J.D. Obenberger
Adult Industry Attorney J.D. Obenberger Passes Away
First Amendment attorney J.D. Obenberger, a noted specialist in adult industry issues and a self-described “advocate of liberty in general,” passed away Saturday at age 66, according to family sources.
XBIZ Berlin 2019: Day 1 Draws Hundreds of EU's Finest for Packed Seminars, Networking
Hundreds of adult industry members from every corner of the European Union and beyond descended on the Catalonia Berlin Mitte Hotel for day one of XBIZ Berlin.
Industry Attorneys Weigh In on Sessions' Exit as AG
Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned Wednesday at the request of President Trump, ending a turbulent tenure that followed months of Trump expressing his displeasure with him.
ExploitedCollegeGirls, Ana Rose Settle Dispute After Accusations Are Made
Adult starlet Ana Rose and the operators of ExploitedCollegeGirls.com have settled a dispute that purportedly stemmed from a recent series of tweets she made alleging misconduct on the set.
Stormy Daniels Reveals Sordid Details in CBS '60 Minutes' Interview
Adult superstar Stormy Daniel’s CBS “60 Minutes” interview didn’t offer any bombshells tonight, but it did narrate her alleged one-time sexual relationship with President Trump before he was elected to the top elected position in the U.S.
When the Government Comes Knocking
The execution of a search warrant is obviously serious business, one in which the naked power of the state is brought to bear on a business or home, overriding the privacy and peaceful repose of the persons working or dwelling at the location which is the target of the search.
2017 Outlook: Legal Matters Around the Corner
The adult entertainment business’ legal community recently weighed in the top issues that companies and the industry, as a whole, should be concerned about.
Legal Protection for Amateur Shoots
Any adult industry professional who creates video content with actual first-time amateurs will come to an early knowledge that later performer regret is commonplace. Recognized performers who regularly make their livelihoods in front of cameras, of course, are far less likely to have a change of heart.
Courtrooms in the Cloud: The DOJ Calls and Raises at the 3rd Circuit
On Dec. 9, a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral argument from the parties and take a second look at the decision it rendered in May concerning the Free Speech Coalition’s constitutional attack against 18 U.S.C §§ 2257-2257A, the recordkeeping statutes for adult producers.
Courtrooms in the Cloud: For 2257, What Comes Next?
In resolving the latest assault against 18 U.S.C. § 2257, a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals roundly rejected the Free Speech Coalition’s broad assault on the substantive provisions of 2257, largely centered on arguments arising from the First Amendment.
Ask the Attorneys: What Lies Around the Corner in 2015?
Hacking, malicious attacks, data theft and piracy were making headlines in 2014 on a daily basis and I believe that in 2015 the trend will continue. Regardless of their motives, hackers and pirates continue to adapt to advancements in data security and become more aggressive.
Back to Basics: Model Releases
There is an almost intuitive knowledge among those members of the adult entertainment community who create images for Internet publication that model releases are necessary for some purpose or another, but there is a great deal of misunderstanding and confusion about what, exactly, model releases are.
Legal Dimensions
I suspect that any lawyer who serves image producers in the adult Internet long enough will acquire some experience dealing with models and performers (and their lawyers, and sometimes their relatives who claim to be brandishing baseball bats!) demanding a take-down of images — for which they have been fully compensated on the basis of a contractual release that provides rights to the producer and his assignees perpetually.
2257: Assaulting the Message
At the end of the 11 p.m. news on Chicago’s CBS Radio outlet, WBBM on July 18, the final story was that, in Philadelphia, a federal judge had overturned a lawsuit brought by the adult video industry against a law requiring them to keep records to make sure that the performers were not children, claiming that the effort was too much work. In the format of CBS radio, the final item is usually funny or ironic, a light-hearted way of ending an hourly news bulletin.
Don’t Fall Down: Mistakes to Avoid
This article originates out of a presentation I gave at the Phoenix Forum legal panel on Friday afternoon, April 5, 2013. It’s a pretty significant honor to join that distinguished panel.
The Skinny on NDAs
It is axiomatic that not all knowledge is obvious; in commerce, just as much as in science, information, know-how, and the means and methods by which results are achieved are often the result of extensive work, creative thought, insightful analysis, and laborious trial and error. There would be little incentive in commerce to drive the progress by which information is expensively acquired if it could not be protected: Knowledge itself is powerfully valuable. As important as copyrights and patents are, they do not and were never intended to protect any and all human discoveries. Where the protection of creative works by public copyright law ends, where the protection of inventions by public patent law ends, what remains is the private right to condition disclosure of confidential information by way of enforceable contracts that limit the further disclosure of the information. You might imagine a hypothetical world without enforceable Nondisclosure agreements — but it would be a world that would so discourage the disclosure of confidential information that progress and growth would be practically impossible, with all the risk of loss on those whose work is creative and valuable, but which falls outside those copyright and patent protections.
Courtrooms In The Clouds — Travel Plans You Won’t Forget
The recent, high-profile arrest of a leading adult Internet figure in a Belgian airport on the basis of a German tax fraud warrant has captivated the interest and attention of the entire online adult community like few other news stories during the past year; the episode possesses all of the features of high drama with themes of good versus evil (at least in some eyes), of evil brought to the test, and a dénouement in which the apparent resolution of the crisis unravels in confusing directions.
4 Dirty Little Secrets
This article is addressed to the producer who has invested his or her time, blood, sweat, tears, money, and juices (creative or otherwise) in finding talent, paying performers, developing forms, getting access to a studio, directing performers, editing content, creating a site and paying for hosting, design, scripts, SEO, and spending countless hours trying to promote and reap some financial reward from all of this. It is also addressed to those producers who have been the targets of pirate boards, file lockers, peer to peer file sharing protocols, just out and out theft, and most especially to those whose attempts at takedowns and DMCA letters have fallen on deaf ears.
2257: The Fight Goes On
On Nov. 26, at 9:30 in the morning, two very bright lawyers will square off before U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson in a high-rise courthouse in Philadelphia to conduct a hearing about whether the Free Speech Coalition's constitutional objections to 18 U.S.C. § 2257 inspections, based on the Fourth Amendment's prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures, can go forward - or whether those allegations - and this set of arguments about the 2257 scheme's ultimate constitutionality - will be dismissed.