Adult Entertainment Industry Files Suit Challenging Measure B
Los Angeles, Calif. – ( January 11, 2013) — Lawyers for the adult entertainment industry filed suit today in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California challenging the recently passed Measure B which makes it mandatory for adult actors to wear condoms while shooting adult films in LA County.
The complaint states that Measure B is unnecessary because of rigorous and effective self-regulation by the adult industry and that it imposes an unconstitutional system of prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment. Numerous provisions of Measure B are excessively vague and burdensome, and thus place an intolerable restriction on freedom of expression. The lawsuit also challenges the County’s jurisdiction to regulate adult production on performer health and safety.
The adult industry plaintiffs include adult production company Vivid Entertainment along with adult performers Kayden Kross and Logan Pierce. “Overturning this law is something I feel very passionate about. I believe the industry’s current testing system works well, said Steven Hirsch, founder/co-chairman of Vivid. “Since 2004 over 300,000 explicit scenes have been filmed with zero HIV transmission. The new law makes no sense and it imposes a government licensing regime on making films that are protected by the Constitution. Measure B will have vast unintended consequences which may undermine industry efforts to protect the health of our actors and actresses.”
Attorneys Paul Cambria of Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria, Louis Sirkin of Santen Hughes, and Bob Corn-Revere of Davis Wright Tremaine are representing the plaintiffs. Mr. Cambria stated that this Law not only infringes on free expression but rather than protect performers as it currently does it will drive production overseas or off shore where no protection exists.
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The Free Speech Coalition is the national trade organization to the adult entertainment industry. Its mission is to lead, protect and support the growth and well-being of the adult entertainment community.
“Since 2004 over 300,000 explicit scenes have been filmed with zero HIV transmission. The new law makes no sense and it imposes a government licensing regime on making films that are protected by the Constitution. Measure B will have vast unintended consequences which may undermine industry efforts to protect the health of our actors and actresses.”
Waaaaay too much bullshit there, you really need to stop spinning the propaganda and just learn to sit quietly at your desk. First of all, it wasn’t nice to play the “Since 2004” card, since your people did nothing for Lara, Jessica, or Mariesa. Seriously, your bragging rights for that incident are disqualified because every one of you took the path of least responsibility.
Derrick Burts had the big three plus HIV and you didn’t offer to help him, and Mr Marcus was nice enough to introduce the industry to a syphilis outbreak in the not-too-distant past. There are worse things to have then HIV, but listen: You need to find a better argument because the ones you’re coming up with don’t seem to be doing much good.
That’s not the only, or even the primary, argument made in the complaint, rsx, and your counter-argument is not valid because Measure B doesn’t “do anything for” persons who catch STIs, either. Also, the complaint does NOT argue that performing in adult films is without risk — instead it argues that performers are consenting adults engaged in constitutionally protected activity, and that the risk is a managed risk. A copy of the complaint was posted with the LA Times story today, if you’d like to read it.
Furthermore, performer testing is now broader, more accurate, and more frequent than it was in 2004, or 2010 — and Derrick “Rentboy” Burts CLAIMED he got HIV on a set (in Florida) AFTER he told AIM he was exposed in his private life. As for the syphilis outbreak: there’s been NO proof that Marcus introduced it into the talent pool, or even that he infected anyone, only that he was the first performer who caught it to be outed. And as a result of that minor outbreak, universal syphilis testing is now in place. Adult performers are safer now than ever before.
FSC should be called the Free Sex Coalition because this about being able to screw as we choose.
And Michael, as usual, is right. We sign a waiver saying we accept risks, as everything we do contains risks, rewards and ramifications. And so we choose, or so we used to.
This measure can be attacked so many ways on legal grounds. There needs to be a gold standard on HIV testing and proof of it’s veracity before anyone attempts to deem someone else “+”, and for that issue to be applicable.
Also, “protection” is not applicable to what the measure claims to provide.
And everytime I see a condom scene I’m gonna see Weinstein’s face. And I can’t bust a nut to that!