Fear of THE LAW anyone ???

[badgirlsrule]

I'm new here but I have a another question..

This is for both producers and those who order customs:

Does anyone ever worry that there are elements to the stories you write,
or the films/clips you produce..

that could possibly get you into future trouble with the Law (of your country) ??

I'm not referring to projects that could be deemed PG rated,
but to the more subversive or explicit material.

In the short time I've been here..

I have seen for example.. depictions of forced sex/orgasm, sex under hypnosis,
various mixtures of sex and violence..

Now understand.. I am not judging anyone for the entertainment they like.
I wouldn't be here myself if I were offended.

But such material has the (probably small) potential of attracting attention
from law authorities.

If that happened, perhaps being prosecuted under the laws of obscenity
or something else, could possibly become a reality.

I suspect that producers would have the most risk as revenue is being earned.

Has anyone considered that I wonder ?

I ask this out of curiosity and interest
(and honestly, maybe a little fear for myself).

I really don't want to encourage a barrage of immature replies here..

such as "F**k the law" etc etc..

That adds nothing to the discussion in my opinion.

I'd like to hear from people, calmly considering the question.

Many thanks all for reading. Looking forward to your input

[mrestfla]

[Ezekiel]

Umm, whatever anyone could possibly bring up against this kind of material can be brought up against any kind of video entertainment. Sex & violence is everywhere, so unless you live in some arab country where you face the possibility of having mr. president guillotined if they catch you with whatever it is they find offensive, relax and enjoy the show.

[tallyho]

Has anyone considered that I wonder ?

I'm sorry but I found this question hilarious.

To answer it, yes, yes they have.

V good pic Mrestfla!

[Fenton]

I don't think being paranoid about "the law" is healthy. Wasted emotion.

[Mr. X]

Except for a few edge cases most of the material in this genre produced by producers is tamer than what you see on Skinemax or HBO. And there is an adult barrier meaning you at least have to have a credit card to buy. Now my stuff is a bit extreme to say the least but its behind a pay barrier.

I would be more concerned about DC or Marvel coming down with copyright infringements. We got burned on that once for a character that was not actually Wonder Woman.

[TIEnTEEZ]

It's not an entirely unreasonable question. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's worth worrying about, but it's not really a stupid question.

Even if the content of your video is not strictly illegal, they can still come after you if you go too far. You might not go to prison or be convicted of a crime, but being arrested isn't completely out of the question.

I think the producer has a lot more to worry about than the buyer, though. And even then, it's really not worth worrying about. No producer is going to make a video for you that involves child pornography or anything blatantly illegal in the country they are producing it in.

Back in the 90's before custom videos (or any videos on the internet) were popular, I used to frequent some sites that published erotic stories. And back then, as now, I am into bondage and all sorts of nasty stuff - torture, rape, violence, etc. In fictional stories, of course.

I forget his name, but there was a guy, a college student, who wrote a story and posted it online. The story was about a girl who went to his school. He didn't know her, but she was in some of his classes, and so he wrote this story about breaking into her dorm her, tying her up, and then raping, torturing, and killing her. Somehow, she found out about it and this guy was arrested. It was a big story back then. Dunno what ever happened to him. And I have not heard about any stories like that since then. But best-case scenario, even if this guy didn't go to jail, I'm sure the experience was no fun for him. Of course, he did a lot of really stupid things by using her real name and teh name of the school and, I'm pretty sure, HIS real name.

So again, I really wouldn't worry about it. If you are concerned, then take steps to hide your identity. Don't use your regular e-mail address, create a free account with gmail or hotmail or something.

But really, unless you asking for something really bad, like child porn (which no producer is going to make for you, anyway), then I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it.

[theScribbler]

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

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

[Void]

Simulation is simulation I guess, be it in a story or in a video, so there isn't really anything to worry about there - as long as the participants are over the consenting age. It is pretty much the same as it is in mainstream tv/film/games which simulate torture and murder all the time, not to mention a whole lot worse. I was going to say there is never anything to worry about with simulating a situation that would be illegal in reality, but TIEinTEEZ raises an interesting case where possibly the simulation is still dodgy... but that is a very, very particular exception. If someone wrote a visceral story about murdering me in my home, in the context of it being an arousing fantasy with themselves as the gleeful murderer... I would probably want that looked at, just because the fantasy is very clearly correlated to reality. That could open up a long in-depth discussion about where the line is there, I'll admit, but for the most part stories that involve Wonder Woman being abused by Captain Evil are clearly a safe distance from that line.

[TIEnTEEZ]

Yeah, actually, I don't think he was arrested for posting a dirty story, the actual charge was something like transmitting a threat across state lines. Apparently, it's legal to threaten someone in your home state, but once you post it on the internet and it crosses state boundaries, it's a federal crime. :-P

[theScribbler]

Under age related stuff is a definite no-no for sure. And back in around 2004, the 2257 law requirements scared away many adult content producers who wouldn't be in violation, but didn't want to deal with the 2257 requirements which was pretty much 'guilty before proving yourself innocent' type of legislation. It's still the law, but seems much less a scare tactic these days.

