Tennessee, Utah, North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida
 

I saw this on the warn page of a bondage site:
Do these states have some local law banning the viewing of bondage material? And if so, how does that sit with your countries "inalienable rights"? Even in Britain's darkest days, when you got sent to jail for even publishing a picture of an erect penis, we never had any laws against looking at this stuff!

It's somebodies idea of boilerplate. The idea is not to stop them from looking, it's to be able to complain to a judge that you as the secondary publisher told them they were not allowed.

Like most 'warning statements', it probably would not stand up in a hostile court.

Yeah, guessed that. My question is "Is it really illegal just to look at bondage in those states????!!!"

No, or more accurately not quite illegal.

But It's arguably illegal to sell or provide obscene material, and those are states in which most of the known court filings have occured. The laws don't target the viewers, they target the providers.

It's especially risky to mail or ship physical forms of possibly "obscene" materials to those states.

Interesting factoid - those states are among the highest buyers of porn per capita, lol.

It's a bullshit meaningless legally irrelevant warning, but, one does what one can.

I've been known to write warnings claiming fines for people under 18 if caught entering. It's bullshit of course. But hey, we are in the entertainment business.

Thanks.

Shame though, I saw the email telling me I had a reply to my post, clicked on the link and went to make coffee while the page loaded. By the time I had got back to read your message I had already decided to advertise some of the bondage books I sell with the message "WARNING: These books are so strong it is illegal to read them in Tennessee, Utah, North Carolina, Kentucky or Florida." Guess I'll have to give up that idea! :(

no way, thats a great idea, thats exactly what you should do.

this is entertainment - and thats a very entertaining pitch, gives the buyer an extra frisson of naughty when they click the button.

I've used that principle - tell them it's illegal in this or that state - for many years. It's a sure-fire click magnet.