Just about twenty years ago, in the wake of the passage of the Communications Decency Act, I began researching what would become my first mainstream book: Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age. It was published by Routledge (now part of Taylor & Francis) in 2000 and remains one of the only…
A 38-year-old Texas middle school teacher is on administrative leave after being outed as an adult film performer in the early 2000s. Until November 29, Resa Woodward taught science at the Young Woman’s STEAM Academy at Balch Springs Middle School, which is part of the Dallas Independent School District. She reportedly has been a teacher…
2017-01-20 Digital Technology and Child Pornography from Frederick Lane A CLE presentation delivered to the office of the Federal Public Defenders in Knoxville, TN on January 20, 2017. If you are interested in discussing a presentation or professional development program for your organization on this topic, please contact me for information regarding my rates and…
North Carolina, I’m looking at you. Ten months after the state made national headlines for charging a 16-year-old high school quarterback and his 15-year-old girlfriend with two felonies each for exchanging nude cell phone photos, state officials have leveled four felony counts against a 16-year-old boy for disseminating obscenity (i.e., photos of his penis). At…
2016-06-21 Cybertraps for Librarians from Frederick Lane A presentation delivered via GoToMeeting on June 21, 2016 to the “Intellectual Freedom and Censorship” class at Simmons College, Boston, MA. Feedback from Dr. Laura Saunders, Assistant Professor at the Simmons School of Library and Information Science: Thank you for a fantastic lecture on the history of decency…
The annual conference of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) is being held in Washington, DC this week, and as usual, it is has been an energizing and thought-provoking experience. FOSI Founder and CEO Steven Balkam and his staff do a terrific job of putting together a compelling slate of presentations on some of the…
Japanese electronics manufacturing firm Sony made official a marketplace decision rendered nearly thirty years ago: By March 2016 (if not sooner), Sony will stop manufacturing all Betamax video cassettes. The news marks the end of a 40-year run for a video-recording format once hailed as a market leader in picture quality (so much so, in…
I had the pleasure of speaking this morning to students at the Simmons College School of Library and Information Services at the invitation of Assistant Professor Laura Saunders, who is teaching a summer course entitled “Intellectual Freedom and Censorship.” In her syllabus, Dr. Saunders describes the class as follows: This course provides students with in-depth…
From 1873 to his death in 1915, Anthony Comstock was one of the most powerful cultural arbiters in the United States. As Special Agent for the United States Postal Services and Secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Comstock was charged with enforcing anti-obscenity and anti-indency laws for which he lobbied…
