Somehow, the 10-count indictment against Max Hardcore (nee Paul Little) issued from the U.S. District Court, Tampa Division, this week seems conventional. The indictment is for obscenity, not 2257 recordkeeping infringements or, like what befell Al Capone, tax evasion. Hardcore has beaten obscenity charges before during G.W. Bush's first administration, but that was in porn-friendly Los Angeles. This time the 10-count cocktail includes several instances of two-minute clips from Hardcore's websites as well as the European versions of "Fists of Fury" and "Golden Guzzlers".
Read more about Hardcore after the gap. - GP
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For consumers of "extreme" porn, which gets more extreme every day, few producers can approach Max Hardcore's reputation or content. Vaginal fisting (the Department of Justice press release notes "insertion of an entire hand into a vagina or anus"), vomiting, and urination figure prominently in the European versions of Hardcore's movies, available online or by DVD. In recent years, many companies have shied away from carrying Hardcore's fare, so he either distributes himself from his headquarters northeast of Los Angeles or releases the less edgy material through Porn Valley's JM Productions.
It has not yet been brought to light how Hardcore's products were obtained, but in order for the indictment to have been filed in Tampa (from which a great many of Porn Valley's strippers hail), the DVDs need to have been purchased and sent from/to that area and the Internet content needs to have been accessed from a local terminal.
If the requirements for obscenity are met, i.e. if the content is found to be offensive to local standards in Tampa, Hardcore stands to lose his house (which the Feds two years ago shot a hole through), his production equipment, and his websites, including pissedonpornstars.com (image of "Britney Rears 4" co-star Jamie Lynn above).
"I just put up the hardest stuff I have on my site," Hardcore told me in March (close to the date of one of the recent indictment counts), and also on my Euro version DVDs."
This is why the Federales did not hedge their bets, including both Internet and DVD content.
"They love it in Europe," Hardcore said, "and I've never heard of anyone, even a store owner getting busted for obscenity."
· Feds Nail Hardcore Producer (thesmokinggun.com)
· Max Hardcore (maxhardcore.com)
· Team Hardcore on the move! (gramponante.com)
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Previously: Max Hardcore's Process, Porn Valley Dispatch Archive