Pornography is Not Education v. EBSCO Industries, Inc, et al

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DISTRICT COURT, ARAPAHOE COUNTY,

COLORADO

Court Address: 7325 South Potomac Street, #100,

Centennial, CO 80112

▲ Court Use Only ▲

Plaintiff: PORNOGRAPHY IS NOT EDUCATION

v.

Defendants: EBSCO INDUSTRIES, INC. and

COLORADO LIBRARY CONSORTIUM.

Attorneys for Plaintiff

Matthew F. Heffron (pending pro hac application)

THOMAS MORE SOCIETY

and Brown & Brown, LLC

501 Scoular Building

2027 Dodge Street

Omaha, Nebraska 68102

(402) 346-5010

Theresa Lynn Sidebotham, #36713

TELIOS LAW PLLC

19925 Monument Hill Rd.

Monument, CO 80132 (physical)

P.O. Box 3488

Monument, CO 80132 (mailing)

(855) 748-4201

FAX Number: 775-248-8147

E-Mail: tls@telioslaw.com

Case No.:

Div.: Ctrm:

COMPLAINT AND JURY DEMAND

Pornography is Not Education, for its causes of action against the Defendants EBSCO Industries, Inc. and Colorado Library Consortium, alleges as follows:

 PARTIES

1. Pornography is Not Education is a voluntary association of Colorado residents, including parents and grandparents of elementary, junior-high and high-school students in the Colorado public school systems who have been impacted by  research databases provided by EBSCO. Pornography is Not Education exists to advocate for beneficial, age-appropriate educational materials and opportunities for youth, particularly in Colorado, assuring especially that such materials and opportunities are not pornographic, obscene as to minors or otherwise harmful to minors.

2. EBSCO Industries Inc. (EBSCO) is incorporated in and has its headquarters in the State of Massachusetts. It also lists with the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts its “principal office” in Birmingham, Alabama. It is licensed and doing business in Colorado. Through one of its divisions known as EBSCO Information Services, EBSCO is in the business of developing and selling online research databases for use by school children in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

3. The Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) is a nonprofit corporation that derives a

substantial portion of its income from an appropriation of Colorado state funds that flows through the Colorado State Library, a division of Colorado state government. CLiC grew out of and succeeded the regional library service system previously established by the Colorado legislature. CLiC describes itself as a quasi-governmental entity, required to adhere to Colorado’s open meeting laws. CLiC brokers EBSCO products to Colorado libraries serving school children in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

4. This Court has jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s claims pursuant to § 13-1-124(1)(a) and (b), C.R.S. 2018.

5. Venue is proper in this Court pursuant to C.R.C.P. 98 because some of the deceptive trade practices, torts, services and transactions at issue in this action were committed in Arapahoe County.

6. Venue also is proper in in this Court pursuant to C.R.C.P. 98 because the only resident defendant, CLiC, is headquartered in Arapahoe County.

GENERAL ALLEGATIONS

EBSCO KNOWINGLY PROVIDES SEXUALLY EXPLICIT AND OBSCENE MATERIALS TO SCHOOL CHILDREN

7. For a fee, EBSCO provides online research databases, which include a curated selection of e-books, journals, magazines and other materials.

8. Some of EBSCO’s online research databases are marketed as appropriate for school children, kindergarten through high school, thus involving children approximately 5 through 18 years of age.

9. For such research databases targeting school children, EBSCO controls and limits the content. The content is not the same as materials that can be found by conducting general searches on the internet. EBSCO promotes its databases to schools specifically because it is a more efficient way to search for information and do research, due to the limited and controlled offerings within its database.

10. EBSCO falsely promotes its products to schools by advertising that the materials it provides for school children:

a. are “age-appropriate content that’s easy for young learners to search and explore;”

b. are “reliably high-quality from a variety of popular children’s sources;”

c. are “tailored for elementary, middle and high school libraries;”

d. “Support… Elementary School Curriculum Standards;”

e. “correlate EBSCO content quickly and easily to Common Core and state

curriculum standards;”

f. have “reliable content” and “curriculum-appropriate content.”

