Porn and its practicioners.

[sargentlard]

After watching a revealing report on the pornagraphy buisness on ABC I became aware of many unsavory and non-existent practices of the pron industry and my question is: Should federal government ignore this industry anymore?

As it stands there are very little regulations placed upon the porn industry. The age limitations being the only real major ones. After that there isn't much charted legal area. No unions to protect workers from being throwaways, no real health relugations set up to prevent employess from getting STDs, and not even any real AIDS prevention measures besides the required monthly check up.

For an industry that makes billions upon billions every year and is growing should the government get more involved in what goes on? Place more regulations on what is and isn't allowed or is that limiting free speech and hurting profits? since hardcore porn is the fastest growing area of the porn industry.

What about the buisness aspects of it? Should the real porn benefactors be brought into light? Those who make hundreds of millions a year but never post the profits anywhere in their financial statements? Fortune 500 hundred companies are the real benefactors of porn produced profits but these profits are never mentioned anywhere. Companies like Rupert Murdoc news empire, Hilton hotels, Marriott hotels, among others, who profit from this buisness, should their involvement be made clear or is this unneccessary mudslinging and negative publicity?

Should these events have light placed upon them for the public to see? The main reason this industry is growing is because it has demand, and that demand is incresingly yielding towards sicker and more perverse material. Material involving younger and younger participants causing more and more demand for younger girls involving truly bizarre and harrowing material. So should the federal government step and in throughly observe this industry or is that limiting the buisness owners rights?

 

[alain]

lard, the govt should do something about it, but they wont.

I think that once you get elected to govt you forget about words such as sex and porn

 

[Oxygen]

If you like surfing the net, then keep your hands off of porn because it's the driving force behind many advancements. HDs, vid cards, graphics, DVDs, speed, all because the majority of us want to see a bit more a lot faster and tons clearer. We didn't get DSL and cable modems so Billy could download the latest patches for Reader Rabbit. Porn drives this thing, and as long as it's between two consenting adults, then everything's legit. The government should keep its hands off.

 

[Neildo]

As it stands there are very little regulations placed upon the porn industry. The age limitations being the only real major ones. After that there isn't much charted legal area.

Whatcha expect? You go out, have sex, get paid, and it's over. Whatcha else should be done? Heh.

No unions to protect workers from being throwaways

Screw unions. Porn is no different than normal film industries. They're not meant to be some full-time job with the exceptions of few in both industries. You star in a movie, do your thing, movie is over, and that's that. That was the job and it's completed. If you want to make more money and be in another movie, you go out and do whatcha need to do. No different than trying to find any other type of job once your previous job is done.

This is why actors, in either industry, aren't considered an actor until they have quite a few roles under their belt. Most people get used once or a few times and then they're done. In acting and in porn, new faces are always needed. Very few become stars. And with other jobs, very few are actually CEOs or have only worked and got to stick with one job their entire life. Why should this all be any different? Because there's nekkid people involved? Lol, oh no!

no real health relugations set up to prevent employess from getting STDs, and not even any real AIDS prevention measures besides the required monthly check up.

A lot of places isn't just limited to AIDS checks but they check for STDs too. AIDS is just a mandatory one. But what do you mean other AIDS prevention measures other than the monthly check-up? If someone doesn't have AIDS, there's no need to have further prevention measures. AIDS doesn't just magically appear, ya know.

- N

 

[Mystech]

What exactly do you think should be done about the porno industry, sargentlard? I'm not sure exactly what the conflict is here; Is there anything particularly wrong with the industry other than it's profits and popularity? Nothing that you mentioned in your original post sounds as though it's even slightly worthy of being legislated to regulate, nor would I really know what kind of legislative measures would be taken. . . where would you want to see the porn industry go?

 

[Tiassa]

Seems to me the problem with regulating the porn industry is that it undoes the entirety of vice-enforcement. Certainly, the US government gets enough crap whenever it dips its wick into the prostitution industry, but what will the OSHA regulations look like for the porn industry? At some point the government will have to call the whole show off and legalize prostitution. After that, regulations on gambling will relax. Drugs, liquor, whatever. And it's not so much a slippery-slope risk I describe, but rather the government seeing one of its vital tools of dominance lost.

