Hollywood porn film actors must wear condoms on set.
That's the ruling of a US federal appeals court, which has thrown out actors' claims that wearing condoms breaches First Amendment rights to free expression.
The ruling upholds a Los Angeles County law, the so-called Measure B, which requires adult film producers to obtain a public health permit and follow health and safety laws, including condom use.
Porn film companies had claimed their industry already regulates itself sufficiently to protect actors against AIDS/HIV and other diseases.
It also violates the First Amendment right to free expression, they said.
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But that argument was rejected by a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a decision taken in August last year.
Measure B "was narrowly tailored to achieve the substantial governmental interest of reducing the rate of sexually transmitted infections, and left open adequate alternative means of expression", they said.
Porn film makers in California were forced to suspend production temporarily in 2011 after an actor tested positive for HIV, in the latest such disruption to the multi-billion-dollar industry.
The industry is primarily based in the San Fernando Valley north of LA.