11. At all times material, EBSCO has known its research databases specifically targeting school children have contained, and continue to contain, substantial amounts of easily accessible, sexually explicit material, which is obscene with respect to minors and/or is harmful to minors, as these terms are legally defined.

12. In addition to sexually explicit materials on the EBSCO database itself, the database also contains links outside the database to sex toy shops, to porn sites, to misogynistic materials espousing violence towards women and to “torture-porn” sites, among other sites.

13. EBSCO knowingly provides this obscene and harmful content on a database system that bypasses school internet filters and private, parent-supplied internet filters.

14. Unsuspecting school children, believing themselves to be using a safe school research database, easily can stumble into these sexually explicit and obscene materials while searching otherwise benign topics on EBSCO databases.

THE COLORADO LIBRARY CONSORTIUM PURCHASES FROM EBSCO AND

KNOWINGLY BROKERS SEXUALLLY EXPLICIT, OBSCENE AND

HARMFUL MATERIALS TO COLORADO SCHOOL CHILDREN

15. The Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) is a tax-supported, nonprofit corporation that brokers materials to libraries throughout Colorado, including school-based libraries.

16. EBSCO sells its school database materials in bulk to CLiC.

17. CLiC then resells these EBSCO database materials to school districts, schools and libraries throughout Colorado.

18. On its website as of the date of this Complaint, CLiC listed 171 Colorado school libraries to which it brokers materials such as EBSCO’s K-12 school research databases.

19. Since at least September, 2012, through the present, EBSCO has sold such materials and services to CLiC, knowing CLiC then would distribute such databases to Colorado schools and libraries expressly for use by minors.

20. CLiC also distributes EBSCO products to public libraries throughout Colorado, knowing that schools in Colorado currently direct minor students to local public libraries to use EBSCO as “homework” tools. Some Colorado schools provide inducements, links, and even library card numbers to attract children to these EBSCO “homework” databases at public libraries, as CLiC is aware.

21. Since at least September 2012, CLiC knowingly has parroted EBSCO’s deceptive

advertising that EBSCO materials are age-appropriate for school children, including posting on CLiC’s website such promotions as:

a. “Help the Kiddos with Their Homework!,” written by CLiC’s executive director,

in which CLiC promoted a “webinar on how to utilize EBSCOhost, Searchasaurus, and Kids Search interfaces, [to] learn how to access grade appropriate

resources….”; and

b. “Couldn’t do my homework; The dog ate my research!,” in which CLiC

promoted another webinar, claiming, “Students will have no excuses when you

show them great homework help resources like EBSCO's Middle Search and

MAS-Ultra databases…. These databases offer … ways to integrate with Core

Curriculum….”

c. republished EBSCO ads and links deceptively showing very young children

enjoying EBSCO’s “Novelist Plus” product, knowing Novelist Plus makes easily

available to school children the vilest of adult obscenity.

22. CLiC has promoted its own expertise and familiarity with the content of EBSCO

databases by offering training to school personnel, together with the Colorado State Library, in using EBSCO products.

23. Since 2016, parents who are now members of Pornography is Not Education have notified CLiC about the easily accessible, sexually explicit and obscene materials on EBSCO’s databases marketed to school children and have requested CLiC to take action to protect Colorado school children from it.

24. After this controversy erupted publicly in Colorado over EBSCO’s sexually explicit databases, CLiC’s executive director was quoted on the Cherry Creek School District’s website, posted April 17, 2017, stating falsely that EBSCO’s databases for school children are “educational resources that are vetted and dependable.”

25. CLiC has taken no discernible action to remove from materials it brokered for use by school children any of the easily accessible, sexually explicit EBSCO materials.

26. Instead of working with the parents and complying with its legal obligations, CLiC published a 25-page document on March 1, 2018, posted it on CLiC’s website and sent it to all of CLiC’s member schools and libraries, attacking the Colorado parents and citizens who raised concerns, even listing some of them by name.

