For awhile now there has been talk about the state of Utah pushing an anti-porn bill through, making pornography illegal, as they consider it a public health hazard – calling porn “addictive and harmful”.
What bothers me most is that the proposed bill would allow residents of Utah, to sue pornography producers for emotional and psychological damages inflicted through consuming porn – despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence that watching porn leads to negative consequences on an epidemic level, as Utah politicians have suggested.
In Utah they define porn as harmful materials to minors, but don’t actually define what may or may not be pornographic. It could be the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition or it could be something more hardcore like a video of a man or woman having sex.
When asked to actually define pornography, Republican Utah Senator Todd Weiler, said “I know it when I see it”.
While not all that scientific or definitive, the real problem is, defending yourself against one of the Utah lawsuits could be costly, so even if you do win, how much did it cost you?
Can you really afford tens of thousands in legal fees to defend yourself from bogus lawsuits?
And is that really secretly the point of this new law in the first place? They know it won’t hold water in the court system but they also know defending the influx of lawsuits may bankrupt more than a few porn companies and that will get rid of them – so in the end they got their way anyway?
Both Tennessee and Virginia are debating a similar measure although at this point it hasn’t picked up enough support to go beyond the initial debate.
If this Utah bill passes, it could be financially devastating for smaller companies. However the good news is for the small guys, most people’s greed will win out and that means they will probably go after the bigger porn companies like Mindgeek first. But that’s not a guarantee so for now you need to consider carefully your legal options including putting a Utah ban in place.
But then you have the problem of tube sites. If someone steals your content, places it on a tube site, someone from Utah then views it and sues you – the producer, are you fucked?
These are all things you need to consider because it doesn’t look Utah’s anti-porn crusade is going away any time soon.
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