Alan analyses the upholding of the decision in the Glenn Marcus S/M trial:
Throughout the decision, Judge Ross exhibits a clear and articulate attempt to understand the differences between consensual BDSM and non-consensual criminal activity. She has numerous opportunities where she can take cheap shots at the S/m community by castigating them as freaks. But she does not. In fact, on several occasions, she endorses the rights of adults to legally engage in such activities, so long as there is consent. In this case, however, one of the parties argued that there was no consent. As a result, Judge Ross takes a careful analysis of the claims made by both Marcus and the victim. The judge indicates that the jury also carefully weighed the evidence and thus affirmed the findings of the jury.
Overall, this decision is actually a positive result for activists who support the right to engage in consensual S/m.
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Tristan writes about the Glenn Marcus BDSM trial (and also mentions Alan):
I don’t know enough about Marcus and Jodi to know if there were some serious personality flaws lurking beneath their chosen roles. What is clear is that the relationship began as consensual but, for Jodi, at some point this changed. It’s possible that she regretted her participation and re-wrote her role into an unwilling victim, but it’s equally likely that Marcus lost touch with reality, believed he actually owned her, and behaved accordingly. The relationship was even thornier because it was entwined with a for-profit business. Masters and mistresses order their slaves to do lots of things: clean the house, lick Mistress’s boots, give Master a blowjob, and so on. When Marcus made his slave do things or he did things to her, there was profit to be made from it—more specifically, from the photos he took and posted on Slavespace.com, which was membership-based. Furthermore, he tasked her with working on technical aspects of the site and considered that part of her service to him as a slave, so he didn’t pay her. (Sources I spoke to said they both lived off the site’s profits.)
We may never know the whole truth of this he-say-she-say story, but jurors determined that Marcus crossed the line. Alan, a lawyer who spoke to several experts who testified and who blogged about the trial (alanesq.livejournal.com), told me he believes Marcus’s fate probably hinged on the fact that Jodi consented to non-consensual play—a concept not unheard of among players, but one which negates the consent.
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