I'm not at all for making porn illegal. But I find it weird that it is legal and prostitution isn't.

[Smith_3]

Since isn't that what porn actors do? Have sex for money :shrug:

Ok, there are cameras present. But where the hell is the big difference? Wouldn't consistency require that either prostitution AND porn production are illegal OR both are legal?

What prevents people from registering as a porn actor and just chucking the video tapes afterwards?

[Uben]

1. Good point

They are both sex for money.

[bendogood]

2. i guess nothing...

but prostutes are 'normally' of the desperate and destitute kind, i doubt they lack the will (or skills) to organisze even the shoddyest of porn shots just to justify there actions, when there is so little detuerent provided by the law anyway...

[FreakinDJ]

18. Only in countries that Illegalize Prostitution

Go to a Country where Prostitution is legal and there is almost No Drug Addtition associated with working prostitutes

That is the "Desperate and Destitute kind" your talking about.

There was a group of sociologist that applied for Government funding to study that exact phenomena except a church group lobbied heavily against it. Can’t have any thing like actual facts come out you know

[bendogood]

23. not all hookers are bad...:)

i know i wasn't saying ALL prosotutes are, just that 'most' in countrys where it isnt legal are that kind... i think these does need to be talk on this, my only problem is if we legalize it, isnt that saying its ok, much the same problem i have with cannabis, while it may not do halm to anyone but the person smoking it legalizing it tells kids that its ok to do "because the goverment said" so... thats all

[FreakinDJ]

29. Take away the Illegality and you take away the Drug Addiction

The trafficing, the abuse by pimps and Johns alike

[bendogood]

34. Please tell me your not that naive...

If we where to legalize all drugs today, sell drugs from shops with a licence, like medicine, would that remove all drug dealers? No because MILLIONS of people make there money this way, would it stop people dying from overdose, no! Because people would still use to much!

Saying this would remove pimps it just plain stupid, it will create more as they know they cant be prosecuted for forcing girls to have sex with strange men, when I said this needs study, I wasn’t naive enough to think legalizing is the end of the problem, it just makes it easier to manager. Personally the negative effects far out way those for keeping it illegal.

[Threedifferentones]

35. Ummmmmm

If prostitution were legal, it most certainly would be illegal to force protitutes to do something they don't want. Right now a woman caught by a vicious "pimp" may be scared to go to the cops, since what she is doing is also illegal. If it were only the abuse that were criminal, not the sex, then she could run her own business and have the cops take care of the pimps. Thus, legalizing prostitution will obviously protect prostitutes, most of whom are women. Legalization would obviously, indisputably, put pimps largely out of business. If you do not believe me, go to Europe.

[FreakinDJ]

37. As it is now - the women CAN NOT report those things

in fear of prosecution

So yes - your opinion/analogy is entirely correct

Most of these people need to get out more and travel the world. They have "No Idea"

[FreakinDJ]

36. Read about Austraila - they legalised Prostitution years ago

granted the intitial legislation lacked a few society imposed safegaurds such as "Proximity to Schools" but that was remidied quickly.

The Drug Adiction - Violence - and "Pimps, became a thing of the past overnight

AND NO - I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT LEGALISING ALL DRUGS
dumb analogy

But as you said "This needs Study" is correct. The problem being a few religious groups and 1 group of sociologist lobbied heavily against any government funding for just such a study. Obviously because they know any honest study would recommend the immediate decriminalization of prostitution

[zagging]

3. Whoops

On edit: Gotta read the whole thing.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. You could say that none of the people performing the sex act in question is the paying customer

but yeah, that's splitting hairs. I think both should be legal.

[jacksonian]

5. prostitution is one paying another for sex

acting is paying both for sex with each other. Got it?

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming.

[Smith_3]

6. But it isn't always that way. Often the producer is also an actor.

So they are effectively paying for sex, even though they might pay themselves a salary from the companies funds.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. If you banned porn, you'd be banning every movie with a sex scene.

Including legitimate, artful movies.

[MadBadger]

8. How bout we just make them both legal?

[Strong Atheist]

32. Agreed nt.

[ixion]

9. prostitution should be legalized and regulated

just like everything else that humans continue to do, like using drugs, despite stupid laws made against the act.

If millions of humans do it, and no one gets hurt, it shouldn't be illegal.

[Ian David]

10. Because porn is regulated and taxed so the government gets a piece of the pie. n/t

[blogslut]

11. You enter untread waters, my friend

There is one place in the United States where the courts have determined that porn work is not pandering. I'll let my hero, http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2845/why-arent-porn-actors-charged-with-prostitution">Cecil Adams, explain it:

The case in question involves porn producer-director Hal Freeman, auteur of more than 100 full-length classics including the immortal Caught From Behind. In 1983 he made Caught From Behind II: The Sequel, and was charged and convicted under California's pandering law, which makes it a felony to " another person for the purpose of prostitution." But in 1988 his conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court, which cited precedent establishing that "for to constitute 'prostitution,' the genitals, buttocks, or female breast, of either the prostitute or the customer must come in contact with some part of the body of the other for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification of the customer or of the prostitute" . The court found that the "payment of acting fees was the only payment involved in the instant case. . . . There is no evidence that paid the acting fees for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification, his own or the actors'." Thus, no prostitution. Besides, the court went on, "even if conduct could somehow be found to come within the definition of 'prostitution' literally, the application of the pandering statute to the hiring of actors to perform in the production of a . . . motion picture would impinge unconstitutionally upon First Amendment values."

