Computer underground Digest    Sun  Dec 4, 1994   Volume 6 : Issue 102

Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1995 18:34:51 CST
From: Anonymous <tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu>
Subject: File 1--Amateur Action BBS Sysops Sentenced in Memphis (reprint)

((MODERATORS' NOTE: For more details on the Amateur Action BBS case,
including discussion of why the case seems a gross abuse of law by
Federal prosecutors, see CuDs 6.09, 6.33, 6.35, 6.37, 6.43, 6.53,
6.55, 6.56, 6.67 and 6.69)).

Source: Chicago Tribune, Dec. 3, 1994 (p. 16)

(Associated Press): A California couple drew sentences of at least 2
1/2 years in prison Friday for sending pornographic images via
computer in a case that raised questions about how to apply obscenity
law in cyberspace.

  The prosecution of Robert Thomas and his wife, Carleen, was the
first obscenity case in which operators of a computer bulletin board
were charged in the place where the material was received, rather than
where it originated. The Thomases were found guilty in July of
transmitting obscenity via interstate telephone lines. A postal
inspector testified that he joined the bulletin board under a fake
name and received the images in his computer in Memphis.

     ((Robert Thomas was sentenced to 37 (sic) months in prison, and
     Carleen received 30 months. Under federal sentencing rules, both
     must serve the full terms))

     ((Judge Julia Gibbons said that the government can seize the
     couple's computers used to run AABBS. Thomas Nolan, the Thomases'
     lawyer, indicated that there will be an appeal))

  Nolan said one of his appeal arguments would focus on the U.S.
Supreme Court's 1973 ruling that defines obscenity by local community
standards.  Critics of the government's case say that with the advent
of computer networks, which have no boundaries, the meaning of "local
community" is debatable.

     ((The couple argued at the trial that they were prosecuted in
     Memphis because it was a conservative city and increased the
     chances of a conviction))