YNOT – As authorities investigate whether the owners and operators of PornWikiLeaks.com violated federal law by posting adult performers’ personal and confidential medical information in an open online forum, adult industry trade association Free Speech Coalition seeks performers who have been harmed or threatened as a result of their exposure.
According to FSC Executive Director Diane Duke, the organization is “looking into” the legal options available to performers. One performer already is exploring filing a lawsuit.
“Free Speech Coalition stands in opposition to the violations of performer privacy by PornWikiLeaks,” Duke said. “This is not an issue of free speech. It is about violating the privacy of performers. It’s about potential extortion and exposing performers to potential harassment, stalking and other criminal activities.”
It remains unclear where the data displayed on PornWikiLeaks originated, but federal authorities are currently investigating possible breaches of federal privacy law regarding medical information. Inside the adult industry, there are grave concerns about misuse of the 2257 documentation required by federal recordkeeping laws.
“Anonymity is an important part of controversial speech, as the courts have recognized for more than half a century,” said noted First Amendment scholar and attorney Reed Lee, who serves as an FSC board member and chairs the organization’s Government & Legal committee. “Publicly posting the sort of information involved here has an obvious chilling effect on performers and exposes them to known dangers which are extremely serious. Would the website operators have published the NAACP’s membership list in the most difficult days of the civil rights struggle?
“Everyone involved with PornWikiLeaks is playing a most dangerous game,” he added. “They target the performers, and they target free expression itself. The Free Speech Coalition is actively exploring all viable legal responses to the situation and will do anything it can to protect adult performers.”
Industry attorney Corey Silverstein is representing performer Paul Armstrong as he explores possible action against individuals using the PornWikiLeaks website. Silverstein seeks other performers who have been threatened or otherwise harmed after their information appeared on the site.
“While I cannot discuss the specific nature of my clients’ allegations and any action that is being prepared, it is important to note that this is not a simple free speech issue,” Silverstein said. “The individuals running this website are allegedly intentionally and knowingly jeopardizing the safety and privacy of adult performers all over the world while purposely defaming them in the process,” he continued. The website repeatedly refers to adult performers as ‘pornographic whores’ and ‘hookers’ and even talks about specific adult performers ‘degrading the whole family.’ My clients cannot comprehend why the individuals running this website would want to intentionally cause so much potential harm.
“Of course, there is also the issue of how this website acquired the information it publishes and what additional information the website’s operators have obtained,” Silverstein added.
Performers who would like more information or desire to contact Silverstein may do so through the FSC by using a dedicated [email=PWL@freespeechcoalition.com]email address[/email].
