HAMILTON, OH – The Cincinnati-based anti-porn activist group Citizens for Community Values has initiated another phase of its crusade to eliminate sexually-oriented business and erotic materials from Butler County, Ohio, sending out letters to 6,000 Butler County households in the past week, according to various Ohio media sources.“This campaign is about reclaiming Butler County for the family,” said CCV President Phil Burress.
According to the Hamilton -based Journal News, local residents are encouraged to join the CCV in its campaign and to boycott stores that sell “adult materials,” as well as hotels that offer adult videos to guests on a video-on-demand basis.
Burress, who in an article posted to the CCV website argues that video-on-demand companies On Command and LodgeNet should be prosecuted for distribution of obscene materials for offering pay-per-view porn in hotel rooms, says that his groups’ effort in Butler County isn’t pushing for the involvement of law enforcement – yet.
“Right now we’re focusing on community education efforts,” Phil Burress said. “We’re not focusing on law enforcement issues just yet. While our focus right now is simply education, our next phase will involve directly targeting hotels.”
Burress said that since the CCV formally announced its local campaign at a town meeting held at a local church last month, the group has received many inquiries from residents looking to lend a hand in the anti-porn campaign.
“What’s been the most surprising to those we’ve heard from is the fact that they had no idea we had so many hotels distributing pornographic materials,” Burress said.
The citizens contacted by CCV might not have any idea how many hotels are “distributing pornographic materials” even after checking the list of “clean” hotels.
On cleanhotels.com, a website endorsed by the CCV and which touts itself as a “network of lodging facilities that do not offer in-room, ‘adult’, pay-per-view movies,” there is a disclaimer that makes it clear that the lodging facilities listed may not be entirely free of porn.
“All lodging properties listed on this website may or may NOT be free of all forms of adult pornography, adult material and/or adult pay-per-view pornography,” states the liability disclaimer on cleanhotels.com.
The cleanhotels.com disclaimer also states “Cleanhotels.com lodging properties offering premium television channels such as HBO, Cinemax, Movie Channel, Showtime and similar channels broadcasting adult-related material (R Rated Adult Movies) does NOT qualify as adult pay-per-view pornography.”
The CCV is engaged in an ongoing campaign to pressure hotels to drop pay-per-view porn from their in-room video on demand services. Burress has previously reported contacting the chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section within the U.S. Department of Justice, requesting an investigation of On Command and other VOD services for “interstate transportation of obscenity” under federal obscenity laws.
“Former federal prosecutors tell me that On Command and LodgeNet could be and should be prosecuted by the Justice Department anytime and that all profits and interests in the enterprise could be lost,” Burress claims in his “It’s not a privacy issue!” article posted to the CCV website.
Burress contends that under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) ACT, federal prosecutors could charge such corporations with racketeering, using obscenity violations as the predicate felony, and seize their corporate assets as proceeds of their offenses.
According to Burress, such prosecutions would constitute de facto censorship, or a violation of free speech protections afforded under the First Amendment, but simply a restriction of the distribution of materials held to be obscene under federal law.
Burress writes that his group’s “first and preferred course of action” is to “encourage corporations to institute responsible policies that place respect and concern for the dignity of men, women, children and families above even their responsibility to bolster their bottom line.”
“Until that happens,” writes Burress, “‘we the people’ will have to exercise our free speech First Amendment rights and demand that state and federal laws be enforced.”
“The fact is – this is a distribution issue,” Burress concludes, “It’s not a privacy issue.”
The CCV website is located at http://www.ccv.org and the full text of Mr. Burress’ “It’s not a privacy issue!” article is available at: http://www.ccv.org/images/Its_not_a_privacy_issue.pdf
