Joe Francis, "child" pornographer From Maker of 'Girls Gone Wild' Runs Afoul of Law on Minors - Los Angeles Times [2]:

Joe Francis and the Santa Monica-based company he built on soft-core "Girls Gone Wild" videos pleaded guilty Tuesday to violating federal laws designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and agreed to pay fines totaling $2.1 million.Under the terms of a deal with the Justice Department, Francis agreed to personally pay a $500,000 fine to settle charges in Los Angeles that he failed to keep records of the ages and identities of the women who appeared in his films. As a result, Francis said in a statement, footage of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct appeared in at least two DVDs he released.

Link [3] Do a Google News search on child pornography [4] and you will get thousands of news articles about (mostly) men being thrown in jail for being consumers of "child pornography". I've noticed a rise on "child pornography" mentions on the news and I did my own little experiment. I subscribed to Google news alerts for this subject. On a slow day, I'd get at least 15 news alerts a day (compare that to about 5 a day on someone like Britney Spears or Hillary Clinton). Most of these news never ever mentioned what were the ages (known or estimated) of the subjects. The focus was on how the police or FBI got to the consumer's computers or gadgets. Meaning, the focus was on the seizure of evidence and the use of new laws allowing for the imprisonment of people who were suspect of downloading child pornography. Not watching it, not wanting it, but downloading. Two notable examples : The case of the guy who was accused of using his iPod to store child pornography [5] or the other case of the guy who purposefully faked the child pornography to prove a point [6]. You can photoshop it or cartoon it [7], and you can still go to jail. Why isn't Joe Francis going to jail? Here's what I found at MissingKids.com [8]:

The federal statute defines “child pornography” as the “visual depiction...of sexually explicit conduct” involving a “minor.” The federal statute also specifies sexually explicit conduct includes certain sexual acts such as intercourse, bestiality, and masturbation, as well as “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area”; however, state statutes defining child pornography differ among jurisdictions. Definitions of child pornography vary from state to state, and state legislation may not mirror the language of the federal statute. Further disparity exists in the definition of “minor” or “child.” The federal statute defines “minor” as “any person under the age of [18] years.” While a majority of states follow the federal statute, some state laws define “minor” or “child” as a youth younger than 14, 16, or 17.6 Delaware law includes any person 18 years of age and younger in its definition of “child.”

PDF Link [9] Joe Francis is obviously one of the largest exploiters of the taboo of child pornography with his wildly successful "Girls Gone Wild" series. Why the hell isn't this man going to jail if he is obviously the most mainstream producer of pornography involving women who look well under the age of 18? The answer seems clear : The government has been using the internet child pornography laws to develop their wiretapping on the internet. Child pornography laws are an excuse, a means to an end that has nothing to do with the protection of American families and their values. Joe Francis can go ahead and do everything just exactly the way he has been doing it. The government needs him. He's an indispensible part of their illegal surveillance program and their war against civil rights. Welcome to the Fourth Reich.

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