Page 34 - AVN June 2015

LEGALESE| |By Clyde DeWitt
Take Aim, Then Shoot
Are you doing all that is prudent?
content, you
need to consult
your attorney.
“I don’t have
A lawyer would
“Do you have a
”If you shoot
one,” you say.
respond,
death wish?”
LEGAL NEWS
Clyde DeWitt is a Las Vegas and Los Angeles
attorney, whose practice has been focused on adult
entertainment since 1980. He can be reached at
ClydeDeWitt@earthlink.net. More information can
be found at ClydeDeWitt.com. This column is not a
substitute for personal legal advice. Rather, it is to alert
readers to legal issues warranting advice from your
personal attorney.
Last month, this column addressed some of the legal issues that
arise from shooting adult content. As noted, there are more.
Prostitution and Pandering
Think about it: if you hire someone for sex, isn’t that
prostitution? That is what the laws of every state—well, except
for a couple of dozen legal brothels in Nevada—say. Not
all prostitution laws say the same thing, but the trend is to
increase the scope of the laws—so-called “human trafficking”
laws—and the potential punishment. Insofar as the author and
any of his circle of friends (read: First Amendment Lawyers
Association members), there are only three states that have
weighed in on the issue of whether prostitution and pandering
laws—and presumably some of the recent human trafficking
laws—apply to movie making: California, New Hampshire and
New York (see footnote).
In short, California and New Hampshire came out the right
way for adult content producers; New York, believe it or not,
came out the wrong way. However, the California and New
Hampshire cases that came out the right way were from those
states’ highest courts. The New York case is not. (In New
York, the “Supreme Court” is not its highest court; rather, the
New York Court of Appeals holds that position. The decision
applies only to Manhattan courts, New York expert lawyer and
FALA member Ed Rudofsky reports.)
The California case, People v. Freeman, is the story of a hero.
Hal Freeman was the proprietor of Hollywood Video, one
of the then-handful of adult video manufacturers in the San
Fernando Valley in the 1980s; he also directed the videos.
During that period, California cops decided that, since
obscenity prosecutions failed to extinguish the porn industry,
the solution to the dilemma was to declare adult filmmakers
guilty of prostitution (hiring performers to engage in
sexual acts) and pandering (rounding up performers). The
significance was that, because pimps are a serious threat to
young women, California law held that a pandering conviction
would result in a minimum three-year sentence without the
possibility of probation.
As a result, there were dozens of pandering cases filed
against adult production companies. The industry response
was to go underground, just like it will if ever there is serious
enforcement of the condom-only laws. The difference is that,
back then, it took considerable equipment for an adult shoot;
now you can put it all into a suitcase.
Hal Freeman was a wonderful guy, and he was a fighter. No
plea deal! He was convicted of pandering for a movie called
Caught from Behind, Part II and appealed to California’s Court
of Appeal. (Anyone convicted of a felony in California has a
right to appeal to that court.) A divided Court of Appeal (2-1)
upheld the conviction.
Undaunted, Freeman took the case the California Supreme
Court, which unanimously tossed out the conviction. And,
as cited above, the United States Supreme Court would have
nothing to do with it. It reportedly cost Freeman $300,000 (in
late 1980s dollars) to defend his case.
Not all that long after that wonderful victory, essentially
legalizing the adult motion picture industry in California, the
author of this column received a phone call from Al Bloom,
a recently retired legend in this industry: “Hal Freeman has
cancer and has only weeks to live.” As predicted, Freeman died
not long after that call. He never enjoyed many of the fruits
from his astonishing efforts. Hal’s daughter, Sherry, took over
Hollywood Video, doing well with it for many years. Nice lady!
Local Licenses
Filming takes place in two categories of places, studios and
locations. If you live or have ever lived in Los Angeles, you
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