Yes the judge ruled the law constitutional so it stands. Period.
But In the process he gutted it of any enforcement.
For one The judge ruled that permits were indeed constitutional but that the county can’t simply revoke or suspend them without due process. Also the county can not impose fees for these permits.
He also ruled that warrantless searches are OUT. Meaning that if the county wants to conduct an inspection they have to get a warrant which also means show some sort of cause.
Now it comes down to will the county try to enforce the condom law given these restrictions….somehow I dont think they have the resources
So despite the claims of a win for AHF, it wasn’t much of a victory unless the law can get rewritten to make enforcement more practical.
In the short term I’d say that Vivid won this round….
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Some Insight On The Condom Law Ruling http://t.co/Fzlw2n0LAG
But OSHA can still inspect any workplace without a warrant. And the final product itself will show if the law was followed. Just as OSHA has successfully done several times, the evidence of non compliance will be right on tape.
The judge also mentioned that the plaintiffs(Vivid etc.) provided no expert testimony that the self regualiton, testing, is a vialble substitute. Do you really think you could get any real doctor to testify that the industry self imposed standards are safe? If they could have they would have. They couldnt even get their own ‘medical board’ to swear to the industry system under oath, and if that dont tell yas something then youre head is prettydeep in the sand.
First Of all; Congrads to Rob Zacari and Tom Byron who in all the Industry give a shit about the talent and probably smoking some good shit right now.
Poor Diane she is proabably smoking so much crack and drinking like a fucking fish right now. And Vivid’s Owner Steve is doing alot of dope and stressing out of his mind, off to vegas Stevo…build that start of the art studio for Alex to film Porn parodies at with those caverjack bi guys you love to taste. Look at it this way, you can rent out shooting space to Jim Powers and other Dangerous directors for their shoots and make more $$$.
Mark is at in-and out stuffing his face with 4 double cheeses and you don’t want to be anywhere near him when he takes a shit today. He is stressing and has to go suck somebody off soon for another job.
Maybe he can write for Mean Gene Ross and give Bjs too.
OSHA will be doing inspections and busting companies left and right.
Whinestein machine is on the move like a 10,000 ton 70 mph freight train and its popping hard. More unfortunate news of gay and bi producers going to Twin Towers in LA and hating it unless they can make bail. More big news coming from the Orange County gangband at 300 pm. lots more outbreaks and diseaes are on the way thanks too Devil Films and Jim lane and his caverjackers.
Come to 6826 reseda blvd and watch this comdomless…fuck you to LA city and LAPD and the LA health Dept with Jennifer White.
Me and My wife are watching this gangband and you have Brandon Iron I need a gig perfomer here right now.
This is so funny. Have a condom law in place and shooting right in the
city of LA where Condom’s are necessary to use.
I wonder when all is said and done if Jim Lane and his Producer can
dish out the fine money and the community service and jail time?
Doubt it….Bottoms up..
If this decision stands the condom law will be difficult to enforce. However why not just avoid all that bullshit and film in San Francisco. If enough companies film up there the talent will have to live there as well, saving you (and Kink.com, which has been flying talent up there for years now) lots of money on talent airfare that currently keeps you filming in LA. Moving may cost you for the first year but I still suspect most companies will make the move in the near future as LA continues its crusade against porn being filmed in their county.
Showing cause to get a warrant might not be as hard as you think. Go to the judge with the last 5 shoots done by the company, show that there are no condoms, and use that as a clear indication that the current shoot may be in violation as well. Since OSHA can still visit the set at any time for other things, they could also note that there were no condoms visible and no safety information related to condoms, call for a warrant, and pretty much go from there.
It actually brings up the point that the county could enforce the law “through the back door” (pun somewhat intended), in that looking at the work product for a given shoot, they could charge the producer for not using condoms – after all, the proof is right there on video.
The law is pretty gutted out at this point, but then again, it just shows what would need to be different in a state law that could make it easier to enforce.
I think Jilted and Alex are correct on this. When this law was first passed, I argued here that enforcing it is not as difficult or potentially expensive as people contend. There are easily as many restaurants covered by the health department in Los Angeles and buildings covered by building, elevator and fire codes as there are porn shoots. Those are regularly inspected by health, building and fire inspectors. However, there’s a final product for porn shoots and every shoot is posted on the Internet. You just need someone to review video and issue fines.
What would be interesting is whether that creates a hostile work environment?
Has anyone read what the judge said about the First Amendment arguments?
Why would anyone want to move to SF… the movie stars? Awesome beaches? Nightlife? Cost of living?
I’ve said it before… Vegas is where it’s at. Though, it’s not LA or Miami it does offer a lot.
I’m actually with you guys on this yes getting that warrant would be easy no doubt. But Im wondering if the county is going to want to go to all that trouble and expense (remember they cant charge for the permits) to step up enforcement….would the fines be worth it? OSHA has always had the chance to enforce condoms even prior to AB332 but has shown no interest in doing so, they may start now but I wouldnt hold my breath and even if they did how long would they keep it up?
Someone from the city looks at a scene. How do they know where the scene was shot? Most of the time, it’s a bedroom, living room, some other interior space where there’s no indication where that space might be. How do they know it’s in the City of LA? Is that proof enough to warrant a warrant? A co-called crime (committed in LA) shot in an undisclosed location that could be in Ventura, or SF, or Florida, or the UK….
