The Society has raised serious concerns directly with ASB Showgrounds CEO Mark Frankham and his management team over their decision to allow the venue to be hired by an insolvent hardcore porn promo company – Erotica Expo Ltd – that was placed into liquidation on 27 May 2009 under the name Malibu Media Ltd. In a hostile move designed to stiffle freedom of expression, its former director Porn King Steve Crow threatens to throw any person out of the porn sleaze ASB venue who dares to record any image using a camera, video or pxt phone; and threatens to strip them of any electronic device film/memory card, should such images be recorded. The Society’s letter has yet to be answered by the management board which the Society has been informed has met to consider its concerns and will do so again on Monday next week. Management will be aware that it is a serious breach of the Companies Act 1993 for a company director to attempt to carry on trading when his company is in liquidation and/or use the name of an unregistered company for the purposes of trading. The Society’s letter to ASB Showground management is set out below.
Urgent Attention
CEO Mark Frankham & Senior Management/Director(s)
ASB Showgrounds
217 Greenlane West
Greenlane 1051
Auckland
C/- Ms Nicola Harris
Operations Coordinator
ASB Showgrounds
16 September 2009
Re: Erotica Lifestyles Expo 2009
Dear Sir/Madam
We are delighted to learn that the ASB Showgrounds have been so well patronised for some very worthwhile events including the recent Auckland Home Show and we commend your management for staging events like the forthcoming Speed Show and the delicious-sounding “Taste of Japan” – the latter to be held at the Logan Campbell Centre on 19th September as a free community event. Some of our members hope to attend the latter event that will no doubt bring together many different ethnic communities of all ages and promote increased understanding of Japanese culture and cuisine and stimulate a good community spirit.
Having begun with some genuine positive endorsements of your fine efforts, we would like to alert you and your management to some matters of deep concern to us and raise with you 10 serious questions about the Erotica Expo Lifestyles (EEL) event scheduled at the ASB Showgrounds.
Background to Questions:
We note that all event organisers, including those of the EEL, agree to your Terms of Service before proceeding with formalised bookings and payments. Your website legal section states:
“(ASB Showgrounds” or “we” or “us”) provides its service to you, subject to the following Terms of Service (“TOS”),
“ASB Showgrounds shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages…”
Source: http://www.asbshowgrounds.co.nz/terms.html
We recognise that the ASB Showgrounds Management is a legal entity and its Terms of Service are succinctly and thoughtfully presented. An organisation with a dispute with any of these terms can resolve such matters in the Courts via formal legal proceedings if it chooses to do so.
However, it would appear that the “Erotica Expo Lifestyles” event is not organised by any such a legal entity or legally constituted organisation (see website www.eroticaexpo.co.nz). Furthermore, its organiser(s) seek to place draconian restrictions on the freedom of expression of individuals who pay $20.00 to attend the event and the organisers have ‘served notice’ that they intend to physically remove them and any electronic devices such as videos, cell phones, etc that may have used to record images – if used within the venue – and to wipe images taken. (“Any person[s] found taking video or still images will immediately be removed from the premises and will have their images erased.”). Will vulnerable men and women be manhandled by persons not lawfully entitled to do so? (police officers have this right in certain circumstances).
Here is the relevant Expo policy copied below from their website (highlighted in italics)
No Camera Policy:
http://www.eroticaexpo.co.nz/show/view/4
Please remember that Erotica has a strictly NO CAMERA POLICY. We do not allow visitors to use cameras, video-cameras or pxt phones withing [SIC] the venue.
This policy is there for your privacy as well as ours and our stars. This rule greatly reduces the chances that someone will snap a photo of you or accidently [SIC] catch you on video. There is less chance of you being photographed doing something you would rather not have captured on film. There is also less chance of you being filmed at the show with someone other than your significant other if you get our drift.
ONLY AUTHORISED PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE PERMITTED TO TAKE PHOTOS OR FILM AT THE SHOW AND PLEASE TELL THEM IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE FILMED. THEY WILL RESPECT YOUR WISHES.
