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Voyeur Dorm's court victory© St. Petersburg Times published March 14, 2002 We hope Tampa's political opportunists learned a lesson from wasting all that time and public money to harass the nude broadcast service called Voyeur Dorm. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the city's appeal of a lower court ruling that upheld Voyeur Dorm's right to operate. The city claimed that Voyeur Dorm, a 24-hour Internet Webcast, is an adult business, because customers pay a monthly fee to watch women carry on domestic life from within a home wired with cameras. The city tried to used zoning laws to shut it down. Funny thing was, most people in Tampa had no idea what or where Voyeur Dorm was until the city's harassment caused a ruckus. The home attracted no on-site cars or customers, which meant it didn't affect the neighbors like an ordinary business. That's why the federal courts allowed it to stay. It might be comforting for city officials to delude themselves, as they are, that this fight was not about sex, but about keeping zoning relevant in the Internet age. That is ridiculous. The entire reason for zoning -- community impact -- was nonexistent in Voyeur Dorm's case.
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From the Times Opinion page |
