Libety Round Table supports exhibitionist webmistress [fs]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

News coverage:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/12/30/offbeat.naked.web.ticket.ap/
> The 21-year-old Web designer was busted for violating Lincoln's public 
> nudity ordinance by posting pictures on her Web site that apparently 
> showed her naked in a downtown bar... (Melissa) Harrington was to be 
> arraigned in Lancaster County Court on January 29. If convicted, she faces 
> a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Original documents:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/nakedlincoln1.html

Melissa's site:
http://www.melissalincoln.com/main.html

The Liberty Round Table's "Free Melissa" project:
http://www.libertyroundtable.org/projects/freemelissa/
> Meet our new friend Melissa. She's a fairly ordinary 'girl next door' who 
> has a day job and does web design. She also has a healthy respect for 
> human beauty and is completely unashamed of her body. She has combined the 
> two and built a web site that features, among other things, nude pictures 
> of her, some in what appear to be fairly public places ... and found that 
> she really likes the feeling this gives her. She compares it to a natural 
> high.
>
> For our part, we are not exhibitionists, but do believe that anything that 
> de-mystifies sex, shows that good clean fun and healthy bodies are not 
> 'dirty', is a very positive thing. There's no end to the flood of misery 
> produced by people's twisted ideas about sex, love, and the human body, so 
> we say: 'Hurray for Melissa's one woman war against benighted puritan 
> attitudes!' That Melissa's site has a commercial side makes her work no 
> less valuable -- have not libertarians and objectivists always said that 
> freedom is so valuable that there ought to be a way to promote it at a 
> profit? We agree with Melissa; she has nothing to be ashamed of, not her 
> body, not her pictures, not her profit.
>
> Unfortunately the police don't see it our way -- or perhaps they do, but 
> have their hands tied by blue-nosed laws that should be stricken from the 
> books. Whatever the reason, Melissa has been targeted and ticketed for 
> "public nudity" and faces a $500 fine and possible jail time of up to six 
> months.

> Even if everything Melissa is accused of is true (and with photoshop being 
> what it is these days, no one can really claim that pictures on a web site 
> prove anything anymore), it would not be as though she had flashed anyone, 
> nor subjected anyone who did not want to see it to the sight of her body. 
> Her pictures were taken in a discrete environment of consent, and viewed 
> online by people who chose to see them. The only crimes committed are 
> those of the authorities who are willing to apply the full force of law to 
> a woman who has hurt no one. Make no mistake, for daring to enjoy her 
> freedom, her self, and sharing that fun, Melissa is to be arraigned on 
> January 29, and could soon be the victim of legalized theft and enslavement.
>
> We should also say, lest anyone think we are trying to mislead freedom 
> activists (or Melissa herself), that she never claimed to be a 
> libertarian. In fact, while she does believe her web site has artistic 
> merit and should be protected by the First Amendment, and the playful 
> banter on the site is an unabashed sales pitch ('unabashed' just seems to 
> go hand in hand with Melissa), she says it's really all about having fun. 
> She would do it anyway, even if there was no money to be made, and she 
> says she's willing to spend every last penny she gets from the site 
> fighting for her freedom to express herself (and everyone else's freedom too).
>
> So, how can you help?
>
> Well, Melissa says that she wants to fight this "all the way" and has no 
> intention of taking any plea bargains. So, of course, there're legal 
> expenses. But rather than asking people to contribute to a legal defense 
> fund, she asks folks who want to help to "sign up" for her web site 
> (register as paying subscribers to gain access to the full content of the 
> site). Even if you don't want to see pictures of Melissa, this will help 
> her, financially, of course, but also to show that many people approve of 
> what she's doing -- or, at least, disapprove of what the state is doing to 
> her. It seems to me that there is no better way to show appreciation for 
> an artist than to pay for her work; it has a better, cleaner feel than 
> straight charity and allows her to be able to give some value in return 
> for the help.

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