Porn Valley- I spoke to Max Hardcore a couple of times Tuesday, but each time Max is saying there’s something funny with his phone lines.

I’m willing to bet that Max has been tapped by the Feds, and it wouldn’t be surprising. They got him out of town long enough to do it. And don’t forget how the last time he was out of town, they brought a SWAT team in on an obscenity raid and blew a hole in his floor with a shotgun.

That was when he was in Barcelona. This time Max was a guest of Tampa for an obscenity trial. And Tampa showed how it might be one of the few places in the south where they lynch white boys from a tree.

Curiously, the Tampa papers have a lot more to say about Max now than they did during his trial. The newspaper item that got his attention was the same item that got mine. The fact that the jury had a book deal in place. And as viability goes, a not guilty verdict doesn’t sell books.

“We learned about that book deal fifteen minutes after the verdict,” he says. “It stinks.”

Which means if the knowledge was already that apparent, the argument can also be made that the jury had been compromised from the outset. Max, who likewise agrees on the point that Jaded Video sold him out as well, is appealing his conviction.

“But if I have to go to jail, I’ll hold my head proud,” he says. “I’ll go down fighting, but I’m going to be the guy to take it to these sonsofbitches.”

Max is convinced that his case will rewrite obscenity law.

“And I’m tired of the way they’ve been treating my case like it’s one of assault and battery,” he says. Max is referring to the Tampa Tribune’s comment calling his movies “violent garbage”.

“No one is forced to watch my movies,” he says. “And certainly the fans in Tampa seemed to like them.”