egafd.com

on photographic studios being used to make adult films, We are in the process of constructing a studio in Nottingham for this use and wondered where the law stands on this, do we need any special licencing or anything and where do we stand with unfinished product being left on the premises, any help or advice is greatfully received.

sorry if its in the wrong forum.

it relates to british adult entertainment, which makes it on topic.

There are a couple of the usual daft English laws that apply:
1) You can shoot an orgy as long as there is no financial gain.
2) You can shoot provided you are an "established" producer and the material is to be sold to an "established" distributor.
3) The material does not contravene the Obscene Publications Act.
4) Knowingly allowing the premises to be used for immoral acts and dependent upon the money involved, you could fall foul of the "Living off immoral earnings" bit.

Having said all that, as long as it is in private and the neighbours do not complain, you will be OK.

Remarkable how things have changed in the last few years without any significant change to the OPA !

The police are reluctant to use the OPA anymore due to too many not guilty verdicts. Its a very outdated bit of Law. These days they are even not to keen on the VRA 1984 (despite ammendments). They seem to be leaving pornographers alone and concentrating on breaches of child protection law. And quite right to.

But Marcus is correct. Watch out for the old Immoral Earnings law. The Old Bill managed to lock up Sabrina Johnsons husband on that. Thats why upon his release from HMP they went to Belguim where laws are less draconian. Make sure everyone is self employed and not paying "rent".

The OPA is now actually defunct due to the Human Rights Act. Basically before an offence can be committed it has to be clear what that offence is, so you can avoid consciously breaking the law. The OPA is based around a jury's definition of wht is likely to deprave and corrupt, as this is not consistent from jury to jury, the OPA is deemed to be unfair and has fallen into disuse.

My main advice to NM would be to do their homework on planning and fire regulations and make sure no activities that don't have a media end product take place - adult acts without the likelihood of being published could very easily be deemed to be prostitution.

C

I actually shot a girl 2-3 years ago who's mother was quite a high-ranking vice cop!

When we talked about this subject, the answer was basically as long as you're not involved with kids or animals and no-one complains, the local vice are just not interested in you.

Under the OPA (1964) you could still be done for 'possession for gain' and of course that old fave 'publishing' which covers just giving tapes or pictures to another person. It's very much on the Statute and Human Right's law has nothing to do with it. They have to bring it in when barristers discuss legal points (the jury don't hear any of this) and then go on to convict under the OPA. If you want to shoot and publish porn then go to Belgium where it never has been illegal.

Hate to disagree but any section of the OPA that uses the 'corrupt and deprave' definition is on very thin ice (not necessarily the rest of the act). If you check the papers so you can see very few OPA cases reaching court and those involve acts which 99% of the readers here would seriously question.

But ignoring all that, plod aren't interested at all anyway in anything that would BBFC certification.