Hollywood movies and 2257

[fusionx]

Seems like a major double standard issue to me. Bold added to highlight a few major differences.

Senate Vote Near on Filmed-Sex Bill
July 20, 2006
By Brooks Boliek
WASHINGTON -- The Senate could vote as early as Thursday on legislation that includes language that would increase Hollywood's record-keeping requirements for movies and TV shows that carry steamy love scenes.

While the central focus of the legislation is the establishment of a national sex offender registry, it includes a provision that would require Hollywood studios to ensure that they keep records of the ages of the actors who pretend to have sex in motion pictures and TV programs.

According to Senate leadership aides, approval of what is now being called the Adam Walsh Act is expected to come as early as today. The House is expected to accept the Senate's version of the bill with an eye toward getting President Bush to sign it into law July 27, the aides said.

Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of John Walsh, was abducted from a department store in Hollywood, Fla., on July 27, 1981. The next month, his severed head was found in a Vero Beach, Fla., canal. His other remains have not been recovered, and no one has been convicted of his slaying.

The crimes prompted John Walsh to become a victims' rights advocate and helped spur the formation of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Walsh's outspokenness brought him to host the television program "America's Most Wanted."

Over the past few days, Walsh and his fellow child-welfare advocates have mounted an extensive lobbying effort to win approval of the bill.

While Hollywood isn't thrilled by the bill, the studios didn't want to give the appearance that they are standing in the way of legislation meant to help the government crack down on child abusers.

"To be clear, we support legislation that stops child pornography," the MPAA said. "But the original proposal would have subjected studios to criminal penalties, federal searches and near-impossible labeling requirements, none of which would have advanced the stated goal of protecting children. While this latest draft is not a perfect outcome, it is much better than it was."

The bill potentially reaching the Senate today has been significantly altered to address the concerns of the motion picture industry, contrary to the language first pushed by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., equating sexy Hollywood fare with hard-core pornography.

Under Pence's original amendment, "any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape or other matter" that contained a simulated sex scene would come under the same government-filing requirements that adult films must meet (HR 3/9).

Currently, any actual filmed sexual activity requires an affidavit that lists the names and ages of the actors who engage in the act. The film is required to have a video label that claims compliance with the law and lists where the custodian of the records can be found. The record-keeping requirement is known as Section 2257, for its citation in federal law. Violators could spend five years in jail.

Pence's provision expanded the definition of sexual activity to include simulated sex acts like those that appear in many movies and TV shows.

According to a draft of the current legislation obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the makers of movies and TV programs still would have to keep records that verify the actors involved in simulated sex scenes are over 18, but they wouldn't have to keep separate records or a different record for every scene. As long as the studios tell the Justice Department that they keep records of performers' ages under the course of their normal business practices, they will comply with the new language.

Also removed is language that would have subjected makers of movies and TV shows to specific criminal penalties for failing to maintain records of performers' ages.

The new language also does away with requirements that the films carry labels similar to X-rated movies certifying compliance, removes a prohibition against state and local production incentives for movies with simulated sex and would affect only products made after the law goes into effect. It does not give the Justice Department the right to inspect the records whenever it chooses.

[tony286]

it such bullshit , its a show for election time

[crazies]

Looks like they could fast track it through now

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsAr...ILM-SEX-DC.XML

[crazies]

Damn double post