“A handful of lawmakers succeeded in slipping a draconian provision into the 2257 law that goes way beyond what is acceptable in a free society,” AFF Marketing Director Legendary Lars said. “The only organization actively fighting this provision is the Free Speech Coalition and we think they deserve support.”
To help raise money for the FSC, Lars said that AFF and its parent company Various Inc. have initiated a fund-raising effort on the adult webmaster discussion board GFY.com, in which AFF will match donations made to the FSC up to a total of $10,000.
“Anyone concerned with 1st amendment rights and keeping the government out of our bedrooms should consider a contribution to help FSC in their 2257 battle,” Lars said.
FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said that the organization had successfully challenged a provision of 2257 that required secondary producers to acquire and maintain records of every performer in every sexually explicit image that a secondary producer used, only to have Congress revise the law and rob the FSC of that victory.
“Unwilling to accept defeat, a handful of Congressmen added amendments to 2257 in the Crime Bill passed last year aimed at correcting the flaws that were the basis of the FSC victory over the original law,” Duke said.
Duke noted that sometime this year, the Justice Department will issue revised regulations that implement the new changes to 2257, including requirements that secondary producers acquire and maintain records and be subject to inspection by the FBI.
“Complying with the anticipated changes in the law would cost millions of dollars in additional staffing, filing and computer resources, apart from the cost of defending prosecutions,” Duke said. “We will challenge these changes to the law but we need the industry’s help.”
Scott Lowther, director of membership development and services for the FSC, told XBIZ that in addition to the legal challenge to 2257, the FSC is involved in numerous other efforts that consume financial resources, making industry support all the more critical.
“We’ve sort of been identified as a litigation group, and while we are that, we’re really a full-service trade association, too,” Lowther said. “We always have federal lobbying taking place, as well as state-level lobbying in California, as California is by far our largest membership state.”
Lowther noted that in addition to lobbying efforts, the FSC is very active in conducting research and publishing white papers that benefit the adult industry, and provides a weekly newsletter designed to keep its members informed about challenges the industry faces throughout the country.