Prostitution and porn( A legal question)

[white_wolf]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this as it isn't really related to politics and is more of a legal thing,but I've noticed that DU members seem to be fairly knowledgeable about such things and could maybe answer a question that has confused me. What is the legal difference between porn, which is legal and prostitution which is illegal? In both cases people are getting paid for having sex, the only difference I can see is that one is filmed and one isn't. I don't really see the legal difference so I was wondering what the differences were legally?

[leftstreet]

1. You should post this in Ask the Administrators

I'm just kidding

:popcorn:

[L0oniX]

13. LMFAO

[Petrus Romanus]

2. Someone else having sex with a prostitute doesn't enable me to get off. nt

[JVS]

3. I've always wondered why prostitutes don't just have cameras and offer to make a porn with customers

Kind of like those "record your own CD" karaoke booths.

[LisaL]

4. Probably because they would lose quite a few customers.

[JVS]

Why? If people don't want to keep the product, they can delete/destroy it.

[LisaL]

12. Right. No sex tape has ever leaked out.

[JVS]

20. Not if you leave the customer in charge of pushing the record button.

And collecting the tape.

[Hello_Kitty]

18. Because many of their clients are married and they could be blackmailed. eom

[Recovered Repug]

21. She could also claim that she's just selling condoms

and the customer wanted to try them out to see if they worked.

[pitohui]

27. they absolutely can and they do...in los angeles county

you can have videos made of your session for a price, most of the women i've heard of doing this work are located in los angeles county, for reasons mentioned in my other post -- it's legal there

would be stupid to put yourself committing a crime on video but if you're having sex as part of an artwork/scene/movie in los angeles cty it's legal

[TheWraith]

5. Most states don't make a legal distinction, actually.

Which is why almost all porn produced in the US is made in California, where the laws draw a distinction between sex for money and sex for money to create entertainment.

[NWHarkness]

6. Just speculation, but...

In prostitution, one sexual partner pays the other. In porn, both are paid by a third party, and that is a different kind of transaction.

But, primarily, I believe the key is the ability to claim first amendment protection for porn as a means of expression.

[LisaL]

8. Why can't a prostitute claim first amendment protection?

[EV_Ares]

7. Actually it goes according to local laws. What is legal or illegal in a say, southern state, may or

may not be in the east. Prostitution is legal in NV, some porn may be illegal in some parts of the country. It goes also to the definition of what prostitution is which generally is the exchange of monies for sexual favor. In making a film, that is not the case, there is no exchange of monies between the participants and you may even see simulation of sex on the big screen and it may have a NC type rating.

All in the eyes of the beholder of what porn is. Prostitution is what it is depending on where it is.

[pitohui]

28. prostitutition is only legal in some rural nevada counties

it is not legal in clark county, every hooker, escort, call girl you have met in vegas, every last one...breaking the law

i know, your heart is broken now but it's true

that's why it goes in phases so much, at times, whores in vegas have really been on the down low (late 90s when vegas was trying to get a family image for example) and other times they're really in your face (like right now, i guess the cops are too busy with all the violent criminals during the economic downturn)

[EV_Ares]

31. Naaaaa, no broken heart here but hey hadn't thought about Vegas I guess because it is so

prevalent & nobody questions it.

Thanks.

[trackfan]

9. There was a legal case that dealt with this.

Maybe California vs. Freeman?

[ret5hd]

10. God, what an original line of thought! I wonder why no one has thought of it before?

[L0oniX]

15. My new home is under a rock with attached cave for my undocumented servants.

No wonder I never thought of it.
:sarcasm:

[bemildred]

11. In porn, theoretically, both performers get paid. nt

[LisaL]

14. Why exactly does that make a difference in a legal sense?

[Speck Tater]

19. What about porn filmed by the same male who pays the female to participate.

It seems to me a guy could offer to pay a woman to be in a porno movie and have her sign a movie contract. Then he could video tape the act, pay the actress and then erase the tape.

Isn't there some scam in the Muslim countries where the guy "marries" the prostitute, has sex with her, and then divorces her all in the same evening?

[msongs]

16. dinner + movie -> sex vs cash upfront - > sex vs pics n vids lol nt

[Orrex]

17. You can fast-forward through the dialogue in a porno

[blogslut]

22. See: California v. Freeman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_v._Freeman

[dark forest]

23. Didn't some prosecutor,

sometime back, try to shut down the pornography business by charging the actors with prostitution? I don't recall the details, but I think it was thrown out of court on first amendment grounds.

Anyone remember this?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

24. I Think It Was LA District Attorney Ira Reiner

.

[pitohui]

25. not a lawyer but worked in the industry awhile

the law goes county by county, have you ever noticed that a LOT of porn is produced in los angeles county? that is because if you film it, it's art (porn/erotica) and you really don't want to make it illegal for people to have sex on film in hollywood, ha ha

in MOST counties, yah, if you start filming porn, you'd better have a dam good lawyer who knows her stuff or you're going straight to prison

prostitution is also illegal in most (not all) counties and filming people having sex for pay in lots of those counties would be filming evidence of a crime, a stupid thing to do

however for historical reasons it became legal to video folks having sex/simulated sex in hollywood/los angeles...it really isn't as weird as you might think, it's perfectly logical how it worked out

in practice if you want to film porn you really need to go to los angeles -- esp. if you're asking questions on this very low level of knowledge

if a lot of smart people do something, there's usually a reason, even if you can't figure out what the reason is...

larry flynt himself wasn't always mr. california, he came from kentucky or something, true fact :-)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

26. I Once Read That 80% Of The Porn Made In America Comes Out Of The SFV

.

[Anakin Skywalker]

29. Porn is "acting", so it isn't real. :-)

And then again, one could argue that sex with a prostitute isn't "real" either. Ha ha!

[Shrek]

30. Here's a link to an article

This was covered in Slate a while back.

http://www.slate.com/id/2186552/