“The law could be exploited by people trying to damage a controversial business or earn a cut of a resulting fine.” Bingo.
The people is actually a person. The self-appointed Porn Czar who answers to the name of Michael Wenstein.
Prop 60 is as much about curtailing disease as North Carolina’s HB2 is about protecting women and children. As the LA Times reported, most Californian’s don’t understand that Prop 60 will not curb the spread of HIV and the majority are supporting the initiative to require them in all adult films.
However, the chorus from almost all walks of life; health professionals, performers, California lawmakers, even Republicans have come out against it. The latest to join the “Just Say No Chorus” is The Editorial Board of Long Beach Press Telegram
Proposition 60 is a statewide version of the Los Angeles County ballot initiative that requires the use of condoms in pornographic movies made in California.
If the 2012 L.A. County measure was an unwise intrusion on the practices of a legal industry, this Nov. 8 proposition may be worse. It poses financial and health risks to the very people it’s meant to protect from sexually transmitted diseases.
It would allow anybody — not only affected parties — to sue and file Cal/OSHA complaints against the makers of porn movies that don’t use condoms in sex scenes. And it sets a too-low threshold for getting a case into court.
The law could be exploited by people trying to damage a controversial business or earn a cut of a resulting fine.
Not only porn producers would face financial damage. So would performers, who now, in the digital era, often act as their own producers.
“Heavy-handed Proposition 60 would deputize every Californian as a condom cop” – LA TimesLike many attempts at protective regulations, the Condoms in Pornographic Films Initiative could backfire, driving performers into underground — and less safe — productions here or out of state.
STD testing regimens should be made as effective as possible. Performers should be allowed to use condoms if they want.
But the argument that a law this broad is needed to protect performers or the general public is unpersuasive.
Tellingly, the groups lining up to oppose the measure include both the California Democratic and Republican parties. The official argument against it is written by the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, which has seen the effects of the L.A. County porn condoms law on the San Fernando Valley-based industry and the many people whose livelihoods depend on it directly or indirectly.
The editorial board recommends a vote against Prop. 60.
If the 2012 L.A. County measure was an unwise intrusion on the practices of a legal industry, this Nov. 8 proposition may be worse. It poses financial and health risks to the very people it’s meant to protect from sexually transmitted diseases.