27. In its attack on parents, CLiC made a number of objectively deceptive statements about these parents and Colorado citizens. For instance, CLiC repeatedly alleged that “They demanded removal of ALL electronic content from their child’s school district” and even titled the attack piece, “Demanding a Ban on All Digital Content!” CLiC was well aware that these Colorado parents and citizens never requested a removal of all databases but only requested that sexually

explicit and obscene content be curated out of those EBSCO databases specifically targeting school children.

28. In its attack piece, CLiC also alleged that these Colorado parents and citizens are “on a crusade to ban and burn all electronic resources from schools and libraries,” and accused certain parents of “modern day book burning.” CLiC was well aware these accusations were malicious, false and intentionally inflammatory.

29. These attacks indicate CLiC supports EBSCO’s practice of supplying sexually explicit and obscene materials to minors through databases targeting school children.

30. On information and belief, EBSCO provides substantial monetary grants and awards to its business partners, including schools and individual school employees, as well as free conferences and travel to attractive destinations.

31. EBSCO gives discounts for bulk rates to purchasers such as CLiC.

32. As of the date of this Complaint, CLiC continues to broker EBSCO materials throughout Colorado to school libraries and to public libraries for use as “homework” databases.

PROVIDING SEXUALLY EXPLICIT AND OBSCENE MATERIALS

TO SCHOOL CHILDREN VIOLATES FEDERAL AND STATE LAW

AND IS HARMFUL TO CHILDREN.

33. Making accessible to school children materials that are sexually explicit and obscene-as-to-children is against the law. For instance, it violates the following well-established federal and state statutes:

a. § 18-7-102(1.5), C.R.S. 2018, prohibition of wholesale promotion of obscenity to

a minor;

b. 18 U.S.C. § 1470, prohibition of interstate transfer of obscene material to a minor under 16 years of age;

c. 18 U.S.C. § 2252C, prohibition of words or digital images on internet with intent

to deceive minor into viewing harmful or obscene material;

d. 47 U.S.C. § 254, requiring schools and libraries to block internet access to

materials that are obscene or harmful to minors in order to receive certain federal

funding;

e. § 24-90-603, C.R.S. 2018, requirement of a technology protection measure for

each computer operated by the public library that allows access to the internet by

a minor;

f. 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq., Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act,

which specifically defines “racketeering activity” to include “dealing in obscene

matter”).

34. The characteristics of materials that are obscene-as-to-minors and harmful-as-to-minors are defined in these statutes, which definitions have withstood legal challenges.

35. In addition to being in violation of the law, providing school-age children with sexually explicit and obscene materials harms children.

PREVIOUS NONLITIGATION ATTEMPTS HAVE FAILED TO REASONABLY

RESOLVE THE ILLEGAL SUPPLY OF SEXUALLLY EXPLICIT AND OBSCENE

MATERIALS TO COLORADO SCHOOL CHILDREN.

36. In September, 2016, parents who are now members of Pornography is Not Education discovered pornographic material was easily accessible from the online libraries of a number of middle schools and high schools in Colorado, including those in Arapahoe County, Colorado.

37. At that time and in the following months, the parents discovered the EBSCO research databases available to Colorado school children included the following materials:

a. An ad for “Novelist Plus” showed a pre-teen girl reading in a field of flowers,

with the words, “Looking for a Good Book?” and recommended a “summer

reading list” for children. Instead of only age-appropriate reading materials,

Novelist Plus also contained hundreds of erotic and BDSM (bondage, discipline,

sadomasochism) stories, which could be located through an innocent search such

as one on “romance.” Among Novelist Plus’ offerings to which a child quickly

could arrive, unexpectedly, were “Candy Licker,” “Pleasure Bound” and

“Nailed,” all as pornographic as the titles indicate.

b. Another EBSCO product available to children included such admittedly “explicit”

entries as “Bondage bites: 69 super-short stories of love, lust and BDSM”.

c. EBSCO’s “ABC-CLIO” package, marketed to school children, contained a full text

e-book entitled “Pornography in America: A Reference Handbook,” which

contained live url links to AVN, a company hosting video pornography and

promoting the pornography industry.

