What is Obscenity? Why Should it Matter?
• Laws and Politicians, Mostly Bad
It isn't just porn sites that are shutting down or restructuring in response to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' war on sexually themed movies and websites. BDSM educators and producers of erotica who fear the loose legal definition of obscenity will make them targets are trying to decide if they dare continue given the possibility of, if nothing worse, financial ruin.
"I know lots of people who have simply gone out of business because they are so afraid of the law," said Lydia McLane, a professional dominatrix based in Seattle, who is now reviewing some of the images on her website for fear they could be thought to constitute obscenity. "There's no definition of obscene. They're not going to be able to define it properly, so there's going to have to be test cases, and a lot of people are simply unwilling to be test cases."