7.28.02
City Council Meeting update

anyway, last tuesday's city council meeting was a wild 6+ hour affair. and the censorship bill was towards the end...where we wanted it...i was hoping they wouldn't get to it...kriss kept trying to table it for the next meeting. no such luck.

so around 1am they got to it. when the city attorney read the proposed law, i couldn't believe my ears. she made a few "minor" changes. first she dropped both the "adult" classification of shows and the 10pm "safe harbor." she also changed the "sexually explicit" label to "indecent"...she rightly pointed out sexually explicit could be "decent" depending on the context, etc. she didn't add that the term "sexually explicit" would have doomed this law in court! when she was asked for the definition of indecent, she recited the 3 prong test of obscenity--must be patently offensive to the average person, AND must pander to prurient interest, AND must have NO redeeming value. [i don't think it is a correct legal definition of indecent...but, hey, i ain't a lawyer...she's supposed to be!]

i let out squeals of delight because i realized she had deballed the law. under the law the producer has to declare whether or not her show is indecent. the "indecent" shows play after midnight. THE REST OF THE SHOWS CAN PLAY ANYTIME. hey, suzy's and my show are for adults....my show very rarely has what i would consider sexually explicit. but our shows are not indecent! in fact, councilmember linda maio gave this as the reason for
changing her vote to NO.

so....under this law, our shows can air anytime day or night! the city
council don't realize this yet!

if you don't declare that your show is indecent, and if somebody complains, you will be hauled before an ill-defined...obviously unconstitutional, committee that reviews the show and decides whether or not the show is indecent. councilmember dona spring pointed out the budget implications of this committee concept. the whole nature of this committee is EXTREMELY vague!

it turns out just 3 people have complained to b-tv about the shows...including one guy who calls every week to complain after watching suzy's show!

kriss did a brillant job of trying to block the vote. but after seeing the mess this law is, i think we are in little danger of being moved to the time ghetto. but it is extremely important to kill this bad law! the next vote is in september.

In Freedom
Frank Moore
fmoore@eroplay.com

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