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The Government vs Erotica

2001-09-08 19:11:59+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

I took some time and finished The Government vs. Erotica: The Seige of Adam & Eve[Wiki] by Philip D. Harvey. It's the tale of his struggle with the US DOJ over obscenity prosecution of the Adam & Eve mail order company, from the initial assault on the company in 1986, through attempts to prosecute from as many different jurisdictions and community standards as possible, to, 7 years later, the Adam & Eve[Wiki] folks having to dig up a crime that they could plead guilty to (they eventually found a technical flaw in font size that violated postal regulations) so that the prosecutors could save face and everyone could avoid the additional costs of a trial. Probably nothing in here that Flutterby readers aren't already fairly familiar with, but some of the legal maneuvering is interesting, as is the reminder that it's up to all of us to fight for freedoms, and that the misapplication of law is a time-honored tradition.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture moron Law ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:32:39+00 by: ebradway

They used to be a customer of mine taking checks over the phone. They quit because their return rate was too high.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:32:39+00 by: Dan Lyke

After his tale of how they got started (as a college experiment in mail-order condoms) and the rest of the tone of his writing, I was sorely disappointed to find that their site used pop-unders. I wonder of Good Vibrations has such a high return rate, and if the whole pop-under and similar sleazy marketing trick issue is related to a customer base that wants to rip off merchants.