Saving California Porn: Payment Processers Pump Up Campaign To Fight Condom Mandate

LOS ANGELES — While Bernie Sanders may be able to fund his political revolution $27 at a time, California’s porn industry, which is facing a statewide condom mandate that many in the industry say threatens to eliminate it, can’t exactly count on selling bumper stickers to finance its own campaign. But as it prepares its fight against the November condom ballot initiative, it may get some help from companies concerned about a very different type of protection: online payment processors.

The industry held a fundraiser in January that pulled in $46,700. While many of the donors were from the adult film industry itself, including sex toy manufacturer Doc Johnson and porn studio Wicked Pictures — one of the few to use condoms — there were also handful of payment processing companies recognized, such as NETBilling and Mobius Payments.

Payment processors are naturally aligned with the interests of the porn world. Many of them serve adult websites established in California and wouldn’t welcome a giant upheaval in the industry, which is what many insiders say will happen if the condom law is passed. And that concern is not just speculation: A similar law in Los Angeles County has driven a lot of production out of the area, and even underground — with the predictable lack of protections that comes with going off the grid.

Proceeds from January’s fundraiser were split between two adult industry trade organizations, the Free Speech Coalition and the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection. The latter is not involved with the ballot initiative, which would mandate condom use on all porn sets within the state — and even allow unaffiliated residents of California to sue if they see a condomless film produced here and receive up to 25 percent of any fine.

In a Wednesday statement thanking and naming the donors, Free Speech Coalition executive director Eric Paul Leue did not mince words about what’s at stake. “This year is a make-or-break year for the adult industry with many hot-button issues,” he said. “With the generous and continued support of our members and the donations collected from the 2016 XBIZ fundraiser, our work to protect the industry can carry on and evolve.”

Leue told International Business Times that the funds allocated to the Free Speech Coalition were for general purposes and not earmarked for the condom initiative, but the industry’s planned campaign against the law is going to require plenty of cash. The main backer of the initiative, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has much deeper pockets — the foundation hasn’t spent less than $140,000 on lobbyists since 2001.

Adult film consumers overwhelmingly prefer movies without condoms, and performers IBT has spoken with say they can cause excruciating pain given the intensity of porn sex. Moreover, they say, the measure is completely unnecessary, as there hasn’t been a confirmed HIV transmission on a California porn set since 2001.

But while many adult companies have been squeezed financially by the easy availability of porn on sites such as Pornhub (which has an affiliate program for major studios but also forces producers into a game of constant whack-a-mole as they battle a flow of pirated videos), the online payment processing industry brings in about $16 billion in revenue and is growing, according to market research firm IBISWorld. And with a significant amount of internet traffic being porn-related, adult businesses are likely not an inconsequential customer base.

An executive at a company that works with online payment providers but did not want to go on the record told IBT that the U.S. online porn business does about $2.8 billion a year in revenue. But since adult websites are considered high-risk, the select few companies that serve them do quite well, and it would make sense that they would want to protect the status quo. If websites relocate to other countries, that business is gone.

So as the industry moves forward with its campaign, which will include plenty of social media outreach and a political action committee (let’s call it condomPAC), don’t be surprised if more payment processor cash rolls in to help porn performers in California avoid feeling a different kind of burn.