SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A quick glance at nearly any webmaster bulletin board confirms that a person in search of three opinions need only ask two webmasters a single question. During next week’s San Francisco’s Golden Gateway Hotel-located Cybernet Expo, every webmasters, cam girl, content producer, photographer, writer, and otherwise involved industry insider will have the opportunity to speak their mind, share their opinions, kvetch, brainstorm, and otherwise chew the fat about a variety of issues vital to the health and well-being of commercial erotic productions. Based on feedback and observations by adult professionals, the Free Speech Coalition has selected three topics for intensive roundtable discussion. Attendees are welcome to alert panel members to other subjects they feel should be addressed in the future by the organization and the industry.
During a MovieDollars.com sponsored lunch to be held on Thursday, June 12th from noon – 1:45 pm, participants will tackle the topics of Obscenity, OSHA, and Tube Sites.
“We wanted to give industry professionals an opportunity to have substantive discussions over issues of real importance to them,” FSC executive director Diane Duke explains in a press release. “The roundtable discussions will be facilitated by leaders from throughout our industry,” she promises.
Those fearing a lecture by opinionated blowhards are assured by Duke that once they choose their topic of interest and sit at its table, they “won’t be talked at; they will be encouraged to participate in what we hope to be educational, interactive discussions.”
Facilitating the discussion on obscenity will be Evil Angel publisher and producer, John Stagliano; currently under federal investigation for multiple obscenity counts. Stagliano will discuss the reality of legal risks associated with creating and distributing explicit sexual content and, if the Max Hardcore obscenity case has completed, attorney and FSC board chair, Jeffrey Douglas, will join the confabulation.
Of special importance to the discussion will be different types of content, areas of distribution, the possible consequences of content production, and the likelihood that the concept of obscenity will eventually become outdated.
Content creators working in California will be especially affected by decisions made by that state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) which has lately taken an interest in adult workplace safety, especially as related to “blood-borne pathogens.” Assisting with the conversation will be FSC board member, executive editor for XBiz and news director for Sex.com, Tom Hymes. Joining him will be Michael Fattorosi, managing partner of Fattorosi & Chisvin and AdultBizLaw.com owner.
Together with table participants, Hymes and Fattorosi will ponder whether OSHA has genuine cause for concern or just has it out for the industry, what workplace dangers actually exist and how to appropriately address them, what is involved in “informed consent,” and what kind – if any – regulation should exist, and by whom.
Rounding out the roundtable discussion will be an examination of the infamous “tube sites” offering free – and sometimes pirated content to a public reluctant to open its pocketbooks. FSC board member and adult industry attorney Eric Bernstein and FSC board member and adult industry journalist Theresa “Darklady” Reed will help frame the topics and promote their discussion. Of special interest will be examining perceptions of free content by the industry, what – if anything – makes a tube site acceptable, whether they can become profitable to professionals, and how content producers can continue to make a living while co-existing with them.
