September 22, 2001 02:36am
Voyeur Dorm Web site can keep filming, court says
Source: Reuters
(NEW YORK, NY) -- Voyeur Dorm, an Internet company that broadcasts uncensored video of college-age women living in a house equipped with video cameras, can continue to film from its Tampa, Florida, site, a federal appeals court ruled.
The decision, which was handed down on Friday and overturns a lower court ruling, comes after a two-year effort by the city of Tampa to shutter Voyeur Dorm for operating what it called an ``adult entertainment'' business in a residence. The company charges $39.99 for a monthly membership and brought in revenues of more than $3 million between 1998 and 2000.
A judge at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed with Voyeur Dorm that it was not subject to zoning rules for adult entertainment businesses because it used the facility to distribute video, not to physically host customers.
``The City Code cannot be applied to a location that does not, itself, offer adult entertainment to the public,'' the judge wrote in.
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