Porn and Law in USA: Robert Black and Obscenity Charges

By Xah Lee. Date:

Just discovered that Rob Zicari (aka Robert Black) (born 1973) went to jail. He is a porn movie maker. His company is Extreme Associates. Reading Wikipedia, he doesn't seem to be a nice guy, and made enemies with several in the porn industry. He went to jail due to obscenity charges by the USA. His porn vid often features rape. See: United States v. Extreme Associates.

Reading the Wikipedia article, the case is ridiculous. The following videos are cited as illegal, quote:

What about the movie series Saw? [see Saw screenshots] The Saw movie series, feature explicit scenes of gruesome, artful, torture to the death. So, rape in movie is not ok, but torture to death is ok?

The law case was at first dropped by the district court, but the prosecutor, which is the US Department Of Justice, appealed. The appeals court decided the lower court was wrong, so kicked back the case for judgement again. The guy tried to appeal to Supreme Court, but is denied. At this time, the guy is like out of money for the attorney fees, then pleaded guilty to the obscene charges.