d. Although EBSCO provides a “Novelist K-8” package of programs, it also

willingly provided to any school district in Colorado, even for the junior-high

level, the adult “Novelist” version. The adult “Novelist” includes a variety of

sexually explicit materials and materials obscene as to minors, including a

category entitled “Adult Erotica.”

e. Even EBSCO’s “Novelist K-8” package contained sexually explicit material, as

well as providing urls to websites such as “Brent’s Brain,” which links to video

pornography and graphic sexual novels, under the guise of “safe sex education.”

f. Searching EBSCO’s children’s databases for benign search terms such as

“robotics,” “girl’s stories,” “boy stories,” “grade 7 biology,” “sea stories,”

“future,” and “respiration,” – searches to be expected for young students – these

parents discovered hyperlinks within the EBSCO children’s database to such

search terms as “Lust”, “Bondage,” “Sex Toys,” “Dildos,” and “Sexual

Positions.”

g. At one point, researchers discovered on EBSCO’s research databases marketed to school children more than 100 different instances advertising for a particular

large-scale sex toy store.

h. Available on EBSCO databases was “Scarleteen.com,” which advises children,

among other things, how to use saran wrap to prevent sexually transmitted

diseases and how to ask a partner for more kink.

i. EBSCO K-12 digital products linked to “torture-porn” sites.

38. Throughout 2016 and 2017, parents who are now members of Pornography is Not Education brought to the attention of Colorado’s Cherry Creek School District these materials, and other materials in EBSCO databases for school children, which were sexually-explicit and obscene-as-to-minors and harmful to minors. For two years, they requested exclusion of these sexually explicit and obscene EBSCO materials at a number of school board meetings and by way of letters and emails to Cherry Creek School District executive personnel and to related entities, including EBSCO and CLiC.

39. In late August 2018, after a full two years and just prior to filing a law suit against the Cherry Creek School District, Cherry Creek informed members of Pornography is not Education that Cherry Creek had decided to discontinue its subscription to EBSCO.

40. It is the Plaintiff’s understanding from Cherry Creek School District that the school district never has had the ability to filter sexually explicit or obscene text, images or hyperlinks from materials in EBSCO’s databases for school children.

41. To curtail EBSCO and CLiC’s deceptive and illegal activities, parents should not be forced to engage in protracted, time-consuming and psychologically draining efforts in every school district throughout Colorado, with the prospect of uncertain results, when even successful results could be reversed at any time.

42. As of the date of this Complaint, on EBSCO databases for school children in various schools and school districts in counties in Colorado, Pornography is Not Education was able easily to access materials that were sexually-explicit and obscene-as-to-minors and harmful to minors.

EBSCO’S DECEPTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE RESPONSE TO REQUESTS

FOR IT TO EXCLUDE SEXUALLY EXPLICIT AND OBSCENE MATERIALS

FROM ITS DATABASES FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN.

43. After a parents’ letter in October, 2016, to the Colorado Association of School Boards, parents who are now members of Pornography is Not Education received an email from the chief executive officer of EBSCO, acknowledging the parents’ concerns and making assurances the problems would be corrected.

44. The parents emailed a response to the EBSCO CEO with further concerns and specific questions. The EBSCO CEO did not respond. He has failed to respond up to the present, despite parents’ additional attempts to contact him.

45. In November, 2016, one of the parents now a member of Pornography is Not Education spoke with a Senior Technical Support Manager at EBSCO, who acknowledged the sexually explicit and obscene content of the EBSCO databases for school children. He admitted EBSCO had accepted responsibility for the sexually explicit and obscene content in its school databases.

46. On November 18, 2016, one of the parents now a member of Pornography is Not Education spoke with the EBSCO sales representative who sold EBSCO products to CLiC. He admitted EBSCO was fully aware of the sexually explicit content of its school products marketed even to elementary schools.

47. He also admitted the only filtering EBSCO would be willing to perform would be a simplistic measure involving vocabulary.

