Lawrence G. Walters | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 11, 1963 [1] [2] |
| Occupation | Attorney |
Lawrence G. Walters (born 11 November 1963) is an American First Amendment attorney and anti-censorship advocate. He is the head of the Walters Law Group, focusing on First Amendment and Internet law, and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Central Florida.
Walters was born in and grew up in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Central Florida in 1985. [2] He received his JD from Florida State University with honors. [3]
Walters is an expert in adult entertainment and obscenity law who represents clients in the live webcam industry. [4] He also specializes in online gaming and sports betting law. [5] [6] [7] Walters works in the field of free speech, and represents the interests of the online entertainment community, and began his career as an attorney in 1988. [8] He has defended website operators in high-profile obscenity cases. [9] [10] In 1999, Walters defended Tammy Robinson in the first obscenity case based on website content. [11] Walters has defended Chris Wilson against more than 300 obscenity charges arising from his operation of a controversial website which included images from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The case represented the first obscenity prosecution against a website based on user-generated content. [11]
In 2007, Walters defended Karen Fletcher, [12] who was charged with obscenity based on written stories published on her website in a case tested the boundaries of obscenity law. [13] In 2008, he was appointed President of the First Amendment Lawyers Association. [14] Walters also defended Clinton McCowen, where he introduced Google Trends evidence showing that online users were more interested in sexually explicit topics [15] than in generic terms like "apple pie" [16] or "watermelon." The case was settled shortly after Walters issues a subpoena to Google for supporting evidence. [17]
Walters is also known as an advocate for the free speech rights of protesters, [18] street performers, [19] and topless dancers. [20] For example, in 2006 he won an appellate court victory upholding the First Amendment right of a topless protester in Daytona Beach, Florida. [21] Walters has also worked with the online gambling industry, representing GoldenPalace.com against the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the state's efforts to seize [22] the domain based on alleged gambling violations. He has also represented internet cafes [23] in constitutional challenges [24] to local ordinances banning the use of simulated gambling devices. [25]
In 2009, Walters began representing teens accused of sex offenses based on sexting behavior [26] [27] [28] and advocating changes in states' laws relating to teen sexting. [29] Walters has also developed apps used by content producers to comply with federal age verification laws and enforce copyrights. [30]
In 2018, Walters filed a constitutional challenge to the federal law known as the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA), on behalf of the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, and others. [31] The plaintiffs argue that the law violates the First Amendment and puts sex workers at risk. [32] [33] Walters also represents Rebekah Jones, a geographer turned whistleblower who was fired by the State of Florida for allegedly failing to manipulate COVID 19 data whose claims the Office of Inspector General later found to be unsubstantiated or unfounded; those she accused were exonerated of any misconduct. [34] He sued the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after it raided her home and seized her computer data. [35] [36]
A shock site is a website that is intended to be offensive or disturbing to its viewers, though it can also contain elements of humor or evoke sexual arousal. Shock-oriented websites generally contain material that is pornographic, scatological, racist, antisemitic, sexist, graphically violent, insulting, vulgar, profane, or otherwise some other provocative nature. Websites that are primarily fixated on real death and graphic violence are particularly referred to as gore sites. Some shock sites display a single picture, animation, video clip or small gallery, and are circulated via email or disguised in posts to discussion sites as a prank. Steven Jones distinguishes these sites from those that collect galleries where users search for shocking content, such as Rotten.com. Gallery sites can contain beheadings, execution, electrocution, suicide, murder, stoning, torching, police brutality, hangings, terrorism, cartel violence, drowning, vehicular accidents, war victims, rape, necrophilia, genital mutilation and other sexual crimes.
Pornography has existed since the origins of the United States, and has become more readily accessible in the 21st century. Advanced by technological development, it has gone from a hard-to-find "back alley" item, beginning in 1969 with Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984) and home video, to being more available in the country and later, starting in the 1990s, readily accessible to nearly anyone with a computer or other device connected to the Internet. The U.S. has no current plans to block explicit content from children and adolescents, as many other countries have planned or proceeded to do.
John Stagliano, also known as Buttman, is an American entrepreneur, former pornographic film actor, producer and director who founded and owns the Evil Angel pornographic film studio.
Vivid Entertainment Group is an American independent pornographic film production company, featuring internet content.
Adam Glasser, known professionally as Seymore Butts, is an American pornographic film director, producer, and occasional performer who has produced hundreds of films in the gonzo genre of pornography.
Wicked Pictures is an American independent pornographic movie studio headquartered in Canoga Park, California. Between 2004 and 2021, it was one of the only heterosexual studios to maintain a condoms-only policy.
Bang Bros is an independent pornographic film studio operating from Miami, Florida, United States. It was founded in 2002 by Kristopher Hinson while he was a student at the University of Florida. The network is now owned by WGCZ S.R.O.—a Czech company based in Nové Město dictrict of Prague, which purchased the network and its associated websites in 2017.
The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) is a non-profit trade association of the pornography and adult entertainment industry in the United States. Founded in 1991, it opposes the passage and enforcement of obscenity laws and many censorship laws.
nowthatsfuckedup.com was a controversial shock website depicting corpses in kill zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. It existed from February 2004 until April 2006, when it was shut down under Florida obscenity laws.
Child erotica is non-pornographic material relating to children that is used by any individuals for sexual purposes. It is a broader term than child pornography, incorporating material that may cause sexual arousal such as nonsexual images, books or magazines on children or pedophilia, toys, diaries, or clothes. Law enforcement investigators have found that child erotica is often collected by pedophiles and child sexual abuse offenders. It may be collected as a form of compulsive behavior and as a substitute for illegal underage pornography and is often a form of evidence for criminal behavior.
Evil Angel is an American independent production company and distributor of pornographic films, founded and owned by John Stagliano.
XBIZ is an American publisher of business news and business information for the sex industry founded in 1998 and based in Los Angeles.
Ira E. Isaacs is an American pornographic film director and self-described "shock artist." He was convicted of five federal counts of selling and distributing obscene material in 2012.
Flava Works, Inc. is an independent company that produces gay media featuring black and Latino men. Its headquarters are in Miami, Florida, with a satellite office in Chicago, Illinois.
Amateur pornography is a category of pornography that features models, actors or non-professionals performing without pay, or actors for whom this material is not their only paid modeling work. Reality pornography is professionally made pornography that seeks to emulate the style of amateur pornography. Amateur pornography has been called one of the most profitable and long-lasting genres of pornography.
New Sensations is an American independent pornographic film studio. It is the parent company and sister-label of Digital Sin and HotwifeXXX. New Sensations was founded in 1993; The first films it produced were the Video Virgins series, which ran from 1993 to 1998. In 2006 it was described by Reuters as one of the handful of studios that dominate the U.S. porn industry.
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin obscēnus, obscaenus, "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral repugnance and outrage in expressions such as "obscene profits" and "the obscenity of war". As a legal term, it usually refers to descriptions and depictions of people engaged in sexual and excretory activity.
Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st century and is a portmanteau of sex and texting, where the latter is meant in the wide sense of sending a text possibly with images. Sexting is not an isolated phenomenon but one of many different types of sexual interaction in digital contexts that is related to sexual arousal.
Lorelei Lee is an American pornographic actor and writer. Lee is non-binary.
Aylo is a Canadian multinational pornographic conglomerate owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. It is primarily involved in internet pornography, operating a number of video sharing websites, and pornographic film studios such as Brazzers, Digital Playground, Men.com, Reality Kings, Sean Cody, and WhyNotBi.com, among others. Aylo's headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but the company's corporate structure is divided among entities domiciled in a number of other countries.
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