15 replies to this topic

[Jon2013]

Is it legal to pay a consenting adult actress money to appear in an adult video with you, and the video is for personal collection and shared on an adult website with user generated content, and not sold or distributed...or would that be prostitution? Is it only NOT prostitution if the resulting video is sold? And what is the best way to get solid permission from the actress to post the video online? What laws clearly define all this? Yes, I am really planning on doing this once I find a safe legal way to undertake such a project as soon as I can afford it.

[pg1067]

Is it legal to pay a consenting adult actress money to appear in an adult video with you, and the video is for personal collection and shared on an adult website with user generated content, and not sold or distributed...or would that be prostitution? Is it only NOT prostitution if the resulting video is sold?

Depends on the laws of the state where the act takes place.

And what is the best way to get solid permission from the actress to post the video online?

In writing.

[BOR_BOR]

Is it legal to pay a consenting adult actress money to appear in an adult video with you, and the video is for personal collection and shared on an adult website with user generated content, and not sold or distributed...or would that be prostitution? Is it only NOT prostitution if the resulting video is sold? And what is the best way to get solid permission from the actress to post the video online? What laws clearly define all this? Yes, I am really planning on doing this once I find a safe legal way to undertake such a project as soon as I can afford it.

Off the top of my head, I would say it is protected under the 1st AM. Although not distributed as a movie/dvd to be for sure "Commercialized" material, the fact it is on a web site may qualify, and attorney needs to be consulted.

[adjusterjack]

Is it legal to pay a consenting adult actress money to appear in an adult video with you, and the video is for personal collection and shared on an adult website with user generated content, and not sold or distributed...or would that be prostitution?

This is very simple. If you pay somebody for sex it's prostitution and it's illegal just about everywhere.

Look up the criminal code for your state and you'll find a definition similar to:

PROSTITUTION.
(a) A person commits an offense if he knowingly:
(1) offers to engage, agrees to engage, or engages in sexual conduct for a fee

Doesn't matter what you plan on doing with the video or what you get signed.

Sex for money is prostitution and it's illegal.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, just make sure you understand the risk.

[FindLaw_AHK]

Before proceeding with such activity, you may wish to consult with a local Lawyer to advise you of your rights.

[Jon2013]

I'm in NJ, and was curious about how it's okay for adult video makers to pay actresses, without being prostitution. As in, I want to do a personal series of this just for my own fun hobby but do not know of anyone wild enough to try it just for fun, which wiould really be the ideal anyway...I get the impression that there are other guys get to have a bunch of diffeent women do things on video that seem on an "amateur" level as opposed to a professional production for national sale distribution mode, and wanted to know more to see what I could get involved in safely?

[Jon2013]

This is very simple. If you pay somebody for sex it's prostitution and it's illegal just about everywhere.

Look up the criminal code for your state and you'll find a definition similar to:

PROSTITUTION.
(a) A person commits an offense if he knowingly:
(1) offers to engage, agrees to engage, or engages in sexual conduct for a fee

Doesn't matter what you plan on doing with the video or what you get signed.

Sex for money is prostitution and it's illegal.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, just make sure you understand the risk.

Does that mean that anyone making any kind of adult videos with a paid actress, is breaking the law but doesn't get in trouble somehow?

Also, I cannot afford a lawyer AND pay an actress; I'm barely getting by as it is now...but hope to have a better income soon...but in the meantime I want to try this out.

[LegalwriterOne]

It's complicated but let's start with the fact that you are paying for the person to have sex with you and you are not a filmmaker paying two actors to have sex for a pornographic film.

[Jon2013]

So hypothetically if I hired two prostitutes to have sex with eachother, it's legal?

[LegalwriterOne]

NO. There's a difference between acting in a porno film and paying prostitutes for sex either with you or each other. One is art, the other isn't.

[Jon2013]

So then where is the legal line of art and non art? If no one can answer this then how come it seems others get to make such videos and never get in trouble?

[Tax_Counsel]

The basic issue is whether you are really creating a film for others to see, which may be protected speech under the first amendment, or whether you are paying for sex and the only real purpose for your video is to try to skirt the prostitution laws. Your problem here is that you are not an established porn video maker hiring actors and professional film crew to create your movie and then distributing that movie for others to see in normal distribution channels. If you were, you'd have a decent claim that you are a movie maker distributing "art" since you went about it much the same way a producer of any other movie would. You also benefit from the fact that YOU aren't the one having sex with "actress" in the film.

On the other end of the scale, I rather think that a guy paying a girl to have sex with him, filming it with his home video camera on a tripod, and then uploading it to some porn version of You-Tube looks pretty much like a guy merely engaging in buying sex and then putting up the video to show off what he’s done. The point of doing it in that case comes across not as making “art” for others to see, but rather simply buying sex. So, in that case I’d not be surprised that a court would reject your claim to protection under the first amendment for this.

There isn’t going to be a bright-line rule here as to whether it’s protected speech or prostitution. The exact details of what you do will matter, as will the laws of whatever state in which the sex would take place (and you've not mentioned the state). You’ve indicated you don’t have much money. If you can’t both afford to pay the girl to do this (much less hire a real film crew) and to get good legal advice from an attorney, then you really can't afford to do this. Because the fundamental problem for you is that even if you might have an argument that your activity is not prostitution, the lack of any bright line rule means that if a prosecutor wants to go after you for prostitution, he can make that effort and you’ll need spend a ton of money defending yourself with no guarantee that you’ll avoid a conviction at the end of it. Bottom line: if you are serious about this, you better have the money to consult a lawyer before you do it and plenty of money to hire a lawyer if the state comes after you later for doing it anyway.

[pg1067]

It's actually a reasonably interesting question and one that I think is not nearly so cut and dried as some of the others have asserted.

There's a difference between acting in a porno film and paying prostitutes for sex either with you or each other.

I disagree. Ron Jeremy hires Bobby Schlong and Gina Bigrack to perform in an adult film. If making adult films is legal, it doesn't matter if Bobby and Gina are prostitutes or librarians. It is not uncommon for adult filmmakers to appear in their own films. Hence, in essence, the filmmaker is hiring others to have sex with him/her. I'm unaware of any case law on the issue, but I imagine that it would make a difference whether one is or isn't regularly engaged in the business of making adult films.

One is art, the other isn't.

Wow....I can't tell you how many cases exist in which courts have declared that they have no business judging what is and isn't "art."

[Jon2013]

Okay, thank you for the responses...I guess I'll just play it safe by waiting until I can hire a lawyer, actresses, and film crew etc. first. I'm just eager to do this project, ideally with a few very uninhibited exhibitionist women who are up for it just for fun instead of pay, but I don't know of any such women. So I looked around and saw that others were doing something similar (in "talent wanted" type ads) but offering money for actresses, and wanted to know what the boundaries were. So I guess I'll try to improve my financial state and in the meantime try to find the right type of women, which is not a legal question but a social one, for another board. Thanks.

[adjusterjack]

Okay, thank you for the responses...I guess I'll just play it safe by waiting until I can hire a lawyer, actresses, and film crew etc. first. I'm just eager to do this project, ideally with a few very uninhibited exhibitionist women who are up for it just for fun instead of pay, but I don't know of any such women. So I looked around and saw that others were doing something similar (in "talent wanted" type ads) but offering money for actresses, and wanted to know what the boundaries were. So I guess I'll try to improve my financial state and in the meantime try to find the right type of women, which is not a legal question but a social one, for another board. Thanks.

Why don't you just find yourself a slutty girlfriend and film it for free?

There's plenty of those out there.

[Jon2013]

Ugh you make that sound so easy...sooo much easier said than done, at least for me.