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Judge Fay Explains How CocoDorm.com Works!

Hey it's Friday, right, so why not have Judge Fay explain the business model of Miami's own CocoDorm.com:

The CocoDorm website transmits images, via webcam, of the residents of 503 Northeast 27th Street, Miami, Florida, over the internet. This residence, which is zoned multifamily high-density residential (R-4), is owned by Angel Barrios and leased to Flava Works, Inc. The persons residing at the 27th Street residence are independent contractors of Flava Works, and, in exchange for $1,200 per month plus free room and board, are expected to engage in sexual relations which are captured by the webcams located throughout the house. Individual subscribers pay Flava Works, through the CocoDorm website, for access to live or recorded video feeds, including sexually explicit conduct, from the webcams in the 27th Street residence.

Kids, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Unfortunately, Judge Fay found that Judge Cooke erroneously relied on that venerable precedent we all remember from law school, Voyeur Dorm:

The district court?s reliance on Voyeur Dorm in concluding that Flava Works was not operating a business at the 27th Street residence is misguided. Just because the Tampa ordinance defining ?adult entertainment establishments? limits its application to businesses does not mean the ordinance applies to all businesses.

Furthermore, Voyeur Dorm did not hold that the Tampa residence was not a business, it merely held that the residence was not an adult business establishment (where there was no public offering of adult entertainment), which is a much narrower conclusion. We agree with Flava Works that an adult business is always a business. However, the opposite is not necessarily true. The vast majority of businesses are not adult businesses but are nevertheless prohibited within residential zones. As such, we decline to apply such an expansive reading of Voyeur Dorm and find that it does not address a prohibition against the operation of all businesses within a residential zone.

Inexplicably, neither party cited Venetian Salami.

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on June 25, 2010 (boomark / email).