csua.org/u/chs -> www.forbes.com/business/services/2005/06/23/porn-entertainment-movies-cz_sl_0623porn.html
NEW YORK - Is your Internet browser a little less polluted with porn toda y? Are you seeing fewer banner ads promoting hard-core sex? Largely unnoticed in the mai nstream world, his new porn record-keeping regulations went into effect today, causing fits of apoplexy among much of the porn world. "This is an attack, we are back to the dark ages of witch hunts and inste ad of burning innocent people at the stake they are putting them in jail and ripping apart their businesses and families," wails the Web site of Lisa S Lawless, whose company specializes in videos featuring female o rgasms. Casualties so far, if anyone will miss them, include the aptly n amed Bound & Gagged, which describes itself as "The world's greatest mal e bondage magazine." At least it was: Its Web site shut down on Wednesda y The new rules, which are updates to regulations that date back to 1992, r equire porn promoters and distributors to maintain records proving their models and actors are over the age of 18, instead of signed forms and o ther loose documentation. In an announcement last month, Gonzales said t he new rules "are crucial to preventing children from being exploited by the production of pornography." Although seemingly innocuous and for a good cause, the rules have suddenly forced the freewheeling trade to eit her find and organize legal documents for every performer engaging in se x, remove the pictures, or face jail time of up to five years for the fi rst offense and up to ten years for additional offenses. Oh, that includes any photos or movies shot within the past ten ye ars. Good luck tracking down all those once-naked people, many of whom a re foreigners or use bogus names. And the industry only had 30 days to get the records together from the ti me the regulations were announced. The new regulations "will likely drive law-abiding adult businesses out o f the industry not because they ignored the minimum-age requirements, bu t because they simply cannot afford to maintain the extensive records re quired under the new rules," Cambria tells his clients. While compiling such records is hard enough for the actual producers of p orn, they constitute the minority of much of what is distributed over th e Internet. Most Internet porn sites are run by small-time independents who agree to distribute porn made by photographers and film producers, i n exchange for a cut of as much as $70 for every purchase directed back to the originating sites. These so-called "secondary producers" now must also keep age documents for every performer, a near-impossible task tha t is being hotly disputed by the industry. The Free Speech Coalition, a front group for the porn trade, filed a moti on for a temporary restraining order on Monday in Denver federal court, in which it argued that the extension of the rules to the secondary prod ucers contradicts a 1998 federal court ruling (in the same court distric t) that porn distributors can't be held responsible for porn produced by someone else. A hearing scheduled for today was canceled pending a reso lution of a complaint filed in the same case. In the meantime, the plain tiffs in the case (including members of the Free Speech Coalition) won't be subject to records inspections, although the new rules will be enfor ced for everyone else.
people ), a porn p roducer and distributor, told its US Web site distributors on Wednesda y to remove the company's hard-core content, despite the fact that the c ompany is based in Barcelona, Spain, outside the reach of the US Depar tment of Justice. The company says it doesn't want to jeopardize the "pr ivacy and safety of its models" by distributing their personal informati on and records to outside Internet distributors. In the separate complaint filed last week against the attorney general in the same Denver court, the Free Speech Coalition and two co-plaintiffs who produce porn argue that the rules violate their First Amendment righ t to have sex on camera. They also claim the attorney general's contenti on that this is all for the benefit of protecting children is dubious at best, since performers older than 60 must now also provide proof of age . That may likely explain the motivation for at least one of the co-plainti ffs, David Conners of San Diego. Under the stage name "Dave Cummings," t he gray-haired and balding 65-year-old touts himself as "the oldest acti ve male porn star in the business," with a repertoire that includes Suga r Daddy (volumes 1 through 23) and Grandpa Dave's Bedtime Tales.
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