Homeowners' association allowed to control what goes on inside home

Everyone thinks I'm exaggerating when I talk about conservatives trying to control what people do in the bedroom. The usual response is that it simply can't happen in America in 2008. But this story proves it does.

In Longwood, Florida, a homeowners' association sued an owner of a house because she rented it out to residents who ran a porn website using a webcam. This was not a business that had customers coming to the home. Rather, the site's business came from people viewing it over the Internet.

There was nothing illegal about it. Producing porn that features only adults generally is not illegal. Distributing such legally protected material over the 'Net also is not illegal. So the homeowners' association needs to fuck off.

One of the association's excuses for filing the suit was that people in nearby houses might look in through the window of the offending house and see porn. Um, ever hear of not looking in other people's houses? If you don't want to see it, then don't peep through the windows. Simple.

Who would have ever thought any court would side with the homeowners' association? Well, it's Florida - a state with one of the most anti-people records of the past quarter-century. Homeowners' associations pretty much do what they want there. So the association in this case actually won its lawsuit, believe it or not!

Suppose your apartment lease has a clause that prevents you from a running a business from the apartment. Does that mean your landlord can evict you if you run a revenue-generating blog that you write on your home computer? If you make a living writing books, can you be evicted for working on your book at home? That's exactly what this is like. There's almost no difference whatsoever.

It shows you what a dangerous precedent is set by this ruling. About the only difference is that a homeowners' association doesn't even own the dwellings! It's essentially been allowed to become a private entity with government-like powers. If a homeowners' association that doesn't even own the buildings can go after someone for what they do in private, what's to stop a zealous local government from doing the same?

(Source: http://www.wftv.com/news/15442260/detail.html)