http://www.xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=10324
New 2257-Related Bill Could Spell Big Trouble for Industry
By Matt O'Conner
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., this week introduced a bill before Congress that would strengthen the recently amended 2257 record-keeping requirements and heap even more restrictive provisions on the adult entertainment industry.
The bill authorizes forfeiture of assets related to both child pornography and obscenity cases, expands administrative subpoena power in obscenity cases and broadly prohibits the production, transport, distribution and sale of obscene materials.
One area of potential impact is Section 3 of the bill, titled “Strengthening Section 2257 to Ensure that Children Are Not Exploited in the Production of Pornography.”
Language in that section extends enforcement of 2257 to “mere distribution or any other activity that does not involve hiring, contracting for managing or otherwise arranging for the participation of the performers depicted” in pornographic materials. In other words, 2257 would apply to retail stores that previously were exempt from the law.
Pence is linking the bill as an amendment to the Child Safety Act of 2005 to speed its passage and avoid a lengthy committee process.
The bill, said Pence, is designed to “crack down on child pornographers, specifically so-called ‘home pornographers.’”
“We specifically, in my bill, close a loophole that exists in federal law today that allows pornographers who produce child pornography at home with digital cameras, Polaroid cameras, or video cameras, [or who download child pornography] on their home computers, to actually escape prosecution,” Pence said.
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