from www.laweekly.com – As with a lot of things the L.A. City Council does, there was more bark than bite with its mandatory-condoms-in-porn law approved early this year.

The city looks to be kicking this can down the road some more: It appears that by the time this rule is enforced, if it ever is, it will be 2013.

That’s because even under the strictest recommendation by a working group on the matter, it will take 90 days to hire an inspector who would check out porn sets. And that’s after the L.A. City Council decides to make a move based on yesterday’s recommendations. So …

… is the porn industry laughing?

Probably. The industry told ya so, in a way, that this is more complicated than just putting condom cops on porn sets.

Among the city working group’s recommendations, in fact, is another way to kick the can even farther down the road: Let L.A. County officials deal with it.

You see, L.A. County voters will be faced with approving or denying a similar rule November. If it’s approved, the city working group recommends handing over enforcement to the county.

If not, there’s the idea of hiring a “medical professional” who would make inspections.

The City Council gave final approval to the law Jan. 17 after the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has campaigned for safe sex in porn for years, gathered enough valid signatures to get the rule on a city ballot.

The council voted instead to just approve it, which they had the right to do. The rule covers location porn shoots that seek city film permits.

The industry argues that the law violates free speech, is invasive, and would discriminate between porn and mainstream film.

To deal with that last fear, the working group recommended that new permit applications ask if a shoot would include “Activities Carrying Risk of Transmission of Blood or Infectious Materials.”

Porn leaders also bring this up: What if a married couple wants to have porn sex on-camera? Will the city then decree that the duo must use birth control?

Tricky.

But mainly porn doesn’t think you’ll buy smut with condoms. In fact, the state of California already says condoms are required in porn. They just don’t have the resources to really enforce the rule. So porn does its thing. There’s millions if not billions on the line.

This saga is lasting longer than some porn stars’ careers.