Nevada Entertainment Legal Questions

Porn businesses can be very lucrative, but are also very risky. To do it right, you will need plenty of start-up cash and you will need a good lawyer working with you the whole time. You will also need smart management. You will also probably need multiple bodyguards and a bullet-proof vest. Much of the porn business is run by men in black sedans with dark-tinted windows who don't like anyone messing with their chain of command. Beware. First, what you need to do is set up a business plan for what kind of porn business you plan to run. A shop? A website? Or do you want to be a content provider, such as producing videos for sale by others? For example, let's say you want to make porn videos. Remember that selling any content with anyone under age 18 or who is portraying someone under 18 is terribly illegal. It is your responsibility to be sure each person is over age 18. If the actor lies to you and shows a false ID, it is still your fault, legally. So you must be very cautious. You must also follow the federal Custodian of Records laws, where you keep track of who is working for you and proof of their ages. Anyone that creates or distributes pornographic materials must keep these records, which can be inspected at any time. Also, you must create pornography, which is legal, and not obscenity, which is illegal. In the U.S., any porn that has actual sex, as opposed to simulated, is illegal in all states. This is a surprising fact I learned a while back. Very few pornographers know about this or care about it, but every now and then, there will be a federal case that hammers it home. Other than that, obscenity is judged by local standards. A factor to consider is that in the state where pornography is created, it may not be illegal as obscenity, but maybe illegal as obscenity in the state where it is received. Received may mean via package delivery or via the internet. Generally, it will be considered obscenity if it involves urine or feces, animals, or endangering anyone's life. An important factor in opening a porn business is zoning. You will need a lawyer who knows zoning. Zoning laws usually come from the city or other municipality and sometimes also from a county. A business creating or selling pornography will be considered an "adult" business or a "sex" business. Most locations restrict or outright ban such businesses. Therefore, you will need to shop around for a location that will allow a porn production business. Areas that allow such businesses are usually notorious for having them. Other factors are health laws. For example, Los Angeles now requires porn actors to wear condoms. Aside from all this, you'll need to be running a legal business, just like any other business, with bookkeeping and paychecks, incorporating or getting an LLC, and all the usual stuff. Two of the biggest factors to be aware of are: 1) that if you allow your business site to be used for sale or use of drugs, it can be confiscated by federal or state authorities; and 2) If you make any porn with anyone under age 18, even inadvertently without knowing the person's true age, you are in violation of child pornography laws and need massive legal help fast. To sum up: Bring lawyers, guns and money, because in any porn business, the chit is always about to hit the fan. ... Read More

Dear Questioner, Yes, you can do this, but you need to dot your legal "i"s and cross your legal "t"s. For starters, if royalty checks are coming to your corporation, that's probably because you have a contract specifying payment to the corporation. What needs to happen is an assignment from your corporation to you of all the contracts and rights the corporation possesses. The corporation can also assign you its name. What happens "on the ground" is that you have a contract between you and the corporation making these assignments. You then need to make sure all the creditors are paid off, and dissolve the corporation. You then file a ABN with the Oregon Secretary of State. The SoS won't file it unless the office understands what you are doing you should write a note stating that you are dissolving the corporation and forming a ABN with the same name upon contract with the corporation. There are a number of potential legal gotchas here involving the exact nature of your relationship with the corporation and the contracts and liabilities you have with third-parties. I'd recommend hiring a lawyer to help out, but if you have no liabilities and few contracts you can probably make a go of it on your own. Make sure you buy some business insurance coverage since you are losing the protection of your corporation. Also, I'm not sure why your accountant's fees are so expensive. If you want, try a Nolo book on running your own S-Corporation filing the annual report is fairly simple, and should only cost $100 a year. Also, if you only have a few royalty checks, your taxes should be simple enough to handle on your own. The problem here may be paying for a professional service you don't really need because of the simplicity of your operation.... Read More

Demanding 50% of the profits of a film which is apparently being made by an educational institution is indeed unreasonable.  If the film is a for-profit venture and she would like an appearance fee, her family could consider a de minimis fee.  However, because this film appears to be documentary and not contain an artistic performance, substantial fees as you are discussing are uncommon. ... Read More

This falls under your husband's publicity rights. In general, a third party cannot use your husband's image/likeness/voice for commercial benefit without his permission. Publicity rights vary from state to state, though, and some states such as New York exempt "fleeting" shots. You need to find someone familiar with publicity rights and discuss the show, the reach of the show, and what states' laws might have been violated by the reality show - and also what damages he could be due.... Read More