"How can the porn industry protect itself? First and foremost: contracts. The issue confronting the industry in the nineties will be violence against women and coercion of women, and producers of XXX tapes may well be called upon to produce contracts to protect themselves against these very charges; that is, the charge that a woman did not give true or informed consent to pose or perform. To be effective, these contracts should be executed before, not after, the shooting; they should be witnessed by two parties (who may be other actors, stage hands, even the director himself); they must explicitly state the scope of sexual activities being agreed to and the purpose of the performance, namely to produce sexually explicit material for distribution. In addition, the contract should explicitly name all the rights-national/ international distribution, use of, etc.-transferred to the producer. The document should also specify remedies for breach of contract on either side (e.g., binding arbitration to resolve differences). Each and every contract should include the standard model release and photocopied documentation of the actress's age.

"Among Hollywood types, and anyone else who deals regularly with contracts, this may seem to be nothing more than common sense, but a woman being put under contract is actually news in the porn industry. In a sense, the industry's way of dealing with the makers of XXX material is patterned by its years-gone tradition of functioning outside the judiciary, and the suspicion (sometimes justified) that the police and the court system can be expected to be either hostile or irrelevant to internecine industry concerns. The whole way of doing business is reminiscent of Bob Dylan's line, 'To live outside the law you must be honest.' But the days of ignoring the niceties of paperwork are over; today's carefully worded contract may be the only defense against a lawsuit two years down the line.

"Yet producers remain almost criminally naive about the need to document informed consent. After criticizing producer John Stagliano in person about not signing contracts with his actresses, I followed up with a phone call. When I harped upon this theme, the generally affable Stagliano snapped back, `I borrowed some forms. I'm getting contracts, okay?'

"I hope to similarly irritate other directors/producers into operating only on the basis of signed contracts.

"As an outsider looking in, I would suggest two steps the XXX industry could take to protect itself from the growing threat of lawsuits. First, lawyers involved in the Free Speech Coalition, or some other trade organization, could produce a model contract which would emphasize informed consent, detail the transfer of rights, and set forth the forum for remedies in case of a breach by either side. This contract would be made available as a standard for the industry. For a nominal yearly fee, the law firm drawing the contract, or the Free Speech Coalition, or some other organization or individual, could take on the job of registering signed contracts, so that the parties could assure themselves that they are dealing with companies that would be unlikely to involve them in a messy lawsuit. Registering the contracts would also preserve a record of agreements.

"Certainly, there is a legitimate concern in the industry about 'paper trails,' and contracts would, after all, constitute business records easily traceable to a finished product-a product which might be busted in any jurisdiction around the country. However, the type of contract involved here would bear no relation to an obscenity bust, since the finished tape is what's under question, not whether the actors were paid to perform; their performance in the feature is a given -- though a contract would establish that the performance wasn't coerced. Second, a trade organization should establish procedures by which the industry can regulate itself against genuine abuses, such as refusal to pay on a contract, or last-minute cancellation of a shoot. Most industries and professions have some method of regulating themselves. Lawyers have the Bar Association. Doctors have the AMA. Writers have the Guild. Although these trade associations often do not carry the force of law-or even of licensing-they do wield great power in terms of exposing and publicly censuring abuses. Obviously, few of the XXX industry have any wish to `air their dirty laundry in public,' but peer pressure alone can cure many situations. More extreme tactics, like boycotts by performers of a director or a company, are always available.

"The conflict between the politically correct and those who wish access to sexually explicit material is irreconcilable and, perhaps, inevitable. In this battle, pornography occupies the moral high ground, because it defends the right of a woman to choose her own lifestyle. The porn industry should rush to do its part by making women's choices explicit-in contracts and in establishing procedures that protect women from abuse by unethical producers."