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[IP] Latex clothes website runs afoul of Paypal prudishness [fs]





Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
Date: August 10, 2004 9:28:38 AM EDT
To: politech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Politech] Latex clothes website runs afoul of Paypal prudishness [fs]

----

From: Ron Gustavson <rongus@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: censorship via Paypal
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2004 21:59:10 -0400

[for consideration on Politech]

The Baroness ( www.baroness.com ) writes...
...
>You know I've always believed in the power of clothing, but it seems someone at Paypal thinks a latex skirt or dress may have even more power than I had dared to dream. Despite a complete lack of nudity and sex on Baroness.com (it's all about the CLOTHES), Paypal has closed my account -with no option of review- for alleged violation of their "Acceptable Use Policy", which says their service may not be used to send or receive payments for any "adult, sexually oriented, or obscene materials or services".
>
>While the censors at Paypal apparently have the legal right to summarily dismiss their clients for any reason they choose, I hope you, my readers, will consider what this means for the future of free commerce for anyone with "alternative lifestyles". Next time you use Paypal, consider this: What if the major banks and credit card companies decided to adopt the same policy? Any commercial venture they deemed "unacceptable" would disappear from the Internet.
>
>Government censorship is even worse, and in this arena my friend Barbara Nitke has been fighting for all of us. In Nitke vs. US Attorney General Ashcroft, she and the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) are challenging the obscenity statute of the so-called "Communications Decency Act". Under this statute, anyone who has a website featuring SM, bondage, fetish or any sexually extreme images is at risk, as are those who visit it. For an overview of the case, read this: http://www.wireniusreport.net/overview.html. Please visit http://www.ncsfreedom.org/CDA/index.htm for more information, and consider making a donation.


Ron Gustavson~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NO-&infin;-DO
7607 6FA2 6485 3707  42D1 99AD 7E20 52FD

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