The extremely creepy guy I’m renting my room from right now collects a lot of video porn. Like, a sick amount. I thought that was the worst of it until yesterday, when I heard him bargaining with a woman over some films that he owns. He had movies from here, from other countries, etc. They were clearly discussing pornography.
Is this illegal in some way? I don’t expect anyone to be an expert in the laws of the District of Columbia, but I figured this might be something where state/local laws are pretty consistent.
I don’t know if any of it is child pornography. If it was, I wouldn’t be writing this and would have already called the police out of a moral obligation.
It may be sadistic, but I would take pleasure in watching this man get sent to jail. So do I have a case?
off the top o’ me head (as it were), there are often zoning laws about business vs. residential areas (and specifically many places have very restrictive laws about where ‘adult’ businesses can be located.
There is a grey area when folks are ‘working out of their home’, but I’d think if it was routine for his customers to come to his house and haggle over the price we’d be ‘acrossin’ that line 'tween business and residential.
IANAL (but my daddy was on the zoning board for a while…)
Actually, this is an area where local laws are pretty inconsistent. Since the current Supreme Court stance on legal pornography vs obscenity is “community standards”, many communities (and states) have decided to codify their standards rather than let a jury decide what is moral and what is not. You should definitely check the D.C. laws in this case. At least you won’t have to check city and state requirments like the rest of us outside the beltway.
Um … no.
Sorry if I have a certain bit of contempt for a man that makes me scared to leave my bedroom. And before anyone says, “Why did you live there at all?”, the reason I’m here is because I couldn’t find anywhere to live in D.C. and I had a job starting in 2 days and couldn’t afford to stay in a hotel any longer.
Actually, I’m moving out very soon. And I would never call the police unless I was certain he was doing something illegal.
I live around Washington and I don’t think
that buying and selling of porno among such
enthusiasts is any more illegal than the same
kind of transactions among comic collectors or
base-ball card collectors.
