I fully support the rights of those who work in the porn industry (or any other industry) to control their working conditions. If performers want to go to a mandatory condom policy, I do think that is their right. However, I suspect that such a policy would destroy the industry, and take their jobs down with it. More importantly, condom usage would also increase the risk of HIV/AIDS in straight porn.
Porn is fantasy: in our fantasies, we don't worry about STDs, pregnancies, or social conventions. Condoms do/would, by their very presence in a scene, inject a continuous dose of reality. Some people might find that reassuring, but I imagine that most fans would be seriously put-off by it.
In commercially distributed straight porn, routine STD testing is used. This includes the right of every performer to view the test results of those with whom they will be working. Since straight performers are low risk for HIV/AIDS, testing makes the most sense.
The gay porn industry eschews testing in favor of condom use. There is a good reason for that. While it may not be an exact comparison, the STD rates in the mostly-condom gay porn industry are assumed to be much higher (since they don't test, no one really knows) than the rates in the testing-dominated straight porn industry. It is understood in the gay porn industry that there is a high likelihood of having contact with someone who is HIV+. Therefore, a barrier method is the most effective means of protecting performers. Testing would likely destroy the gay porn industry because a significant number of the performers would test positive.
If condom usage were legislatively mandated, the straight porn industry in the US would be decimated. Few people would watch pornography which uses condoms for all sexual encounters. Consumers of straight porn would undoubtedly look to foreign sources of product and to already-produced material they haven't yet seen. But the biggest source of condom-free porn production would likely be material produced under the legal radar. That is exactly what happened in France, where condom usage is mandated for penetrative sex in commercial releases.
We know from American history what happens when a product/service desired by the public is made illegal by government mandate. After passage of The Volstead Act, alcohol production didn't end, it just found a different model for production and distribution. Today, gambling, prostitution, and illicit drug transactions take place regularly in spite of their largely illegal status.
What does happen (look at prostitution in Sweden after that country's 2000 prostitution legislation) is that production and activity is driven underground--where control and oversight are virtually nonexistent. Significant numbers of performers would continue to make condom-less porn. However, since legitimate testing services would no longer exist, those performers would be left working without condoms AND without the ability to know the health status of their co-stars.
I agree that performers engage in a certain amount of risk, and again, I support the rights of performers to make a decision concerning the use of condoms. But, mandatory condom usage would not only destroy the business of porn in the US, it would make it far more dangerous for those performers-- who would likely continue to work in underground production.
Here is an interesting research paper done by an economics professor. It is entitled "Self-Regulation in the Adult Film Industry: Why Are HIV Outbreaks the Exception and Not the Norm?"
http://econ.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/10239...onintheAFI.doc
Among other things, the author looks at some of the economic principles of the porn industry, the role of AIM (Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation--now defunct) in diminishing STD risks of performers, and comparisons of STD rates within the straight porn industry to those in the general population.
Unlike performers in the gay porn industry, performers in straight porn are not high risk for HIV/AIDS. The process of testing has functioned very well for those in straight porn, and more frequent testing would certainly reduce the rates of other STDs. While mandated condom usage would make some people feel more socially and politically comfortable, it would, ultimately, make the porn industry more dangerous for performers than it is now.
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