48. In January 2017, a representative of EBSCO informed a parent now a member of Pornography is Not Education that “some changes” had been made to EBSCO’s “Novelist” package of programs. He expressed frustration, however, that EBSCO had acted outside its normal policy, under which it typically would not have made any changes to one of its products in response to parents’ complaints.

49. The changes that EBSCO made to “Novelist” involved simply restructuring the “Adult Erotica” category. However, as of January 2017, books were still available through “GoodReads” links that lead children to previews containing pornographic text.

50. As of January 2017, EBSCO added an introduction to the topic of BDSM to its Novelist product which directed users, including middle school and high school children, to sadomasochistic erotica and other pornographic books.

51. In February 2017, because of the materials EBSCO provides to Colorado school children, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation named EBSCO to the “2017 Dirty Dozen List” of the worst twelve corporations in America that perpetuate sexual exploitation.

52. In response, EBSCO began communicating with the National Center on Sexual

Exploitation over the next several months and implemented some changes. In June 2017, EBSCO informed the National Center on Sexual Exploitation the problems had been resolved on EBSCO’s databases available for children.

53. Nonetheless, on June 26, 2017, researchers for the National Center on Sexual

Exploitation were able to access, in 50 minutes, more than 50 sexually explicit articles and images. The vast majority of these sexually explicit results came directly from EBSCO’s databases marketed to junior high schools and elementary schools.

54. In response to being publicly exposed a second time for providing materials to school children that are sexually explicit and obscene as to minors, EBSCO issued additional deceptive statements – which mislead the public into a false sense of security -- such as: We offer a range of resources, including several tailored for elementary, middle and high school libraries, that aggregate mainstream content from a broad range of trusted publishers. … EBSCO employs school educators and librarians with advanced degrees to oversee and determine appropriate content for inclusion in our K-l2 databases. … Because EBSCO is also the largest subscription agent for K-12 schools, we have detailed knowledge of the specific publications to which schools subscribe. … Our aim is to select the most appropriate, educationally valuable content to include in these databases….

55. In February, 2018, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation again returned EBSCO to the “Dirty Dozen List” of the worst corporations in America that perpetuate sexual exploitation.

56. After the extended campaign by Colorado parents and citizens and by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation as described above, the most EBSCO would agree to do is to remove certain publications or specific articles, for a particular school or school district, if that entity specifically requested such exclusions.

57. Since EBSCO advertises that it makes hundreds of thousands of resources available in its databases, with a constant turnover of information, that would require schools to be reviewing such materials constantly on an ongoing basis, which would be logistically and financially impractical, if not impossible.

58. Throughout all of the material time periods described above, EBSCO’s website has repeatedly promised schools that EBSCO content is age-appropriate and curriculum-appropriate. That is false. Such statements are knowing misrepresentations by EBSCO.

EBSCO CONTINUES TO PROVIDE SEXUALLY EXPLICIT AND

OBSCENE MATERIALS TO SCHOOL CHILDREN

BECAUSE EBSCO MAKES MORE MONEY BY DOING SO.

58. Technology exists to allow EBSCO to exclude materials that are sexually explicit and obscene-as-to-minors from its databases for school children.

59. Such technology would be relatively inexpensive for a corporation like EBSCO to apply or even to develop and certainly would not be cost prohibitive.

60. Nonetheless, EBSCO has chosen not to apply such technology to protect school children from sexually explicit material and material obscene and harmful as to children.

61. An EBSCO sales representative for Colorado admitted EBSCO maintains something similar to non-censorship contracts with its publishing clients – presumably including publishers of sexually explicit and obscene materials -- such that whatever is streamed into the EBSCO databases must be retained by EBSCO without alteration.

62. In addition, on information and belief, EBSCO is paid a fee from the advertisers for sex toys, paraphernalia, videos and erotica.

