CHATSWORTH, Calif. - In a development that surprised even himself, obscenity charges against producer Rob Black of Extreme Associates have been thrown out of court by a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

“I’m still speechless,” Black told AVN.com. “All ten counts against us were dismissed.” He said that Judge Lancaster had also ruled that obscenity laws are unconstitutional.

“I now have made fucking history,” said the jubilant Black.

“It makes everything perfect,” he added. “The business has been going great and all of a sudden my lawyer calls up and said I won.”

Black’s lawyer, Lou Sirkin, was not immediately available for comment.

Black said he’d been told that federal prosecutor Mary Beth Buchanan told a wire service reporter that she was disappointed and that she felt the government had a slam dunk case and that any jury would have convicted.

“This is the greatest news I’ve ever had,” Black said.

What court? I'd like to read the decision & see why.

cause there is justice

This is fucking great. Rob Black rules!

Yes, it's outstanding. But I would like some of our more cerebral posters to weigh in on the probability of an appeal and success of an appeal.

On the face it sounds too good to be true.

AVN has a copy of the ruling here.

My take: an appeal is inevitable. This seems to drive a dagger into the heart of essentially all obscenity prosecutions, at any level, not just federal. The wording is not that broad, but the affect seems to be.

It is possible that the government might not want to use this case to appeal the issue: it might be a better strategy to use another case that was strictly ordinary mail-order, without the web site signup complications. I don't know how that stuff works.

This appears to be more fallout from the Lawrence decision, overturning the Texas laws against gay sex at home & in private, but the decision pulls together a lot more than that. Lawrence is what gets the judge around prior Supreme Court decisions.

At a glance it looks pretty carefully done by the district court, thoroughly researched, ready for the appeal. How far "out there" it is I do not know: we'll have to see what Real Lawyers say. I also don't know how conservative the appeals court with jurisdiction is.

Seems to me like its a waste of time trying to bust any porn producers for obscenity in the USA, didn't Max Hardcore get off a similar charge?

Slashdot has picked up on this. Nothing on findlaw yet.

this is a perfect example on the fact that the government & court system have TOO MUCH TIME on their hands

of course they'll appeal, the judge is dodgy and appealing it isn't a matter of putting a case together from scratch and spending the money to do so.

Yeah, I agree. It just seems mighty premature to me to be celebrating so much. Yeah, it's cool. But it could end up worse if it gets to the SC and they rule against porn. That's anti-anus pounding granitization.

"Ya'll" could be fiznucked.

I think ya'll are underestimating the financial burden of a town to persue these things. this has cost western penn a pretty penny.

It's a federal case. They've got the money.

its funny cause its true, i need primanti brothers and an ice house stat

oh man, i was in pittsburgh for like 24 hours a few years ago-i'm not positive it's the same place but i remember being at some legendary hotdog place where you could buy 40's and the hotdogs prevented healthy bowel-movements for 72 hours. i remember very little about it other than the 40's, which ended up smashed on the street. is there a taco bell pretty close to it on the same street? it was the weirdest city ever--it pretty much makes you binge-drink because it seems like you should be binge-drinking, it needs better narcotics though. i think i asked you about shady side, that was the same kid i needed to make fun of.

you guys got the rigfht place. and our narcotics are just fine!!