FSC Executive Director Michelle Freridge began the meeting with a discussion of proposed industry best practices and a code of ethics, telling the crowd that virtually every major industry, from steel to dairy, uses a system of rules to protect itself and its members.
“Adult entertainment is growing up,” Freridge said. “It’s becoming a sophisticated business that is crossing over into the mainstream, and instituting a best practices policy and a code of ethics will facilitate the industry’s mainstream growth.”
Because the best practices policy and code of ethics remain in the planning stages, Freridge took the opportunity to solicit input from those in attendance as well as educate the audience.
According to Freridge, the best practices policy will give the industry general guidance, while the code of ethics will address specific day-to-day industry concerns.
Freridge discussed the following six proposed best practices guidelines:
A complete description of the proposed best practices policy and a draft of the code of ethics can be found on the FSC website.
Following the best practices discussion, Freridge spoke about laws in several states that ban the sale of sex toys.
While the FSC is not currently involved in any sex toy-ban litigation, Freridge called such laws ridiculous.
“You can’t buy a dildo in those states, but you can buy a gun,” she said.
Freridge along with FSC attorney Jeffrey Douglas urged retailers in attendance to work with toy manufacturers to roll back such laws.
As for concerns that online retailers could be prosecuted under anti-sex toy laws in jurisdictions across the country, Douglas said that such cases were technically possible, although he had not heard of any.
Douglas next updated the audience on the 2257 record-keeping litigation. While Douglas had little to say on updates in the FSC 2257 case, he did stress that a new 2257 battle could be on the horizon.
“There is nothing stopping the government from prosecuting under 2257 except their own inertia,” Douglas said. “Right now there are three bills in Congress, all of which are likely to pass, that will dramatically expand the scope of 2257.”
The proposed laws would require 2257 record-keeping for material that contains mere nudity as well as simulated sex, Douglas said, adding that the third law would require all secondary producers to be 2257 compliant.
“If I wanted to put the adult entertainment industry out of business, I’d start enforcing 2257,” Douglas said. “It is simply shocking how many companies aren’t labeling product correctly, and it’s scary because 2257 is all about making an end-run on your liberties and catching you on a technicality.”