YNOT – I’ve been in battles many times, be it with grade-school bullies, scholastic deadlines or the Viet Cong. Now into my 17th year of involvement with the adult entertainment industry, current battles are many and some seem considerably ill-targeted.
For example, consider the religiously radical and/or self-appointed (fundraising?) civic and business organizations and legislators who seem to think their God, or the 2010 elections, gave them extraordinary power to reload their shotguns and target legally legitimate porn. Why can’t they instead vigorously go after child porn, terrorists, government ineptness, illegitimate “stuff,” policies that cost the economy and jobs, and the many other mega-matters that America needs targeted with laser-guided bombs?
The 18 U.S.C. §2257 monstrosity — the U.S. federal labeling and recordkeeping law — would make another good target. It’s a perfect example of a huge and unnecessary bureaucracy wasting taxpayer dollars during these times of huge deficits by using sledgehammers to break eggs. Why not merely query porn producers by email, fax, letter or carrier pigeon to obtain copies of performers’ date-of-birth documents should there be doubts about a film participant’s age? This is 2011, and in most cases electronic communication cheaply and effectively can replace manpower-heavy teams of costly federal regulation-writers, “researchers” and inspectors.
Likewise, the State of California, via its occupational safety and health administration, is threading into on-set health and safety issues in a way that might well provide the straw that breaks the camel’s back. New regulations requiring performers to employ barriers such as condoms and dental dams could shut down or severely hinder porn-making legalized under Freeman vs. California. Private citizens in California regularly have sex without Cal/OSHA oversight, yet Cal/OSHA wants to further regulate an industry that already takes much more stringent precautions with performers’ health and safety than most citizens observe in their own homes.
Consider this: If Cal/OSHA begins mandating job-killing regulations on present-day porn sets, might they someday mandate and somehow monitor regulations in your bedrooms, too? Will legitimate California porn-making be forced to take its jobs, tax revenues and money to other locations or go “underground” because those are the only ways to provide condom-less porn to the viewers who demand “reality” entertainment? Will (potentially more extreme) porn from other countries corral the lion’s share of the market in America, further eroding jobs, sale taxes, income taxes and spendable revenues? Could condom-free-but-more-extreme foreign porn wrongly lead some viewers to believe treating woman roughly, fisting and choking comprises normal lovemaking? Yikes!
The most worrisome present battle seems to be against porn pirates and copyright infringers who are killing off production companies by illegally copying and uploading — and subsequently illegally downloading — content on the internet. Potential customers in droves now “take” porn off the Web without lawfully paying for it. I keep hoping someone soon will surface with a hack-proof way to distribute digital porn in such a way that it can’t be uploaded or downloaded by the people who are illegally sharing it now.
Yes, the battles are many, and the outlook seems relatively dismal to me. Now, what I expressed above is merely my personal opinion, but more and more, I’m worrying that porn-making in America is heading towards a hospice situation where recovery is extremely “iffy.”
Be well, safe, healthy and happy.
Dave Cummings, “the world’s oldest porn star,” is a performer, producer and director. Visit him online at DaveCummings.com, DaveCummings.tv or DaveCummingsVOD.com.
