Keep people like Mr. Marcus out of the industry and you wouldn’t have diseases and other conditions warranting to have scam, over priced unions. Unions just wouldn’t work today in porn. Too many suck asses and scumbags in porn . Oh yes, Stupid people too.

MMA and boxers are licensed and the state requires testing for them. The testing is done through the State Athletic Commisions. And I never said anything about doing away with testing, I am referring to handling it differently in a way that protects everyone, even producers. LIke I have said, prior to 2004 no producers ‘required’ testing, it was all performers checking eachothers result.

Karfman, of course you are correct that if any industry needed testing this is it, but the industry has also fought tooth and nail any laws to make that happen, simply because any law would require producers to pay up, and we all know we cant have that now can we.

I would think if any industry needed to have HIV screening it would be the porn industry. Doing away with that screening seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

@jilted

Its a grey area to be sure. Oil rig worker case carved out exceptions to hiv discrimination laws on the ’employee’ side, MMA created exceptions on the independent contractor/performer side of the labor equation … both prove the legality of allowing HIV antibody testing to be included in pre-employment physicals in limited situations.

No Lurk,
No employer is allowed to test a prospective employee for HIV. It is illegal.You would never find any producer in the adult biz take the stand and say they require testing, they don’t. That is why the solution to this whole problem is so easy to see, that is if you know where to look.

@Jilted

Producers can require testing as long as they are paying for the testing. The testing itself isn’t the issue from a labor standpoint…forcing performers to pay for it is.

@BT

You’ll get no argument from me on the merits of residuals for writers or performers. To me the risks performers face puts residuals second to producers absorbing the cost of producer mandated testing.

I look at contracted performer scenes in the light of commissioned written work. Writers get no residuals when commissioned work created isn’t published. If the producer wants you to work in a cubicle they can’t force you rent the cubicle from them. Freelance journalists commissioned to cover protests aren’t handed contracts with clauses like: show up with bail money to mitigate the risk of arrest ….if you get arrested call someone who cares cuz we don’t.

Testing IS voluntary. There is no law requiring testing. What producers are doing by ‘mandating’ testing is illegal. Requiring testing does not sheild producers from any liability. Prior to 2004 producers had nothing to do with the testing, it was performers who checked each others results. I wonder how many producers keep these records in compliance with HIPPA regulations, seeing as how it is illegal for them to have require the tests in the first place.

How does making testing voluntary seem a good idea?