Can I get out of this Health Club contract?

I have been a member of a Health Club in Louisiana, for about 5 years.
 My last contract was a 12 month contract signed August 2002. 
Technically the contract is expired, but they have this automatic
renew stuff they do.  I did not receive any notice before the
automatic renew occured asking me to opt-out or opt-in.  Reading
http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/pei/know/hlth.htm it states:

"Health clubs cannot automatically renewyour membership at the end of
the term without your permission. That permission must be given at the
end of the term, not at the beginning or during the term."

But I would rather have a more legal citation actually pointing to a
law.  Is this Federal governed? or by state?

Also the club just changed its name (sold out?) to a whole new name. 
My contract is with the old name, can that give me an angle, or when
companies buy others are the contracts still valid?

I am looking for specific legal citation that limits a clubs ability
to "auto-renew" your membership with out you agreeing to it.

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Request for Question Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 23 Mar 2004 09:50 PST

The quote that you cite is from the website of the Pennsylvania
Attorney General. Is there a Pennsylvania connection here? Is the
health club's corporate headquarters in Pennsylvania?

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Clarification of Question by ccie8036-ga on 23 Mar 2004 11:28 PST

I did not know www.attorneygeneral.gov was PA only, I guess I thought
that was the US Attorney General.  So no there is no connection to PA,
although I hope such laws exist in Louisiana as well.

You might try on of your local TV news' consumer protection segments. 
If they take up your matter they're usually very successful at getting
your money back.
One of the ones in my area claimed an over 100% success rate (meaning
they normally got something extra back)