http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/porno030828.html

Politics of Porn
Justice Department Launches Long-Anticipated War on Obscenity
The federal government is launching its first major pornography
prosecution in more than a decade.

By Jake Tapper


Aug.  28— Rob Zicari and his fiancée, Janet Romano, are facing the first
major federal prosecution for obscenity in more than a decade.  They
face 10 counts relating to the production and distribution by mail of
obscene materials, and each could get 50 years in prison and a fine of
up to $2.5 million.

"We're facing more time than the guy that they just arrested that was
trying to sell the surface-to-air missile," said Zicari.

On April 8, law enforcement seized five movies produced by Zicari's
California-based company, Extreme Associates, which bills itself as "The
Hardest Hard Core on the Web."

One of the confiscated movies, Forced Entry, features three graphic
scenes of women being spat upon, raped and murdered.  Extreme Teens #24
has adult women dressed up and acting like little girls in various
hard-core pornographic scenes.  We can't even tell you the title of one
of the films.

‘There’s Nothing Wrong With What We Do’

Most Americans would probably find the content of the films disgusting.
Zicari doesn't disagree — but he says to each his own.

"There's nothing wrong with what we do," said Zicari.  "[W]e're not drug
dealers or murderers, you know.  We make movies.  That's it."

But for the Bush administration, that's enough.

"Obscenities have always been a priority of the attorney general," said
Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania.  "[A]nd he
has asked each U.S. attorney to make that our priority as well."

Buchanan is the lead prosecutor on the case against Zacari.  So jurors
in Pittsburgh will have to decide if Zicari's movies fit the legal
definition of obscenity.

"The material depicted in the videotapes produced by Extreme Associates
is extremely vile, degrading and extremely offensive to women," Buchanan
said.

The nature of Extreme Associates' movies makes it an ideal target for
Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department's opening salvo in
its long-anticipated war on obscenity.

Ashcroft had planned on launching the anti-obscenity initiative back in
2001, but was sidetracked by the 9/11 terror attacks.  Now the issue is
once again a priority for the Justice Department.

"I can tell you that as long as I'm chief of the section, the section
will work very hard to prosecute obscenity cases along with child
pornography, another important focus for us," said Andrew Oosterbaan,
chief of the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section.

"This is about a priority for the country.  This is something the
country wants prosecuted and therefore we're prosecuting it."

Hard to Watch = Difficult to Defend

The Justice Department has chosen its target wisely.  Zicari's films are
difficult to watch — which may make them difficult to defend.

To meet the legal definition of obscenity, a film has to depict sex in
an offensive and prurient fashion with no artistic value.  It is this
subjectivity that worries some in the industry.

Paul Fishbein, president of Adult Video News, a trade journal for the
adult entertainment industry, is well aware of the conflict presented by
the films of Extreme Associates.  "They're horrible, unwatchable,
disgusting, aberrant movies that I'd have to vote were not obscenity
because the First Amendment is pure and has to remain pure," he said.

"The funny thing about my business is I don't force it on anybody," said
Zicari.  "The only people that are going to be forced to watch my movies
are the 12 people that sit on that jury."

The Bush administration says that overall, adult films today are far
more offensive than ever before.  It places much of the blame with the
Clinton administration for, it claims, not making obscenity prosecutions
a priority.

People inside the multibillion-dollar porn industry say community
standards have become more accepting in recent years, pointing to the
success of Boogie Nights, a drama about 1970s adult filmmakers, several
years ago.

Pleasing the Christian Right

Many anti-obscenity activists are members of the Christian right, a
group that generally admires Ashcroft and is a key constituency in
President Bush's re-election campaign.

Zicari vows that he'll fight this to the end.  But it's unlikely that
his prosecution will be the last.

"The current prosecution of Extreme Associates should put the
pornography industry on notice that the U.S.  Department of Justice is
vigorously enforcing the federal obscenity laws," said Buchanan.

Zicari and Romano were arraigned Wednesday in Pittsburgh.  Both pleaded
not guilty.