FIRST CLAIM FOR RELIEF

Colorado Consumer Protection Act

63. The Plaintiff hereby incorporates all of the allegations set forth above.

64. In violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, §§ 6-1-105 et seq., C.R.S. 2018, through its owners, officers, employees and agents, the Defendants knowingly or recklessly engaged in unfair or deceptive trade practices, as follows:

a. made false representations as to the source, sponsorship, approval, or certification of goods, services, or property;

b. made false representations as to the characteristics, uses, benefits and alterations of goods, services, or property;

c. employed “bait and switch” advertising, advertising accompanied by an effort to

sell goods, services, or property other than those advertised or on terms other than those advertised and which is also accompanied by one or more of the following practices: …(V) Showing or demonstrating defective goods, property, or services which are unusable or impractical for the purposes set forth in the advertisement;

d. failed to disclose material information concerning goods, services, or property

which information was known at the time of an advertisement or sale and such

failure to disclose such information was intended to induce the consumer to enter

into a transaction;

65. As more fully detailed above, EBSCO’s false statements, some of which were

republished by CLiC, included actively marketing products to actual or potential consumers such as schools, school children and their parents by claiming or implying the materials are age appropriate, reliable for school children, consistent with school curriculum standards and developed with elementary, middle and high school libraries in mind.

66. As more fully detailed above, CLiC’s false statements included actively marketing EBSCO products to schools and libraries throughout Colorado, falsely claiming EBSCO products to be vetted and dependable, republishing EBSCO’s false statements while knowing them to be false, and making knowingly false statements attacking parents who were attempting to curtail EBSCO’s provision of materials to children that were sexually explicit and obscene as to minors.

67. As more fully detailed above, both Defendants correspondingly failed to disclose to purchasers or users of EBSCO materials that many of the materials were sexually explicit, obscene as to children and harmful as to children, thus making these materials not age appropriate, reliable for school children, appropriate for children’s homework or consistent withschool curriculum standards.

67. The Defendants engaged in these unfair or deceptive trade practices in the course of their business.

68. The Defendants' unfair or deceptive trade practices significantly impacted the public by significantly impacting actual or potential consumers of EBSCO's goods, services, or property.

69. The Defendants' unfair or deceptive trade practices were done in bad faith because the Defendants were made aware of the issues involving sexually explicit, obscene and harmful content, yet they persisted in providing such content.

70. As a result of the Defendants' unfair or deceptive trade practices, the Plaintiff, through parent members and their children, suffered injuries in fact to legally protected interests, including but not limited to:

a. injuries to parents’ rights not to have their children subjected to materials that are sexually explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors, as indicated in state and federal law;

b. injuries to children’s rights not to be subjected to materials that are sexually

explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors, as indicated in state and

federal law; and

c. the expenditure of time, effort and funds to combat the Defendants’ deceptive

trade practices.

71. The Defendants’ unfair or deceptive trade practices caused the injuries suffered by the Plaintiff’s members and their children.

72. If the Defendants’ unfair or deceptive trade practices continue, members of the Plaintiff will suffer irreparable harm.

73. The threatened injury outweighs the harm that the injunction may cause to the opposing parties.

74. The requested injunction, if issued, will not adversely affect the public interest.

75. For the reasons stated above, the Plaintiff requests this Court to award injunctive relief, statutory damages, attorneys fees and costs and such further relief as this Court deems appropriate, as more fully stated below.

SECOND CLAIM FOR RELIEF

Civil Conspiracy

76. The Plaintiff hereby incorporates all of the allegations set forth above.

77. Through the Defendants’ owners, officers, employees, and agents, the Defendants agreed and had a meeting of the mind concerning an object to be accomplished, during material times stated above.

78. This meeting of the minds is shown, on information and belief, by a contractual relationship between EBSCO and CLiC, as well as shown in greater detail above by EBSCO’s continuing provision of, and CLiC’s continuing promotion and distribution of, EBSCO products to schools and libraries in Colorado, knowing these products would be used by minors despite containing substantial amounts of sexually explicit materials and materials that are obscene as to minors and are harmful to minors.

79. The agreement or meeting of the minds was to accomplish an unlawful purpose, or a lawful purpose by criminal or unlawful means, all as described more fully above, by making accessible to school-age children materials that are sexually explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors.

