Most adult production companies, webmasters and retailers wouldn’t be very happy to have the federal government poking around in their customer lists, purchase orders, credit card receipts or other proprietary and personal information. As good businesspeople, on behalf of their customers, they might want to protect that information from government scrutiny – especially from a government that might have an anti-adult business agenda.
But while it’s still illegal for protesters who stand outside adult stores, recording customers’ license numbers, to get local police to supply those customers’ names and addresses from DMV records, it is currently legal under the USA PATRIOT Act for the feds to collect all of the above data and more, under the dubious justification of “national security” – and it’s illegal for the store owners or webmasters who are searched to tell their customers that their expectations of privacy are now a thing of the past
But something can be done about it. Last year, in an increasingly rare bi-partisan action, Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) Larry Craig (R-Id.) introduced SB 1709, the “Security and Freedom Ensured Act of 2003,” or SAFE Act, which would place reasonable limitations on the now almost unbridled use of surveillance and the issuance of search warrants, would allow the currently-existing “sunset” provisions of the PATRIOT Act to take effect on schedule, and add a couple of non-expiring provisions to sunseting schedule as well.
“This bill deserves our support and active involvement,” said Kat Sunlove, Legislative Affairs Director for the Free Speech Coalition (FSC). “Much is at stake for us as adult entertainment professionals as well as individual citizens.”
Among the atrocities the PATRIOT Act commits on Americans’ civil liberties besides those noted above are:
•Roaming wiretaps, obtained with no evidence that the intented target even uses the tapped cell phone or land lines.
•“Sneak and peek” searches conducted of homes, cars and places of business, during which listening devices and keystroke logs can be planted, all without the knowledge of the owners.
•Reviews of airline passenger lists, hotel and casino guest lists and rental car customer lists, among other records, all without any specific suspects in mind, just sort of looking over the crowd to see who might be suspicious, as happened in Las Vegas during the 2003 Christmas season.
“Some of these provisions read like sections of a spy novel with paranoid undertones,” Sunlove observed. “In their enthusiasm for protecting our shores against future attacks, Congress went further than was wise and further than the Constitution allows. Now is the time for us to help correct those errors; now is the time to demand allegiance to our legal principles and to put back the protections that American citizens rightly expect. Freedom is the foundation of American life – freedom of speech, of press, of association, of worship. The Patriot Act... is not about patriotism. It is about repression and unlawful government grasp of power.”
Sunlove has been working closely with Angelina Spencer, Executive Director of the Association of Club Executives (ACE), the cabaret trade organization, and representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to rally supporters for the SAFE Act – the sort of networking Sunlove has done for years at the state level in California, but which is only now being accomplished for a national issue.
One of the first results of this collaboration will be an “Action Center” at the Adult Entertainment Expo this January, run by all three organizations, where Expo attendees will be able to use the provided computers and fax machines to contact their congressional representatives to encourage them to support the SAFE Act and end at least some of the indignities done to the U.S. Constitution by the PATRIOT Act.
Sunlove is seeking adult actresses to help educate the public on these issues at the Expo.
“Privacy rights are one of the big issues that affects nearly everyone in the adult entertainment industry, from company heads right down to performers,” Sunlove noted. “Probably 25% of our world out there, including fans and industry people, get it, but the vast majority of them need to be slapped across the head with, ‘Do you enjoy adult entertainment? If you want to keep it free and coming, you need to get involved.’”
Actresses who are willing to spend an hour or two (or more) during the Expo to help disseminate information and, in the process, protect their livelihoods, should contact Sunlove at [email protected] to schedule times to work the booth. Long-time free speech supporters such as Nina Hartley have already volunteered some time, but many more are needed.
