LAS VEGAS – NV — On Friday, January 12th, about 60 Free Speech Coalition members and interested Adult Entertainment Expo attendees joined FSC board members and new executive director Diane Duke for a late afternoon of complimentary chips, salsa, margaritas, legal and organizational updates, and calls to action.Board member and ASACP executive director Joan Irvine provided moderator services in the place of freshly hospitalized board member Mark Kernes, playing gracious timekeeper as audience members sipped the drinks sponsored by Lion’s Den and quietly absorbed the copious information provided to them. Irvine set the mood for the 90 minute meeting by saying that the industry is experiencing “promising times, especially in that we have a new executive director, Diane Duke,”

Duke, who holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Oregon and previously served as senior vice-president of Planned Parenthood Health Services of Southwest Oregon, ascended to the podium to formally introduce herself, saying “I have never felt such a warm welcome from a group of people in my entire life” before announcing the FSC’s newly elected board members. Additionally, Duke proudly informed the collected body that Darkside/Eros-Guide had just made a $5,000 donation to FSC, earmarked for litigation expenses; something of great use in the coming year, given the information provided by the three industry attorneys who spoke later in the program.

After Duke descended from the stage, FSC director of membership development and services, Scott Lowther, provided a quick update about membership benefits, including three new “value added benefits,” including a 20-percent discount at Best Western hotels and free credit collection assistance and education opportunities from the Global Creditors Network. Lowther also told members to expect to see a membership survey within the next few months as the FSC seeks to learn more about those it serves and how it can go about doing so most effectively.

Things took a serious but cautiously optimistic turn when the group’s Washington DC lobbyist took to the microphone. Robert Raben, of the Raben Group, joked that “I used to say it was a treat to leave Washington because of who ran it, but starting a couple of months ago, it got a lot better – or we hope it’s gotten a lot better.”

As Raben explained it, although a newly Democratic controlled Congress likely means a change in attitude toward the adult industry, it is no guarantee of easy victories. He provided the audience with both “good news and bad news,” stating that the shift in leadership has resulted in key personnel changes in areas of jurisdiction, with previous position holders who had scores as low as “zero” on ACLU legislative ratings being replaced by individuals who, in some cases, have scored as high as 100-percent. But Raben cautioned against assuming any Democrat is an industry friendly Democrat, pointing out that so-called “New Democrats or Sensible Democrats” are just as keen to interfere with adult industry commerce and communication as are conservative Republicans. In fact, at least one Democratic Senator has made it clear she will push for a 25-percent tax on the industry and mandate age verification. On the other hand, “non finger wagging” Republicans with a more laissez faire attitude may well be more amenable to working with the FSC. Raben told the audience to expect an invigoration of the attempt to push through a .xxx domain and to regulate content, as well.

“I’ll be a little bit negative and say that you’ve done about four-percent of the work,” Raben opined. “The gap between what adult Americans think and do in their private lives with respect to the products which you produce and distribute, secondarily produce and distribute, and what the majority of adult Americans say they do is enormous.”

Given this and the fact that most adult industry professionals have not stood up and made themselves heard, neglecting to provide consumers with “the tools, the educational forensics, the things to say and understand to talk to their elected officials, talk show radios, letters to the editor, editorial boards, and cocktails parties about what the modern entertainment industry stands for” Raben proposed that it is pointless to become angry with the government for not being responsive to its needs.

“As long as folks are not willing to step forward and have a real education plan, a marketing effort to explain to Americas what you are about, who’s buying your product, how much corporate America is profiting from your product and using people who you work with; until you close that gap, I urge you to not be surprised that elected officials are not doing anything to protect you,” he stated clearly, pointing out that legislators are responsive to the constituents whose opinions they know. “They only constituents they are hearing from are people organized to disapproved of what you’re doing,” he summed up.

“I challenge you in the year ahead to think about ways to pull your reserves together so you can help educate Americans about closing that gap,” he urged.

Raben’s concerns and encouragements were echoed by the three free speech attorneys who took turns speaking from the podium for the rest of the meeting.

FSC board chairman and free speech lawyer Jeffrey Douglas was emphatic when he addressed the recent changes to 2257 regulations, saying that “2257 is inconsistent with the business model that you live under.” He pulled no punches when he described the law as “designed to be inconsistent. It is designed to undermine your fundamental financial transactions and put you at risk of imprisonment, the loss of your entire life’s work in terms of the product itself and the loss of the money that you’ve saved. It is something you cannot live with. We are therefore in a struggle on the most basic level to make 2257 go away.”

Fortunately, Douglas believes that the federal government’s refusal to allow the adult industry to participate in dialogue concerning its regulation has resulted in mistakes that he and his companions can take advantage of in court. “I have never been more optimistic that 2257 can be destroyed,” he confided urgently. “The First Amendment Lawyers’ Association is made up of passionate advocates that can’t agree on whether the sun is shining, but there is a consensus among those that we now see a path by which 2257 can be destroyed.”

Admitting that the FSC and its staff has “made all of the mistakes that an organization can make” Douglas urged members and potential members to get involved with the industry trade association, thus making it better and stronger, especially now that success “is in sight” and the pro bono attorneys involved want to undo “this evil action.”

Next up was attorney and board member Reed Lee, who wore his FSC lapel pin upside down as an old maritime way of signaling “extreme distress” in the face of renewed battles on the .xxx domain front. Lee explained that the FSC continues to see the imposition of a domain tax on the industry and its possible mandated online zoning as an unacceptable demand for “blood money,” stating that the group would lodge its continued opposition to the domain extension during the renewed ICANN comment period, which ends on February 5th. He echoed Robert Raben by saying that industry professionals and supporters “need to get good at speaking up and speaking truth to power.”

Final presenter and industry attorney Greg Piccionelli, recovering from a bout of bronchitis, did his best to speak up, reminding the assembled that the Utah Child Protection Registry is still a threat to industry on a number of levels, including its effective taxation of violators via “scrubbing fees” and its irrational punishment of same by its refusal to allow any defense. Perhaps most shocking to those listening was the fact that even if an adult has specifically requested that a listed industry, including adult entertainment, send information to a registered email address, such a doubt opt in email request would not be allowed as defense against its $1000 per violation fine. On the plus side, however, a November hearing on the matter was presided over by a judge who took the rare opportunity to become acutely familiar with all of the involved issues, including the fact that the federal government sent a letter specifically contradicting the Federal Trade Commission’s conclusion that the CAN-SPAM Act pre-empts such state specific legislation.

If all goes well, with the increased and higher profile involvement from industry professionals, conservative legislators will find it more difficult to use the adult entertainment industry as what Piccionelli called a “punching bag” for both sides of the legislative aisle during 2007.