80. The agreement or meeting of the minds between the Defendants includes but is not limited to the violation of the following statutes by making accessible to school children materials that are sexually explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors:

a. § 18-7-102(1.5), C.R.S. 2018, prohibition of wholesale promotion of obscenity to

a minor;

b. 18 U.S.C. § 1470, prohibition of interstate transfer of obscene material to a minor

under 16 years of age;

c. 18 U.S.C. § 2252B, prohibition of misleading domain name;

d. 18 U.S.C. § 2252C, prohibition of words or digital images on internet with intent

to deceive minor into viewing harmful or obscene material;

e. 47 U.S.C. § 254, requiring schools and libraries to block or filter internet access to materials that are obscene as to minors or harmful to minors in order to receive certain federal funding;

f. § 24-90-603, C.R.S. 2018, requirement of a technology protection measure for

each computer operated by the public library that allows access to the internet by

a minor;

g. 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq., receiving income or other financial benefits derived

from a pattern of making materials that are sexually explicit and obscene as to

minors accessible to children in violation of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt

Organizations Act (specifically defining “racketeering activity” in include

“dealing in obscene matter”);

h. Engaging in and/or facilitating unfair or deceptive trade practices, in violation of

§§ 6-1-105 et seq., C.R.S. 2018, Colorado Consumer Protection Act.

81. One or more overt acts were taken in furtherance of the conspiracy, as described more fully above, including: knowingly promoting, purchasing, selling and distributing for school children EBSCO products that are sexually explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors; attacking parents requesting the curtailment of such practices; deceiving school districts, schools and parents; promoting and republishing deceptive advertising that EBSCO materials are age appropriate for school children; and not taking action to protect Colorado school children from materials sexually explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors.

82. Members of the Plaintiff association suffered harm proximately caused by the Defendants’ conspiratorial acts, including but not limited to:

a. injuries to parents’ rights not to have their children subjected to materials that are sexually explicit, obscene as to children and harmful to children, as indicated in state and federal law;

b. injuries to children’s rights not to be subjected to materials that are sexually

explicit, obscene as to children and harmful to children, as indicated in state and federal law; and

c. the expenditure of time, effort and funds to combat the Defendants’ deceptive

trade practices.

83. If the Defendants’ civil conspiracy continues, members of the Plaintiff will continue to suffer such irreparable harms.

84. The threatened injuries outweigh any harms that an injunction may cause to the opposing parties.

85. The requested injunction, if issued, will not adversely affect the public interest.

86. For the reasons stated above, the Plaintiff requests this Court to award injunctive relief, attorneys fees and costs and such further relief as this Court deems appropriate, as more fully stated below.

REQUEST FOR RELIEF

87. For the reasons stated above, the Plaintiff requests the following relief:

(1) injunctive relief, enjoining the Defendants from providing databases intended for minors materials that are sexually explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors;

(2) injunctive relief, enjoining the Defendants from making claims about the age appropriateness and reliability of materials it provides in its school databases that are sexually explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors;

(3) injunctive relief, enjoining the Defendants from conspiring to violate federal and state laws by providing in school research databases intended for minors materials that are sexually explicit, obscene as to minors and harmful to minors;

(4) $500 in damages awarded for each instance in violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act;

(5) reasonable attorney fees and costs, and

(6) such further relief as the Court deems just and proper.

Plaintiff demands a trial by jury of any issue so triable.

Respectfully submitted this 10th day of October, 2018.

By:/s/ Theresa Lynn Sidebotham

Matthew F. Heffron, NE Bar No. 19228

(pending pro hac application)

THOMAS MORE SOCIETY

and Brown & Brown, LLC

501 Scoular Building

2027 Dodge Street

Omaha, Nebraska 68102

(402) 346-5010

Theresa L. Sidebotham, Atty. Reg. #36713

Telios Law PLLC

19925 Monument Hill Rd.

P.O. Box 3488

Monument, CO 80132

(855) 748-4201

ATTORNEYS FOR THE PLAINTIFF

Pornography is Not Education