As long as people are miserable, you can sell them anything. If they're high and getting some, they'll look you right back in the eye and say, "Right, George. You're going to go start a fucking war in Iraq. What the fuck ever, Dubs, ya twat!"

And then everybody continues to get along because they're not stressed about the superficial things.

Happy people are the bane of governments everywhere. (That's why Clinton got away with the "I didn't inhale," line. All of his friends who knew better were too busy laughing that he'd said it in the first place to bust his chops.)

Nor should this be construed as a blanket endorsement of sex and drugs as a cure-all for human emotional inefficiency, but getting those things out of the way will allow folks to worry about more important things in life.

 

[Mystech]

Happy people are the bane of governments everywhere.

Happy people tend to get into less trouble, and need less supervision, yes. I don't really know that all the porn in the world will make anyone happy, but it's certainly a start. I really don't know what any crackdown on porno would accomplish other than needlessly regulating a healthy industry just because some people (John Ashcroft) get upset at the fact that people sometimes take of their clothes and do the nasty. I also can't imagine what the big deal with porno is when we've got so many boobs in office as it is

 

[fireguy_31]

Yeah, I think the porn industry should be regulated to the same extent every other industry is and for the same reasons - safety, proper tax reporting, upholding labor laws etc. What makes the porn industry so different from any other money making venture?

What the porn industry produces is entertainment; no different than video games, record labels, crossword puzzles, professional sports, to which are all subject to legal regulations - why not porn?

 

[SpyMoose]

Its the puritanical attitude towards sex in the US that leads to a lack of regulation in that industry. There is huge demand for porn, probably because of repressive attitudes towards sex, and the same repressiveness prevents anyone respectable on the outside of the industry from talking about it, especially politicians. There is no way someone could get elected on a platform that openly includes helping develop better OSHA standards for the porn industry and promoting the formation of unions. Even if they did do this while in office, they sure couldn't brag about it later. There would be a fat Midwestern soccer mom uprising! “How dare he say the word porn! I don’t care what context its in! He should be stamping it out, not getting the governments fingers in it!” and so forth.

 

[Mystech]

What the porn industry produces is entertainment; no different than video games, record labels, crossword puzzles, professional sports, to which are all subject to legal regulations - why not porn?

Well, in that respect, Porn is regulated much more strictly than video games for instance. All porno films need to submit to a rating, and can not be sold directly to minors. Video games, however have no federal (and I don't believe many state) regulations, especially nothing so harsh as a rating system. Remember that the ESRB rating on a video game is an independent game industry standards board which game producers voluntarily send their games to in order to obtain a rating (This is so that the feds don't decide to step in and mandate their own rating system which is actually based in law and must be adhered to).

While we're all flapping our gums about how unregulated pornography is in the United States, perhaps someone could go find some links and actualy research what regulations pornographers are actualy subject too. I'm betting that you'll find it's not so terably different from any other inifilm studio, and likely has certain spacific health regulations.

 

[Tiassa]

What would the porn-workers union be called? The International Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Fuckers?

Or, to be more appropriate ... being that I believe prostitution should be legalized, I say unionize the porn industry. I would love to see the actual job description and contract terms for a fluffer.

I'm not particularly worried about the grips or the best boy. Once the industry is acknowledged and regulated in the least, the unions will move to take care of the crew. (Still, the fluffer contract ... that will be one of the coolest things ever written.)

 

[fireguy_31]

perhaps someone could go find some links and actualy research what regulations pornographers are actualy subject too.

Did some searching, couldn't find anything. Maybe you can provide something worthwhile otherwise, this debate is warranted.

 

[Mrs.Lucysnow]

Tiassa: If they're high and getting some, they'll look you right back in the eye and say, "Right, George. You're going to go start a fucking war in Iraq. What the fuck ever, Dubs, ya twat!"

Actually its probably the anti-porn, anti-drug middle-american who found george appealing. Just because someone engages in drugs and porn doesn't mean they are necessarily 'happy'. Personally I don't think it is possible to regulate the porn industry. Video allows for anyone to make a film from their own home, they don't have to openly advertise their film in order to find a market and the illegal stuff with kids or animals can be made overseas and still make their way into joe-america's home via the internet or through the post. Government regulations would only work in governing the soft-porn.