Any person[s] found taking video or still images will immediately be removed from the premises and will have their images erased.
_________________
http://www.eroticaexpo.co.nz/ticket_info
You can also buy at Ticketek from 1 August 2009. Booking fee applies.
Strictly R18, No cameras.
Gate sales on all expo days.
No Camera Policy:
No Camera, video, or pxt phone use permitted within the Expo
Any person[s] found taking video or still images will immediately be removed from the premises and will have their images erased.
Our Society’s national executive requests that you urgently address the following questions and provide us with answers as soon as possible – questions that relate to the forthcoming Erotica Lifestyles Expo. The organiser(s) of this event appear to have provided no evidence to the public via their website advertisements or elsewhere that they constitute a legal entity or a responsible entity that can apply the law in this way to restrict the activities of adults. There are no copyright laws applicable here and the staged event involving imported “porn stars” does not appear to have the backing of any management linked to a legal entity or properly constituted organisation. The organiser(s) have provided no details as to how they are going to enforce the R18 restrictions on the event (photo ID etc). Who are they responsible to for their actions?
Questions for ASB Showgrounds Management:
Question 1: What is/are the name(s) and details of the legal entity/entities responsible for staging Erotica Lifestyles Expo and who among its organisers have the legal authority to deal with any defamatory or criminal allegations that may be made by members of the public who may feel they have been badly manhandled by Expo staff (in such cases as their having had private property – cameras, videos etc – unjustifiably confiscated and tampered with – images erased etc.- and being forcefully removed from an event they paid to attend)?
Question 2. Has the ASB Showgrounds management been alerted to the nature of the public sex acts that have in the past been performed at the Expo – lewd and to some offensive activities – that its organisers do not want the public to film or otherwise record?
Question 3. Will the ASB management be taking any responsibility themselves for any infringement(s) of the public’s rights to use a camera or cell phone in a showground that has staged all manner of family friendly and adult friendly responsible events where the use of cameras has apparently, to our knowledge, never been restricted before (with the exception of other Erotica Lifestyles Expos)?
Question 4. Has ASB management considered the “human rights” issues involved when an event organiser(s), who can apparently lay claim to no copyright law, legal protection of privacy provision, gives notice that he intends to restrict fee-paying patrons of the Expo using their cameras, videos and cell phones etc?
Question 5. What do the restrictions being sought by the organiser(s) tell management about the lawfulness and nature of the publicly performed lewd adult sex acts being planned for ‘fun-loving’ adults to witness and enjoy?
Question 6. What advice can ASB management give to members of the public who are planning to attend the Expo and exert/test their rights to use cameras and videos and who do not intend to allow themselves to be man-handled by persons claiming to be part of the control monitors/’bouncers’ of an event that is not staged by any legally constituted entity?
Question 7. What relationship does the ASB management have with the police officers who will be needed to ensure the human rights and freedom of expression are not curtailed by those who wish to engage in lewd sex acts on stage or record images of such activities?
Question 8. Is the ASB management supportive of the claimed rights of the organiser(s) of Erotica Lifestyles Expo to physically remove persons from the premises and … have their images erased – based on a claim that they have taken a photo – and if so, will they be a party to any legal proceedings that may follow such incidents?
Question 9. Is the ASB management aware of any other exhibitor or event organiser who has ever used ASB Showground facilities and made similar sorts of threats of physical violence (forced removal, private property tampered with etc) as made by the Expo organiser(s), and if so who are they?
Question 10: Is ASB management aware that Mr Stephen Peter Crow (Steve Crow), who fronts the Erotica Lifestyles Expo, has been convicted in the Courts over 30 criminal charges of disseminating “objectionable” sexual material under the Films, Videos and Publication Classification Act 1993, has had many adult videos/DVDs he has produced and submitted for classification banned by the Classification Office for containing objectionable sexual content, has been effectively banned by a Court ruling and a ruling from a Cabinet Minister – from trying to film a porn star giving birth in the Waikato Hospital and using the footage in a porn film, and has faced police investigation for death threats of violence made against a porn competitor? If so, have these well-publicised facts influenced management in their decision to allow the Expo to proceed as scheduled? (documentation in the public domain can be supplied on request by the Society)?