[badgirlsrule]

Ah.. Some serious discussion taking place finally.

I was just interested to know if other people ever gave thought to the subject
I raised.

I think how we look at things, and how outside authorities look at things
can be very different.

Actions against certain groups of people can be prompted by
many things: Usually for political or financial reasons,
by people with an agenda.

I'm old enough to remember the Tippa Gore effect for example..
That went global ! Or early in 70's, porno companies were frequently
busted & hassled.. on moral grounds.. but really for tax reasons.

I think producers run the greatest risk.. from people with
a political agenda, or from tax collectors smelling money.

[Heroine Addict]

An amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act of 2008 is being passed through the UK parliament. This could potentially make a lot of this genre illegal to own in England and Wales.

Clause 16 will extend the definition of an extreme image in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 to ban the possession of extreme pornographic images that depict rape and other explicit, non-consensual sexual acts. Its inclusion in the Bill is a real victory for groups like Rape Crisis South London and the End Violence Against Women coalition that have long campaigned against rape pornography. Their open letter to the Prime Minister last summer was signed by more then 100 women’s groups, academics and campaigners and has been instrumental in bringing us to this place. The Opposition know that the Prime Minister is personally committed to this proposal and wants to make it work. We are eager to work with the Government to help to ensure that we get this right and to stamp out such abhorrent images. It is in that spirit that we tabled these amendments to explore how the Bill might be improved.

However, there may be some hope...

The Committee will remember the evidence that we heard last week from the British Board of Film Classification, which has a key role in deciding what should be classified as sexually violent and abusive pornography. The verdict that we heard from its assistant
Column number: 212
director, David Austin, was clear. He confirmed that some examples of sexually violent material, including violent and abusive pornography, would not be caught by the Bill. With that in mind, we feel that three issues need clarification, the first of which relates to amendment 14.

Subsection (2)(c) clearly states that an image will come within the scope of the offence if it portrays something in an “explicit and realistic way”. As Mr Austin explained, that could allow material that is badly acted, such as clearly fictional depictions of rape with actors acting a script, escaping the scope of this legislation. That could be the case even if the works include scenes of relentless, aggressive abuse, threats of physical violence with weapons and forced acts of sex. I understand that the Government plan to issue revised explanatory notes to the Bill to clarify the issue, but with those not yet published, I would very much appreciate any detail the Minister can offer on how that will be done.

www .publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmpublic/criminaljustice/140318/pm/140318s01.htm

[theScribbler]

An amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act of 2008 is being passed through the UK parliament. This could potentially make a lot of this genre illegal to own in England and Wales.

When do they expect to pass this law, and will it mean England and Wales residents will have to throw away some of their Game of Thrones DVDs, along with the Accused with Jodie Foster? Or is it just directed at violent porn?

[Heroine Addict]

When do they expect to pass this law, and will it mean England and Wales residents will have to throw away some of their Game of Thrones DVDs, along with the Accused with Jodie Foster? Or is it just directed at violent porn?

I'm not sure how long it will take. The law will apply purely to pornography. Mainstream stuff such as The Accused or A Clockwork Orange is covered by the Video Recordings Act.

[Void]

I don't think so. My impression of that is that they're gunning for true to life depictions of rape or violent abuse which are served up in the singular context of being titillating. So that would be sequences of a believable woman being believable raped - and that sole content being dispensed for only that merit. That would stand it apart from everything except gruelling rape videos, and that sounds about right to me, to be honest. A bit like the story example above, I can appreciate there being an issue with THAT kind of content correlating heavily with reality while supposedly being presented as arousing or desirable. That being said, these laws never serve any purpose... offense is never enough grounds to ban something, and the idea that these things make people more prone to violence is comedic and demonstrably wrong, not to mention a touch insulting. If they HAVE to draw a line, though, I at least understand that one - it's when all content, no matter how clearly fantasy, becomes banned that I will begin the revolution.

[badgirlsrule]

Both in my country (UK) and in the USA, the Government is
pushing for more and more access to monitor our internet activity & communications,
in the name of national security.

I don't think people will be forced to throw away anything; but flags could be set
by security agencies, that when hit, would bring about scrutiny & monitoring of
certain people/groups by Big Brother.

We could find ourselves on our government's watch-list, if the entertainment
we like is classified by them as being dangerous, harmful or unlawful.

Sounds like a big jump ? Sounds paranoid ? It would never happen here ?

??

[Ezekiel]

If you are really paranoid about it, there are ways through which you can make the surveillance of your internet activity so ridiculously difficult nobody will ever bother to try it, not unless they suspect of you of terrorism or something.

[MightyHypnotic]

This is mainly a UK thing for you, isn't it? There are obscenity laws here in the U.S. but they are very vague (on purpose!) and personally I think the govt. has a lot of other fish to fry at the moment.

As for material that has the "potential" to attract attention from authorities, it's not just limited to the superheroine genre. It's everywhere.