The Fantasy Of Porn - Convergence Summit

Why is this industry legal?
q The Porn Industry has been legal in California since 1988 and not through
legislation, but rather through a court action, People versus Freeman, which made
it legal.
q We know it to be a very large industry that grosses as much as $13 billion a year
with over 11,000 films produced annually. And, the estimated retail value of this
industry to LA County in 2002 was about $3 billion.
q There is approximately 200 production companies that are known to operate. Five
to ten of them are the largest of the producers that make about 40% of the films.
There also are five major film distributors here and more than 700 legal
custodians of record. Any production company that actually makes film must be
registered under federal law and have an individual that maintains all the records,
primarily to be sure that no person under age 18 is involved in the production of
an adult film. We estimate there is about 6,000 employed workers, about 1,200 of
these are performers. Most, 75% of the performers, are female, a smaller number
of regular male performers.