Feds to Porn Stars: What's Your Sign?

Conservatives push Marriott to drop pay-per-view sex flicks

(NEWSER) - Conservatives are pressuring Marriott to remove adult films from its pay-per-view programming, saying porn doesn't jibe with the hotel chain's commitment to families, the St. Petersburg Times reports. "It's corporate greed,'' said the head of a Christian group. Marriott contends nixing the flicks isn't so easy: It owns only a few of the 3,000 properties operating under the brand. More»

Your right to watch it is apparently protected by the first amendment

(NEWSER) - Some New Yorkers are enjoying an illicit perk at their local library: porn. Not just porn but, in the words of the New York Post , the most "extreme, hard-core Internet smut this side of the old Times Square." Turns out you can watch the aforementioned smut in the city's public libraries, thanks to the First Amendment. Amusingly, the Post even found a "dirty old man" doing just that, who "skulked away" when approached, saying, "I don't want to talk to you. Leave me alone." More»

Academy of pediatrics ups age guidelines for car seats

(NEWSER) - Cue the choruses of, "Oh mom, do I have to?": The American Academy of Pediatrics has cracked down its carseat guidelines, reports the Washington Post , and they're likely to cause plenty of bickering. Among them:

• All children should sit in the back seat until they are 13 years old
• Children under 13 should use booster seats until they are 4 feet, 9 inches tall, or big enough to fit seatbelts properly
• Infants should ride in rear-facing car seats until age 2, or until they reach the seat's maximum height and weight.

Ecuador, meanwhile, offers WikiLeaks founder residency

(NEWSER) - The US government is trying to pin Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks cohorts with charges under the Espionage Act—a 1917 law that predated various Supreme Court cases expanding First Amendment protections. The FBI is examining everyone who came into possession of the State Department cables that leaked yesterday, sources tell the Washington Post . The Justice Department has also warned that media organizations could be prosecuted for printing leaked information, though experts think that’s unlikely. More»

Channel will go less raunchy, more intimate, in effort to draw ladies

(NEWSER) - Now that you can get porn for free on your computer, Playboy TV is struggling to convince men to pay $15 a month for its soft-core offerings—some of which are even softer than HBO shows. Enter its new strategy: Market to the female audience. How? By adding a block of shows called "TV for 2," mostly reality-type shows that will still feature erotic content, but in a more contextualized and less raunchy fashion and with higher production values—which, studies show, is what most women want from their porn. More»