John Ashcroft has barely stepped into the office of attorney general, but his emphasis on religious morals is already bringing big changes to the US porn business. Some of the biggest players in the industry, fearing lawsuits from a conservative Justice Department, are embarking on a program of self-enforced censorship.
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The porn industry, which enjoyed relative freedom and eight years of boom-time under Clinton, is now anticipating a return to the harsh prosecution they last saw under the administrations of Reagan and Bush, reports THE NATION.
So producers say they are going to stop recording scenes that include sexual acts that might draw the most ire from right-wingers in Washington. The list of taboo scenes includes not only fetishistic material like sex in a coffin and sexual use of food, but also more socially sensitive material like bisexual encounters and scenes between black men and white women (scenes between white men and black women, however, are still kosher).
