American Notes PORNOGRAPHY

By charging callers up to $50 for the chance to talk dirty, telephone sex services have become a $2.4 billion business. The Federal Communications Commission has gone after them with a regulation banning interstate telephone services that are obscene or indecent. Porn operators challenged the ruling, and last week federal courts in Los Angeles and New York City upheld the FCC's right to regulate obscenity but not the less explicit indecency. "I don't know if my client will still be able to operate now," said the attorney for one sex service.

Pornographers may not be the only merchants feeling the heat. An Assistant U.S. Attorney in the West expects the FCC regulation may be enforced against telephone services that do business with sex-talk companies.