The AVN Maui Conference

up with the weather and the poolside cocktail girls. Maui's the island of the fresh fruit bowl, and nifty souvenir T-shirts, where every bartender's a fugitive surfer from either Manhattan Beach or San Diego and every woman's a pinup from an orthodontist calendar. Oh, then there was the Second Annual AVN Conference which got underway, there, Friday morning at the Hyatt Regency. Some old and new faces were seen among this year's group of 80 attendees. Some of the new kids on the conference block were Chris and Greg from Anabolic Video; the Free Speech Coalition's new executive director, Bill Lyon; Digital Playground's Samantha Lewis; Evil Angel's John Stagliano and Trish Devereaux, Hollywood Video's Loretta Sterling and performer Violet Love.

First Amendment attorneys Paul Cambria and Bob DePiano led kick-off discussions involving various legal issues, including the Supreme Court's recent pasties and g-strings ruling in the City of Erie v. Paps case - the Bad Day at Black Rock equivalent of legal milestones where public nudity is concerned. The prevailing school of thought is that the decision in Pap's represents a further deterioration of First Amendment protection for nude dancing. Citing the Court's 6 to 3 vote in the decision, the suggestion was that the higher Court's rulings are subject to change but only with time's shifting balances of power within the court structure. Cambria's notion was that even though some of the points were moot in the Pap's case because "Kandyland" the principal, is no longer doing business, nevertheless, a concerted effort was made to bring the case to the High Court to take advantage of its current political makeup.

Cambria also offered a blueprint for insuring less legal hassles during election year. "The boxcover is the first line of defense," Cambria said. "The court room is the last frontier. You don't want to wind up there." Cambria also lent some fascinating insights into the political mindsets that fuel obscentiy prosecutions.

The day was capped off with a beachside dinner sponsored by AVN.