LEGAL BRIEFS

A while back, I was emailing back and forth with Judd. He discovered that I live in Canada. Never one to pass up opportunities to find people to write articles, he asked if I would be willing to do one from a distinctly Canadian perspective.LEGAL BRIEFS

A while back, I was emailing back and forth with Judd. He discovered that I live in Canada. Never one to pass up opportunities to find people to write articles, he asked if I would be willing to do one from a distinctly Canadian perspective. The subject he proposed was: “The difference between the Canadian and American governments stance and laws concerning porn.”

As I told him, that is a loaded subject, so I will try to keep this tightly focused and not go off on the many directions that this subject leads to. What I will present here today are my personal opinions and views as seen from Onedeadhorsetown, central Canada. I hope you will find them enlightening, humorous and hopefully controversial.

So, just what are the differences between the Canadian and American governmental attitudes towards Internet Adult Entertainment?

As far as Canada is concerned, it is quite simple. More than 25 years ago the late Pierre Eliott Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, commented (and I paraphrase), “The State has no business in the bedrooms of the people.” This simple statement was, and continues to be, the guiding force in the development of Canadian law and attitudes pertaining to Adult Entertainment, Gay/Lesbian rights and sex in general. Canadian adults can read, listen to, watch or do anything we want, with whomever we want, wherever we want, as long as it is in private. This has been enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is attached to the Constitution, if not in actual words then at least in spirit.

And it isn’t restricted to just our home. It can be in a car, a boat, a motorhome, a hotel room – anywhere – as long as it is not in public view and is between consenting adults. Neither does it matter what medium brings the Adult Entertainment to you – magazines, books, film, video, cable, the Internet or an escort delivered to your door.

The current Canadian Federal Government has taken two stances that affect the online Internet Adult Entertainment business. One, it has stated that it will have a hands-off approach to the content available to Canadians via the World Wide Web. Two, it has passed very detailed and strongly-worded law concerning the manufacture and distribution of child pornography via the internet. What this means is with regards to the first scenario, the Canadian government recognizes that it would be powerless in trying to restrict what content could be viewed on the World Wide Web, simply because of the Webs’ very nature, while also being guided by the “privacy policy” as stated above. The second was in response to the proliferation of child pornography on the Internet and a complete abhorrence of child pornography in any medium.

In the United States, it is anything but simple. Why? Two reasons stand out, in my opinion.

One, there is no real separation of church and state in the United States as there should be in a truly democratic society. Churches are not democratic. Individuals preach and lecture from a pulpit, espousing their beliefs, which are not open to a vote. Each one believes that their way is the only right way. Hence that most reprehensible of slogans, “Kill them in the name of God!”, or Allah, or whatever name they have attached to the “head” of their respective religion.

Is this an anti-religion rant? No. I feel that everybody should be free to believe what they want to believe without fear of repression. My problem lies in the fact that some religious groups feel that their beliefs should be ‘forced’ upon everybody and if others do not share their certain beliefs, then those others are branded as heathen, sinners and evil beyond redemption. Most religions are about power and control. Once a person ‘believes’ in a certain religion, then that religion has power over, and control of, that person.

What is the most powerful of instincts? Some may say self-preservation, but I say it’, sex. There are some species that will die to have sex, literally. The Church recognizes just how powerful sex is, so they do all they can to control it. And that brings us to the adult Internet industry. Not only are some religious groups apposed to it because the depiction of sex does not conform to their beliefs; they are also deathly afraid of it because it may erode their power over their followers. I know these are simplistic statements and they deserve much more in-depth analysis, but that is not the purpose of this article. Their intolerance and fear of the adult Internet industry causes them to be very vocal and shrill in their condemnation of it, with the mainstream media latching onto them because they are so very vocal and shrill.

In the United States, the slogan “In God We Trust” is very ingrained into the society. The citizens should be very careful that it does not become pervasive in government. A theocracy is not a democracy.

Which brings us to reason number two: Hypocrisy and apathy. Hypocrisy relates to the fact that you’d be hardpressed to find any number of people who say they participate in Adult Internet Entertainment. Of course, the hard numbers prove otherwise. And when you think that the Adult Internet is but a small percentage of the sex industries’ total gross income, the word hypocrisy assumes staggering proportions. Why are the vast majority of ordinary citizens so hypocritical about this? See reason number one above. Fear. Fear of repercussions in their social, marital and professional lives.

Apathy: The bane of all democratic societies. Apathy severly afflicts the majority who don’t care because they believe that it will not affect them, or they believe that they have no power to effect change so why go to the bother. In Canada, when more than 50% of eligible voters show up to vote it is considered a great turnout. And I’m sure it is the same in the US. Because of this, the beliefs of the majority do not get mirrored in their governmental representation. The “special interest” groups (religions, unions, gender organizations), though they may be a minority of the total population, get a disproportionate amount of representation in government because they got the vote out.

What is happening right now, vis-a-vis the adult Internet industry, is that some of these special interest groups have attained a higher representation in the federal government of the United States because of the apathy of the majority, which puts them in a position to attack the industry almost with impunity. Why with impunity? Because of hypocrisy of course.

Do the majority of American citizens of legal age want to enjoy adult entertainment in private? Oh yes, they sure do! Just follow the money. A huge pile of it is spent on adult entertainment every year. Will they be able to? Stay tuned.