Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced today that he has signed a final rule updating the labeling and record-keeping law, 18 USC 2257.
At this time, the text of the updated rule is not available. The new language was proposed by then-Attorney General Ashcroft in late June of 2004, and attorneys for the adult industry and other interested parties submitted comments on that draft version for the following two months. It is not known which, if any, comments submitted have been incorporated into the final version of the rule.
However, according to the Attorney General's press release, "Violations of the requirements are criminal offenses punishable by imprisonment for up to five years for a first offense and up to 10 years for subsequent offenses." These penalties are an increase from the 2257 rule which the industry has been operating under for nearly 10 years.
"The rule signed today updates the section 2257 regulations and establishes a more detailed administrative inspection system designed to enable the federal government to ensure that children are not exploited in the production of pornography," according to the Justice Department press release. "For example, the rule ensures that the definition of 'pornography producers' includes producers of visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct published on the Internet. It also clarifies the means by which a producer must verify the identity and age of each performer and the manner in which records of these verifications must be kept. Additionally, the final rule establishes a detailed structure for conducting administrative inspections of pornography producers' records to ensure that children are not being used as performers in sexually explicit depictions."
Despite the Justice Department claim, it has long been clear to adult video producers, distributors and retailers, as well as the more high-profile Webmasters, that the primary purpose of the regulation is its potential for harassment. The last time an underage performer appeared in an adult video was in early 2000. As soon as the actress' status was discovered, all copies of the tape in which she appeared were recalled and destroyed, to the point that when federal marshals raided warehouses in five cities in August of 2000, allegedly looking for copies of the tape, none were found.
In all, in the last 20 years, a total of four underage performers using deliberately falsified IDs have been uncovered, beginning with Traci Lords, and including Alexandria Quinn and gay performer Jeff Browning – an astonishingly small number considering the total number of performers who have passed through the industry during that period.
Free Speech Coalition has authorized attorneys Paul Cambria and H. Louis Sirkin to prepare and file lawsuits challenging the more onerous provisions of the new law when they become known.
Stay tuned to AVN.com for more information on this breaking story as they become available.