P.S. Jim South used to go through each month’s AVN and look at the cast credit in the advertisements and then send a bill to producers based on the ads alone. This smacks of the same thing because, just like Jim South had no idea how the people in the ads got cast– in his mind, if they ever once walked into his office, they were part of his roster and were, therefore, billable.
How do they know its in LA? The film permit, issued by the county. But if they dont have a permit then maybe they can go onto that set without a warrant.
It the city/county, has the resources to inpect THOUSANDS of resturuants several times a year, the cost of inspecting a few porn companies is not going to make those inpections unlikely.
Now that condoms are the law, and not just an OSHA regulation, AGENTS are legally responsible to ensure that all laws are followed when they book a talent with a company, including the use of condoms, and the proper workers comp insurance.
If you have a permit, they don’t need a warrant to show up on a set. They never have.
@jimmyk Vegas would be ideal considering the housing market tanked, but it is slowly coming back. It would be an inexpensive move for the most part, but shooting isn’t legal there. Moving to avoid a violation like shooting without condoms wouldn’t be wise if the place you are moving to is another violation.
Why not just take the Ronald Reagan Freeway to Simi Valley? That’s out of LA County and like a 20 minute drive from Chatsworth.
I’m sure LA has the ability to do inspections. How will they know? My living room looks like 3 others that I know of. Change the throw rug, hang different paintings, and put a cover on the couch and viola. New room. You get a permit and they know where you are at. What if you don’t get the permit? They’ll only be able to really catch you if they do a walk-in.
I worked a streaming show for a couple of years, twice a week. We had a crew of 5 and usually the cast included 3 to 5 girls, plus 1 or 2 meat puppets. They moved the show because they were concerned they could be tracked by the ISP. It never occurred to anyone to use a proxy server I guess… you know, anyone being all the tech geeks.
Jilted, filming porn in SF is legal. As long as you aren’t filming in public you don’t even need a permit. Film porn in Vegas and you risk being handcuffed by assholes in uniform, taken to a weird place called jail and getting to meet the five bubba club who will ream out a certain orifice on your posterior with certain appendages attached to their groin. Filming adult movies is a felony in all of Las Vegas as prostitution is illegal and filming sex for money is considered prostitution (and pandering for the director) there. On the flip side there is a cute jail guard there that I would love to fuck (the Las Vegas Jail was featured on TV for a couple of seasons — I have never actually been inside the facility). No thanks, Jilted — I would rather film in SF. I value my ass virginity.
Someone made the point about health inspectors and restaurants. Health inspectors don’t get warrants to inspect restaurants; elevator inspectors don’t get warrants to inspect elevators; fire marshals don’t get warrants to inspect sprinkler systems. My guess is that OSHA doesn’t need a warrant to go on a mainstream film set doing a high risk stunt. I think this “warrantless search” thing is a red herring.
Not only do inspectors not need warrants, if the police show up for any number of infractions (parking, noise, nudity in plain sight and not-so-plain site) and, once there inside the location, just about any sort of probable cause will end in a search. Trust me. Been there, seen it. They’ll check IDs and run outstanding warrant checks on everyone there, check all personal belongings for drugs and other things… at that point, condoms are the least concern. They’ll arrest people, impound gear, cite people for anything they can think of. This kind of stuff hasn’t happened much in recent years but, not too long ago, it was commonplace enough. If the city wants to get tough, they can. If they want to use the condom law as one of their excuses to do so, they might. Obviously, keeping a low profile is advised, even if you have a permit. Not trying to sound like fear monger but going underground is certainly an option.
I do believe the judges ruling put a stop to warrantless searches just because you have a permit (I may be wrong) It certainly wouldn’t stop an OSHA inspections. Im no lawyer so I dont know for sure. I would agree with JimmyD that if they want to fuck with you they will.
Part of the issue here, I guess, is that I’m not terribly bright. Since there is a permitting process in place – you’re supposed to get a permit to film – and producers are already including recording keeping information as text at the start of a scene, why not do this just like you’re do a construction job. A contractor gets a building permit. It has a number that ties the contractor to the job and location. The contractor agrees to follow certain guidelines and regulations, does his work, and then before occupation, that work is inspected by a building inspector. If it’s not done according to code and the contractor has allowed occupation, there are fines and other remedies. The permit fees fund the inspectors.
Porn producers are getting permits to film. They’re paying money. I read about how the fees are onerous to small producers, but hey, I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere and small businesses – even the guy with one cab or one hot dog stand that operates downtown on the weekend – get permits. That’s the cost of starting up a business.
Along with the Section 2257 text, include the permit number. Once the scene is shot and edited, submit it to the health department, OSHA, or whatever agency is charged with enforcing the code to review. It’s not like someone has to watch the entire scene. At the first vaginal or anal penetration, there either is or isn’t a condom.
I think the bigger issues with this are going to be about hostile workplace, for the people who have to review this. There’s got to be some smart software guy who can create a program to do a digital review before a human has to look at it. But hey, Los Angeles decided to get into the porn business. It’s a dirty business. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be regulated in some manner.
I totally realize that filming sex acts is only legal in CA. But if a billion dollar industry with money to spend on politicians, wanted to get things legal in NV, it would happen. The AHF would follow them their, but NV wouldn’t be so friendly to an industry which was making money in the State. Laws legalizing filming could be easily integrated into the existing laws already in place.
Concerning legalization in NV… people wouldn’t care. Nothing is surprising in NV. People wouldn’t walk down the street wondering if a porn shoot was going on.