YNOT – Warrendale, Pa.-based Right Ascension Inc., parent company of e-tailer AdultDVDEmpire, last week pleaded guilty to a single count of mailing obscene materials after being charged with mailing four sadomasochistic DVDs to undercover FBI agents in 2007.The company faced fines of up to $500,000, but a federal district judge sentenced Right Ascension to two years’ probation and levied a fine of $75,000 dollars based on the title A Bounty of Pain (BND Enterprises, 2006). Pamela Satterfield, an attorney with the Justice Department’s Obscenity Task Force, said the company made less than $500 from sales of the DVD.

Gary Zimmerman, who represented the company in the case, said Right Ascension is one of the largest direct-sales operations of its kind in the U.S., offering both mainstream and adult DVDs by mail. He noted employees screen each movie offered on AdultDVDEmpire.com. That four titles prosecutors charged “exceeded the community standards” in the community to which they were shipped (Erie, Pa.) evidently amounted to someone’s error in judgment, he said.

“The films that were distributed in this case slipped through the guidelines,” Zimmerman told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, adding Right Ascension has tightened its criteria and retrained its employees to ensure the same mistake doesn’t happen again.

“This isn’t a company that is in the business of trying to push the envelope of the First Amendment,” he said.

Zimmerman also said Right Ascension and its owner, John Darcangelo, 33, cooperated with federal prosecutors from the beginning of the investigation. After charges were filed, AdultDVDEmpire removed the entire category under which the offending DVDs were offered.