Re:same as it ever was... (Score 1)

american media industries that -have- stuck to their guns: literature, painting, rock music, sculpture, film No, all media industries have had their own struggles against the forces of conservatism. Henry Miller's book 'Tropic of Cancer' was declared obscene, it took many court battles to secure his First Amendment rights. Many other books have faced similar challenges. The history of film censorship is a long and tortured tale, starting with the Catholic Legion of Decency that led to the adoption of 'The Code' around 1930. The 'Code' listed all the things that were forbidden in movies, including things such as scenes of whites kissing blacks. By the 1960s the Code had started to fall apart, and the rating system that we know today was introduced. The code and the rating system were/are industry programs, adopted to fend off what was seen as impending government censorship. That is not even mentioning the huge legal battles that pornographers from Russ Meyer on have had to fight. Rock Music's struggles with censors reached a fever pitch in the 1980s, with the PMRC holding hearings in Congress about 'porn rock'. No legal action was ever taken, except against small music labels like the one that the Dead Kennedys was on. It was 'cost effective' for the Los Angeles DA to attempt (and fail) to go after the smaller compaines for 'distribution of harmful material to minors'. We now have clean and 'explicit' versions of the same albums. For a long time only the 'clean' versions of CDs were allowed in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the #1 music seller (sad but true), so the effect of this censorship can be very large. Painting and Sculpture aren't really industries, but they have had their fundie attackers as well, such as when Ashcroft covered up Justice's boobs. The struggle against video game censorship will continue, and maybe some day Congress or a state will attempt to regulate their content. When that happens, industry lawyers and the ACLU will be waiting to kick their ass.