Viewers could soon be able to sue porn stars who don’t use condoms

​A new voter initiative has been approved in Los Angeles for next year’s 2016 ballot, coming after 2012’s Measure B, which required condom usage in porn produced throughout the county.

The new measure would require condom usage in porn produced across the entire state of California – and would also allow members of the public to sue those porn producers making condom-free porn.

Vocativ reports on the unusual new measure:

In the initiative’s 11-item list of “purposes and intent,” one brief sentence reads, “To enable whistleblowers and private citizens to enforce the Act when the state fails to do so.”

“This bill puts performers at the mercy of any citizen, including those who misjudge and scorn the adult film industry,” says porn star Chanel Preston, president of the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee. “Any person or group with an anti-porn agenda, anyone with a personal issue with a specific performer, or an overly zealous fan could use this power as a means to attack performers in the industry.”

Later in the document, there is a clause specifically stating that anyone found in violation of the condom law is “liable via… a civil action” brought by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (better known as Cal/OSHA), a prosecutor, an “aggrieved” porn performer or—here’s is where things get interesting—“an individual residing in the State of California.” That’s right, any of the estimated 38.8 million residents of the Golden State.

Instinct Magazine points out that the definition of porn ‘producer’ isn’t just limited to, say, a major porn studio – it could also include any porn performer self-producing their own work.

Mike Stabile, a spokesperson for the Free Speech Coalition, the trade association for the adult industry, calls it “the condom version of a porn patent troll,” Vocativ reports.

“Pretty much every performer at this point is also a producer,” says Stabile. “Performers have their own websites, they sell clips, they do webcam shows.” In other words, citizens could go after the likes of legendary porn producer Seymore Butts as well as entrepreneurial on-camera talent like Stoya. “All I have to do as a private citizen is see a performer not using a condom in a video, and I get to haul them into court,” he says.

This is concerning because it “opens up the door for stalkers, anti-porn activists, moral zealots and conservative family members to harass performers with legal impunity,” says Stabile.