Task Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. The Task Force was formed to focus on the prosecution of adult obscenity nationwide. The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Adult Obscenity Squad, a national initiative of the FBI based in the Washington, D.C. Field Office, and agents from the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. The Los Angeles Police Department assisted in the investigation.

King posts: "A quick web search reveals they traffic in a lot of scat and other questionable subject matter."

Jim B. posts: "Scat and donkeys? I may have to pay another visit to XXXChurch. They’re going to love this."

Jeff Steward posts: "The guy is a piece of s—. I caught him selling pirated versions of my Liquid Gold movies a few years ago and made him remove them from his site. He belongs in jail but not for obscenity."

Raw Alex posts on GFY:

The nature of democracy isn’t absolute and unlimited freedom. US law has created a thing called "obscenity" and the courts and such have come down to using a "community standard" test to judge if something is obscene or not.

50 years ago, playboy magazine was all but obscene, and that was the version with just cleavage and legs. Now you get more exposure in a Cosmo magazine. Times change and things move.

Over the last 35 years or so, much of what would have been oscene (including deep throating) has become generally accepted by modern society. As time goes on, more and more becomes acceptable, the public becomes desensitized, and more and more things become mainstream.

A couple of years ago some guy did an interview on CNN wearing a T-shirt that said "GOATSE" on it, they apparently didn’t know what it meant.

At some point, when a line is drawn, everything on THIS side of the line by nature will be considered acceptable, and that would help to make our businesses more legitimate. Shit out, cumshots in, watersports out, anal sex in, etc. Draw a line somewhere, and the risk factors in porn would drop dramatically.

Without some sort of judgement one way or the other, we are all flying blind because nobody knows where the line is.

Imagine they take him to court and they find him not guilty. All of a sudden, everything up to and including scat is no longer obscene. Par-tay!

I would hate to be the test case, but the judgement is important.