By Slav Kandyba
LOS ANGELES — With perhaps just days left as a free man, Max Hardcore is hosting a party Friday night at the Forbidden City nightclub in Hollywood. The party’s banner: “Farewell 2 Freedom.”
“We’re inviting everybody down from the industry to the event to rally against what the government is doing — and also have a good time,” Hardcore told XBIZ.
Hardcore, whose birth name is Paul F. Little, was sentenced last month to serve 46 months in a federal penitentiary following conviction on multiple obscenity counts at U.S. District Court in Tampa. With his case having exhausted all legal procedures in that court and as Hardcore’s attorneys work on an appeal in the 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, it is all but inevitable that Hardcore will be reporting to prison.
The only question is when.
To that end, a letter is scheduled to arrive any day that will designate when and where he will turn himself in. His likely destination appears to be a prison camp at the medium-security prison in Lompoc, he said.
Once the letter arrives, Hardcore attorney H. Louis Sirkin will be able to lobby the 11th Circuit judges to suspend the sentence pending appeal. The likelihood of being successful at that are low.
“From what I have heard, it’s not common,” Hardcore said. “At this point, I’m resigned to go in.”
Aside from Friday’s party, which is being promoted by SteamXXX.com, Hardcore is continuing to work with the Free Speech Coalition to get a message of unity out to the adult industry, one that he believes can “present a unified front of resistance” to Justice Department’s obscenity prosecutions.
For his part, Sirkin previously told XBIZ that Hardcore’s case is likely to land before the U.S. Supreme Court. Once there, it has the potential to redefine the application of community standards as a measure of obscenity in the Internet age.
Legal precedent aside, the ramifications for the adult industry may be felt sooner.
Hardcore said he believes that if the adult industry doesn’t join forces against the Justice Department’s obscenity prosecutions — even in the Obama administration — the government will become more aggressive. That could ultimately “decimate” the adult industry or push it more offshore, he said.
“We’ve got to change the system, and the only way we’re going to survive is to effectively destroy and disable the existing obscenity laws and put in place a firm set of guidelines,” Hardcore said.