Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Thomas Beckett <thomas AT tbeckett.com>]

Anyone been subjected to this?

-----------
When the Car Beside You Is an XXX Theater
By DAVID KIRBY

THE moment a phenomenon becomes a full-blown trend may be when it 
acquires a nickname. The sightings of sexually explicit videos playing 
on screens in cars have achieved that distinction with at least two 
terms: dirty driving and drive-by porn.

On-board video has become widely popular with drivers, especially those 
with children. But while many motorists entertain back-seat passengers 
with DVD's like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," a surprising 
number choose racier fare.

Andre Gainey, for example, was playing a pornographic video on three 
screens in his Mercedes last February as he drove past a police station 
in Schenectady, N.Y. Mr. Gainey, 35, was arrested and later convicted of 
a misdemeanor charge of public display of sexual material and other 
violations. Last August he was sentenced to three weekends in jail.

Few cars are equipped with as many screens as Mr. Gainey's. But 
complaints from people who have spotted explicit images on screens 
inside cars are growing nearly as fast as on-board DVD sales.

According to Wardsauto.com, an online trade publication, in the first 
six months of 2004, 401,000 domestic vans, S.U.V.'s and light trucks 
were produced with DVD video systems compared with 136,000 vehicles in 
the same class for the entire year of 2002. This year, the Consumer 
Electronics Association estimates that more than 110,000 systems will be 
installed after a vehicle is bought.

Unscrupulous installers mount screens within view of the driver's seat, 
even though 38 states have restrictions about placement of screens.

Passengers, however, are a different story. They can watch whatever they 
want, can't they?

Not in some places. Sightings of adult videos by passengers — including 
children — in other cars "is a vexing new phenomenon," said Jan LaRue, 
chief counsel for Concerned Women for America, a conservative advocacy 
group in Washington. Ms. LaRue, who wrote an essay titled "Four-Wheel 
Indecency" for the group's Web site (cwfa.org), said new laws were 
necessary as monitors inside cars had gotten bigger (up to 17 inches, 
measured diagonally) and more visible from outside.

"It's pretty incredible to have to write laws for people who lack the 
common sense and civility to think it's O.K. to play such DVD's in full 
view of other people, and especially children," Ms. LaRue said.

The police and judge in the Schenectady case did not need a special law 
to prosecute Mr. Gainey. Nonetheless, measures to outlaw sexually 
explicit videos in cars are growing.

Tennessee was the first state to pass such a law. A vehicular obscenity 
bill, introduced in 2003 by State Representative W. C. Pleasant and 
State Senator Mark Norris, both Republicans, became law this summer. 
Under it, the display of sexually explicit material that can be viewed 
from other cars is deemed not only morally unacceptable, but also a 
driving hazard. "To avoid distracting other drivers and reduce the 
likelihood of accidents arising from lack of concentration," the bill 
states, "no obscene and patently offensive material, motion picture, 
film, movie, videotape, DVD or other pictorial representation shall be 
exhibited on a television, monitor or other viewing screen visible to 
other drivers."

Fines for violating the law range from $2 to $50. "We're trying to take 
a measured response to what is becoming a growing problem, as ridiculous 
as it seems," said Mr. Norris, who received his first complaint from a 
constituent last year.

"I wasn't aware of the extent to which it was becoming a problem," he 
said. "But I found a number of folks who were in their cars with 
children, being held hostage to this kind of display at traffic lights. 
Even pedestrians reported the experience."

Since then, several more reports of so-called drive-by porn have come to 
his attention, Mr. Norris said. One Nashville radio host found herself 
trapped between two cars, each displaying explicit videos. "She was 
wedged in," he said. "She couldn't avoid it."

Who decides what is morally unacceptable? That, experts say, depends on 
where you live. "Laws vary state by state and even by local ordinances," 
said Barry Steinhardt, the director of the technology and liberty 
program at the American Civil Liberties Union in New York.

Over the summer, Louisiana passed a law with decidedly sharper teeth. 
Motorists convicted of playing pornographic videos on a screen that is 
visible from outside their vehicle face fines up to $500 or six months 
in jail or both. Repeat offenders face fines up to $1,000 or a year's 
imprisonment or both.

State Representative Mickey James Guillory, a Republican, first heard 
about the issue in early April, when a constituent complained about 
being stuck at a stoplight next to a car playing an explicit video on a 
visible screen.

Another bill, proposed in Oklahoma, died last May in conference 
committee, but "might be reintroduced next year," said State 
Representative Joe Dorman, a Democrat, who sponsored the measure.

"I witnessed it myself," Mr. Dorman said. "I was at a stoplight and the 
car next to me had two DVD players. The same clip from a porn movie kept 
playing over and over."

The three bills faced little opposition in their respective statehouses, 
though First Amendment concerns were raised by local newspapers, civil 
libertarians and the movie industry.

"Law enforcement officials have enough things to worry about," read an 
editorial last April in The Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville, Tenn. "Maybe 
one day a child will catch a quick and blurry glimpse of a nudie movie 
being played in someone else's car. It won't be a big deal if his 
parents don't make it into one."

In Tennessee, state representatives of the A.C.L.U. and the Motion 
Picture Association of America successfully pushed to modify that 
state's bill from banning obscene "or" offensive material to banning 
obscene "and" offensive material. The term "offensive," the association 
argued, was too vague.

In-car videos also raise the question of safety. According to the 
Louisiana State Police, at least two fatal accidents reported this year 
were caused by drivers who were watching pornographic movies.

Regardless of the legal status of video in vehicles, there seems little 
question that an explicit movie can be more distracting than a sighting 
of, say, "Shrek 2."

"It really makes you do a double take," Mr. Norris said. "It gives the 
term tailgating a whole new meaning."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/automobiles/27KIRB.html?oref=login