We look forward to receiving your detailed responses to these questions as soon as possible. They are raised with you out of deep concern by our national executive and members, and other community groups we are in regular contact with.
POLICE PRESENCE & OTHER MATTERS
Recently Stephen Peter Crow (Steve Crow), the promoter of Erotica Lifestyles Expo spoke at a meeting of over 100 persons at the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce Business After 5 function at the New Plymouth RSA. The Taranaki Daily News (27/08/09) reported his threatening comments directed at some businessmen in the audience who had indicated to organisers that they wanted to question him and his business partner over tens of thousands of dollars owed to them by the Crow bothers.
Steve Crow stated:
“Well, let me say right from the start that it won’t work. I receive an average of three death threats a week. I get bullets sent to me in the mail. Letters claiming to contain anthrax. None of this sort of thing scares me. So I want to warn you that all you’ll do is embarrass yourself and then get thrown out.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2807093/Crow-ready-to-tackle-hecklers-at-meeting.
As one commentator stated in response to this report:
“Surely anyone who actually gets these types of threats weekly needs to take a hard look at themselves and if for example, the threats come from angry creditors, rather than try and intimidate them into silence – potentially fuelling counter threats and animosity – they should meet their financial obligations. Four of Steve Crow’s porn companies currently in liquidation owe creditors over $1.3 million. David Crow’s company – Buildwise Ltd (In Liq) owes money to over 50 creditors who are likely to get nothing. Many might see Steve Crow’s ramble about death threats as pathetic – the last cries of a man seeking public sympathy and trying to fend off his creditors with bullying, bluster, vitriol, BS, and hubris.”
ACTION REQUESTED FROM SHOWGROUND MANAGEMENT
In the light of Mr Steve Crow’s well documented bullying tactics and threats……………
The Society formally requests that if the ASB Showground Management does decide to allow the Erotica Lifestyles Expo to go ahead, that it ensure that a significant police presence and security (with surveillance cameras) ibe provided at the event. If it is not provided, the ASB management, having been alerted to issues raised above, may find itself legally responsible for any actions taken against organisers.
A police presence will be necessary at the venue to protect the public who attend. Security cameras are regarded by the public as synonymous with security and not providing them, (undoubtedly can be readily supplied by Showground management), could put the public at risk. An OSH incident could well arise in that situation, if security were to be absent and all cameras banned. Young people who attend have the right to be protected and such security in the form of video footage should be available for that purpose.
If the event does go ahead with the ‘blessing’ of ASB Showground Management, authorised security staff would need to check identification at the gates to all venues to ensure that under 18 year olds are not exposed to R18-rated material and also prevent alcohol being taken in or served to minors (if a licence has been granted to event organisers).
If this event, one that is clearly at odds with the community standards held by most New Zealanders, is deemed to be offensive to the public and neighbours, it may need special resource consent. The neighbourhood needs to be adequately informed of the nature of the R18-rated activities on display so that they may, if they wish, lay a complaint under the Resource Management Act and/or the Local Government Act about any aspect of nuisance that they perceive may be caused from this event. The ASB management may need to provide notice and apply for a special resource consent to run this event. That would require the neighbourhood to be provided with precise details of the event in advance and be given sufficient time to object.
We would appreciate a prompt acknowledgement of this communication. Also please provide the names of the Management Team who supported the decision to allow Erotica Lifestyles Expo to use the ASB Showgrounds facility.
Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. (SPCS)
(A registered Charity with the Charities Commission)
P.O. Box 13-683 Johnsonville. Society Website: https://www.spcs.org.nz
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