After a recent court victory, Florida authorities were forced to return thousands of adult DVDs confiscated from a Sumter County X-Mart Supercenter.
According to a recently published story in the Sun-Sentinel, Sumter County sheriffs raided the adult store about a year ago, confiscating almost the entire inventory of movies — 22,500 titles in all.
Authorities confiscated the material on the claim that all movies must display an official rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on the packaging. However, a Sumter County judge ordered the DVDs be returned to X-Mart owner Evgueni Souliaguine, ruling that the statute had "many 'vagueness' problems."
According to the Sun-Sentinel, the judge added: "The title of such movies, as well as the pictures on the DVD’s cover, probably do more to put the public on notice of the DVDs content than does any rating system. Moreover, this Court speculates that any patron of X-Mart or similar stores would be fully aware of the content of the DVD or videos sold in such stores and that a labeling of Not Rated or NR would be meaningless."
Sheriff's investigators told reporters while it is unlikely they will use that statute again, they will still monitor X-Mart to make sure the store is not violating any other state obscenity laws.
