Here's Ira's story, in his own words, something he wrote while he was waiting for the jury to come back in his second trial, the case that ended with the hung jury. He turned down many offers of a plea:
http://business.avn.com/articles/leg...ys-467723.html
Mark Kernes' article at AVN says he was convicted on 5 counts. It's five years per count maximum. It sounds like the government also prevailed on the forfeiture of assets count as well. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines add points for BDSM, Internet Distribution, being head of an enterprise, and the revenues add points as well. It's unlikely in the extreme that he's eligible for probation.
I read each of Mark Kernes's articles. It sounds like Roger Diamond did as good a job as any human could do in defending this kind of material. You should know that Ira ran out of money a long time ago. Roger did this third trial for nothing.
It also sounds like this judge was fair and decent and gave Ira a fair trial, and that's not the case in most of the trials we've read about in recent years.
The XBIZ mistake was a fluke. I got the email, too, only to find a prompt retraction without an explanation of how it ran in the first place.
Not just a sad day for Ira. It's a sad day for all of us whenever censorship prevails. No matter what. Government should not be in the business of controlling what people can view, read, and buy, no matter how distasteful to how many people.