–on the web

from http://www.latimes.com – Threats by porn firms to leave California after the L.A. City Council voted to mandate condom use in porn films could be difficult because such filming is legal in just two states — California and New Hampshire.

A ruling by the California Supreme Court effectively legalized the making of adult films in a landmark 1988 case, which came just as VCRs allowed people to watch explicit movies at home.

New Hampshire’s highest court made a similar ruling only recently, in 2008.

The California ruling is a key reason why L.A. became the capital of the multibillion-dollar porn business. The justices defended the right of film producers to recruit people to act in sexually explicit movies, making it impossible for police and district attorneys to prosecute producers of pornography on charges of soliciting people to engage in prostitution.

The California case stemmed from the conviction in 1985 of Harold Freeman, who had faced a possible prison term for hiring actresses for up to $800 a day to perform explicit sex acts in a movie called “Caught from Behind II,” according to Times coverage at the time.

The court dismissed prosecutors’ argument that the porn performers were prostitutes. Rather, the justices ruled they were being paid to act for the purposes of making a film, and not to sexually arouse or gratify the film producer, which is an element of prostitution.

Meanwhile, the New Hampshire Supreme Court in 2008 said a person who was recruiting talent for a porn film should not have been prosecuted under anti-prostitution laws.

Those court rulings are one reason why the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Michael Weinstein, said he finds it unlikely that the porn companies will move out of California.

But attorney Marc J. Randazza [pictured] of Las Vegas, whose clients include a porn firm, said he finds it entirely possible that adult film companies in L.A. could relocate to Nevada.

Randazza said he would find it hard to believe that a district attorney in Nevada would target porn producers in a state that permits legalized prostitution in some areas.

But if many porn productions did move to Sin City, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation promised to take the condoms-in-porn issue there.

“When the industry says, ‘We’ll go to Nevada,’ we vowed we will follow them,” said foundation spokesman Ged Kenslea.

What I think is really funny is this: They will shoot with condoms, and then at the end, rip the condom off and make the girl swallow the load anyway. Not like there is any less exchange of fluids, just perhaps in a different manner.

As for the emergence of “rogue elements” ya right…..let me name some names for ya….Rob Black, Mark Handel (Khan Tusion), Donny Long, Michael Tierney (Joe Blow). OK are you really saying we are going to get “rogue elements”…hell porn is full of rogue elements that even WE dont want.

And for the record, condoms will NOT protect anyone against HPV and herpes.

On helmet laws, I live in New Hampshire, where we don’t have helmet laws – or seat belt laws for that matter – when it comes to private vehicles. Heck, in most communities in New Hampshire it’s legal to be completely naked in public if you don’t act in a lascivious manner. Unfortunately, it’s never the pretty people who decide to strip down on a summer’s day on the town square to get a little sun.

However, we have very strict workplace safety rules and last year, under a Tea Party legislature, the state toughened worker comp regulations making it more expensive for a small business to comply.

Even as a libertarian state, the legislature makes a distinction between personal freedoms and a safe workplace.

Personal freedoms and workplace safety/public health are two different things, just as there are two standards for personal freedom of speech and commercial speech. The first is absolute. The other is highly regulated.

I’m not a lawyer, but I think an actor probably could file a workers comp claim for picking up an STD on a porn set if it restricts their ability to work or results in medical claims.

Similarly, I think a stripper in Mike’s club could probably file a workers comp claim if she is injuried twirling buck naked on a stripper pole or is injured if the edge of the stage collapses when she spreads her legs. If the injury is caused because the club owner cut corners that resulted in an unsafe pole or stage, the stripper could probably file a suit, despite the nature of what she was doing when the injury occurred.

By the same token, a worker in an adult book store should be covered for the same workplace injuries as a worker in a Barnes & Noble. For instance, if a rack of books falls over and crushes the worker’s foot, it shouldn’t matter that it was a rack of children’s books at B&N or a rack of porn DVDs, sex toys and dog collars at Porn Is Us. If the worker has medical bills as a result and takes time off work, its a workers comp claim.

My guess is that the reason you don’t see those claims is that strippers and porn actors are afraid they won’t work again. But under the law, if the injury takes place in a legal, regulated establishment, a workplace injury should be a workplace injury, regardless of the nature of the work being performed when the injury took place.