Judge Rules 'Girls Gone Wild' Is Not Porn

Associated Press ^ | Mar. 09, 2004 | AP

[Redcloak]

Bill O'Reilly is probably going to wet himself in outrage over this one...

I normally don't watch O'Reilly, but I would tune in for that!

[biblewonk]

Everyone has a different definition of porn. For me porn is anything that turns me on, which is just about anything. As long as it's straight.

[dead]

I've never seen GGW, but I thought it wasn't porn. Just nudity.

So I guess the underage girl thing isn't "porn" but it should obviously still be illegal in the "corrupting a minor" sense (though I have a feeling these girls were pretty solidly corrupted before GGW found them.)

They're still minors and a grown man should go to jail for getting involved in this sort of behavior with them.

Sixteen will get you twenty. Or should anyway.

[steve-b]

Florida's child pornography law makes the depiction of "sexual conduct" illegal and defines that term to include physical contact. There was no physical contact in the video.

Well, that settles that, unless you believe that judges ought to legislate from the bench.

[Teacher317]

Great! Now I can show it in class!

[Teacher317]

(Do I really need to put the sarcasm tag?)

[unspun]

Everyone has a different definition of porn. For me porn is anything that turns me on, which is just about anything. As long as it's straight.

Right, pretty much the same with me. Seems to me there is much ground to be gained here, as to defninitions of a. public, and b. child, and c. commercial, and, d. utterly unacceptable porn, which communities and state legislatures could use (also federal government for Internet, etc.). The same with verbal, etc. decency standards.

Difficult definitions should still be made, don't you think? They don't have to be utterly strict, they just have to be there. Know what? Those definitions are probably already out there, and being used. It's not quite the kind of thing that gets trumped up by mass media, though.

"Industry people" (whatever the industry) like to preserve the "right to police ourselves." No wonder that so many talk hosts, columnists, and paid talking heads are against regulation of the media - a no-brainer. Then of course, they like to avoid policing themselves. So, that's what checks and balances are for.

[Clean_Sweep]

LOL, your wife probably gets out of shape if you go to the mall and turn your head.

[WOSG]

ROFL!

It's funny coincidence but I used the phrase "Courts Gone Wild" here in an only semi-related matter of judicial imperialism ...

http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_freedomstruth_archive.html#107864010244043160

[freedomluvr1778]

The ruling certainly seems to state that it's legal. Not only is it legal to tape them flashing their breasts, it's apparently legal to knowingly seek out underage girls to get them to flash their breasts for pornography (because that's what the GGW film crew was accused of doing). This is insane.

Actually, this article doesn't go into all the details about the charges and the case. Legally, its not pornography under Florida law. The big deal was that a few girls were underage. However, they produced fake ID's and presented themselves as "of age". Now, unless a girl testifies in court she was explicitly told to lie about her age, then they have no case, legally. PERSONALLY, I think you could argue that GGW didn't take the best precautions to ensure the girls were of age, but apparently the court didn't see it that way. Personally, again, I doubt the producer cared if they were 16 or 22, but I can't prove that.

In addition, there are more charges concerning public nudity and enciting public nudity. The penalies aren't very stiff, though.

[biblewonk]

I think the cat is out of the bag whan you have legal porn and strip clubs and even prostitution for all practical purposes. We all know, myself included, mens appetites for such things. The imaginary line between 17.9 and 18 is laughable. Girls were married at 14 not too long ago right here in rivercity and now we're suppose to have a filter that kicks in at 18 years old. The hard decision to make is to de-legitimize the whole sex industry.

[BibChr]

!

[freedomluvr1778]

So, it's okay to sell videos of underage girls in various stages of undress?

The key is "knowingly" sell. If they lie, and present fake documentation, then it makes it hard for you to be prosecuted.

A good example is Tracy Lords. She was 16 and 17 when she did all but one of her porn films. She had lied, and had fake documents. Although every "actor" was scared to death at first, nobody was ever charged with stat rape, child abuse or child porn. The videos were ordered to be destroyed. Now, possession of one today is illegal, but the participants didn't go to prison because there was no way they could have known she wasn't of age.

I think those producers had a better case than the GGW producers, but apparently the court in Florida doesn't think GGW should be liable.

[Cooter]

The penalies aren't very stiff, though.

Pun intended?

[nobody_knows]

"During Spring Break in Panama City Beach (where I am...and it's S.B. now) you will see almost as much exposed 'skin' on Front Beach Road as you'd ever expect to see in that movie. The traffic moves at a pace slower than walking and the female occupants of the vehicles expose themselves for beads. Hey, they claim the settlers bought Manhattan with beads, so things haven't really changed that much."

Got pictures?

[discostu]

If all pictures of naked kids were illegal then everyone's mother would be in jail. The problem the law has always had with porn is defining with words something that doesn't lend itself to words. Where is the line between the ever popular naked baby on a rug and kiddy porn? We all know it instinctively but putting into words, words that can get people thrown in jail for a very long time, is difficult, nearly impossible.

[Slicksadick]

You can run it backwards for class and call it "Bad Girls Learn Their Lesson"

[<1/1,000,000th%]

A videotape of an underage girl exposing her breasts is not child pornography, a judge decided...

It's the Super Bowl half-time show.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Anyone see "Curb Your Enthusiasm" last week?

Of course I did, I am a survivor.