So Freeman's conviction was overturned, and making porn was effectively legalized in California. Producers who once filmed surreptitiously in motel rooms were free to shoot with good lights and no fear of arrest. Another triumph for the storied LAPD...

As Cecil goes on to explain, we then have the complications derived from the definitions each state applies to determining prostitution.

Add on to that, the World Wide Web and the Internet porn idustry. An industry that discovered the porn moguls in Chatsworth California had no idea how the Internet worked nor did they have the vision to see its profitability. In short, they wanted too much money for their porn. Resultingly, adult webmasters across this great land did what they had to do: They made their own porn with their own models, giving birth to the net's first viable commercial industry.

And here we have the gist of the matter. There has been no pandering cases brought against any adult Internet producers. At least, not any that made it all the way through the courts...

I could go on but I should just write a damned book.

[notadmblnd]

13. So as long as I have a camera on in the motel room. I'm making a movie, not prostituting?

In these tough economic times.. that might be a good thing to know:shrug:

[blogslut]

14. If you're in a certain county in California, then you are not pandering

Otherwise, it depends on the laws in your state and county and whether or not you think you can beat the ride - ie: "You can beat the rap but can you beat the ride?"

I give this advice to every adult webmaster in my day job:

Always consult a lawyer before you get enter the business.

EDIT ADD: If you mean, can you avoid being charged with pandering if you turn the camera on while you do the deed with a prostitute? I have no damned idea.

[notadmblnd]

15. Well I live in Michigan and... they've just recently given huge incentives to the film industry

I think there's three production companies setting up shop in the area in the near future. It might be time for the law/laws here to be challenged?

[blogslut]

16. You mean the mainstream film industry?

Mainstream film operates independently of the porn film industry. The porn film industry, in turn, has little to do with the Internet porn industry.

I work for the Internet porn industry.

Ultimately, I doubt those incentives contain any earmarks for porn production.

As for porn being filmed in Michigan, it is being done but mostly by small-scale individuals and companies that probably are one ride away from financial bankruptcy if a D.A. or sherriff decides to bring them up on obscenity charges.

[notadmblnd]

17. I realize that. However, with the mainstream film industry making films here,

and some of those movies having sex scenes.... I would think that it would make it easier to for the porn film industry to justify setting up shop too?

[blogslut]

20. The film/video porn industry is dying

They went overboard with costs and now they've lost the majority of their market share to Internet producers who can create content faster, cheaper and without the hierarchy.

EDIT ADD: video

[notadmblnd]

27. I'm not rally interested in going into the Porn film business.

I was just trying to determine if it was a way for women who may choose to do a little moonlighting in these difficult economic times, to avoid arrest.

[blogslut]

30. Yes

Contact respected content producers directly. There are many directory sites for the Internet porn industry. We call them Adult Webmaster Resource sites. I happen to work for one. I will not tell you which one. I gave you all the keywords you need.

These sites list sections for the different service providers of our field. Some of those services include: Web Hosts, Billers, Sponsors and Content Providers/Producers. Most Adult Webmaster Resource sites also host message boards. (Mine hosts one and I am a moderator there.) Many of these adult webmaster message boards list different forums for specific subjects. Mine is one of a few that have a "jobs" forum so that contractors can find contract employees. Models are considered contract employees.

How's that?

I could go on but I should just write a damned book. ;)

[Bluenorthwest]

28. Mainstream films have violence and murder in them

and yet, they are not snuff films. Movies simulate many things. Mainstream movies with sex scenes are not scenes of real sex. Sorry to disappoint, but they are as real as the Death Star.

[melm00se]

12. there have been

some anti-porn prosecutions on that exact same point. The thought was that hitting the 3 requirements (patently offensive, no social/scientific/literary value and appeals to a prurient interest by local community standards: aka the "miller test") getting an obscenity conviction was too difficult, going after porn actors/actresses/producers for prostitution would be far easier.

[KG]

19. I find it weird that prostitution is illegal.

[conscious evolution]

21. I have always thought it wierd

that I can have sex (not that I would) with a sixteen year old and it is legal to do so but if I show a porno flick to a sixteen year old I can go to jail.

[blogslut]

22. I may be wrong, but I think you need to brush up on consent laws

From my understanding consent has to do more with parental permission than it does with the permission of the minor.

[Kalyke]

24. I find it weird that anyone would pay for either.

Yuck.

(And I'm not a prude. Ask my husband.)

[eShirl]

25. where would one register as a porn actor?

[Smith_3]

31. Well, you would have to be in some porn producers database.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Protection_and_Obscenity_Enforcement_Act

I guess it's not a "registration" in a strict sense. Only the requirement that your "employer" has proof of your age.

[dysfunctional press]

26. if prostitution were legal, it would probably be easier to track it's use by legislators...

maybe that has something to do with it? :shrug:

another point of social hypocrisy- if athletes/models can use their bodies to make money...why not prostitutes?

and all because canada got the french, australia got the convicts, and we got the goddamn puritans.

[caraher]

33. That's alway seemed very weird to me too

It's not only sex for pay, there's all sorts of photographic evidence proving it happened!

[Occam Bandage]

38. Porn is speech; prostitution isn't.

That said, I'm in favor of legalizing prostitution.

[NorthCarolina]

39. Porn is incapable of spreading STD's...Prostitution, that's a different story. n/t

[lightningandsnow]

40. All sexually active adults can spread STD's.

Also, many sex workers maintain that since that's what they do for a living, they're actually more likely to know about and use safer sex practices than the average sexually active adult.

[NorthCarolina]

41. I agree, I guess I should have phrased it as "You can't catch an STD from watching Porn"

Of course the porn actors themselves are at risk though.