Tennessee lawyer sues Apple because Internet porn 'destroyed his marriage'

A lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee filed a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. that blames the company for the dissolution of his marriage and the collapse of his mental health. According to CNet.com, Chris Sevier filed suit in Federal District Court earlier this summer because Apple devices do not have a filter that keeps them from playing pornography. The devices purportedly failed to protect Sevier from his porn addiction, so the attorney is suing the company in an effort to have all of its devices equipped with a filter that blocks sexually-themed content.

Sevier, who the blog Above the Law reported was arrested in June for allegedly stalking country star John Rich, wrote in his complaint that he is deeply fond of Apple products.

"The plaintiff loves Apple," he said, and went on to state that he believes Apple, Inc. is devoted to "the welfare of our Nation's children, while furthering pro-American values."

Because the company wants to contribute to the well-being of the nation, he said, it should sell all of its products "in 'safe mode,' with software preset to filter out pornographic content."

Sevier said that when a typing error led him to "Fuckbook.com" rather than Facebook, he was overtaken with the eroticism of the images and films he found there and that he became addicted to Internet pornography, causing difficulty in his marriage.

The images of naked young women on the web amounted to "unfair competition" for Sevier's wife, he said in the complaint, writing, "The Plaintiff began desiring younger more beautiful girls featured in porn videos than his wife, who was no longer 21."

Moreover, "(h)is failed marriage caused the Plaintiff to experience emotional distress to the point of hospitalization. The Plaintiff could no longer tell the difference between Internet pornography and tangible intercourse due to the content he accessed through the Apple products, which failed to provide him with warnings of the dangers of online pornography whatsoever."

Sevier compared pornography to handguns and cigarettes, products that are subject to regulation. He posited that Apple has an obligation to protect its users, and at a minimum to give them written warnings about Internet porn.

The lawyer also warned that Internet pornography is dangerous to the society economically in that "brick and mortar 'mom and pop' porn shops" are being run out of business.

In 2011, researchers featured in a BBC documentary claimed that Apple users bond with the brand in an unusual way. According to brain imaging, they said, Apple devices trigger activity in the areas of the brain normally associated with religious devotion.

Read the full complaint, embedded below via Scribd:

Chris Sevier Apple Complaint

[image of older couple startled by Internet via Shutterstock.com]