Porn: A Legal Perspective
Since I have turned much of this site into a beer review and stripper mugshot repository, I figured why not totally descend into moral filth. Prof. Hurt, Conglomerate blogger and my Business Associations professor, has an interesting post here about controversy over record keeping requirements for porn companies.
[M]any in the pornography industry are complaining that the DOJ has instituted record-keeping requirements so complex that it will surely drive them out of a legal business. The requirement? Keep records verifying the age of every employee that shows up on-camera for ten years.Here is what is required...
Regulations passed last year require all online purveyors of sexually explicit videos or photographs to retain each subject's birthdate, copy of government-issued ID, and list of aliases used in the industry.The commenters, who suspiciously seem to know a lot about the porn industry, say that the most onerous part of the rules is that all of the resellers, not just the producers, must have this info. Commenter Victor chimes in...
The new regulations are precisely like requiring every bookstore that sells novels and every library that lends them to maintain complete records of the true name, age, birthdate, and government-issued ID of every author, plus all the pseudonyms those authors have ever used.The regs have also put a burden on somewhat "non-traditional" adult-themed sites. Here is commenter SeventyNine bemoaning the loss of www.ratemyschlong.com...
While, yes, posting pictures of one's privates on the internet isn't exactly an expression falling within the core protections of the first amendment, it surely has some expressive value for the poster - particularly where other users are invited to aesthetically judge and critique the photos.Personally, I think that requiring the resellers to have a catalog of pornstar biographical information is a little bizarre. As long as the producers maintain the proper records, I think that the integrity and legality of our nation's smut industry will be sound.
