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11 Cardozo Women's L.J. 353 (2004-2005)
Naked before the Law: Reality Porn and the Capacity to Contract

handle is hein.journals/cardw11 and id is 361 raw text is: NAKED BEFORE THE LAW: REALITY PORN AND THE CAPACITY TO CONTRACT BENJAMINJ. COOPER* I. INTRODUCTION What then is the principle? Is it that it is right and expedient to save persons from the consequences of their own folly? Or is it that it is right and expedient to save them from being victimised by other people?1 A. The Situation The Girls Gone Wild series of videos is a multimillion-dollar business2 that should need no further introduction.3 However, for those who avoid late night television and racy news stories, the Louisiana Bar Association provides the following synopsis: Dorothy comes to Mardi Gras for spring break. This isn't Kansas, she quickly discovers. It is Bourbon Street, parade routes and a live-the- moment quest for beads, rather than ruby slippers. The deal is simple enough: sweatshirt up and beads down-down from floats and balconies, and all among the ubiquitous and foreseeable hum and glow of video cameras. Harmless enough, Dorothy thinks, until two months later, just in time for finals, Dorothy's mom, her sorority sisters and her soon-to-be- former boyfriend discover her heretofore hidden charms on pornographic Web sites or the cover of XXX-rated videos.4 Dorothy is now a star in reality pom, the current craze in adult entertainment.5 Reality pornography is pornography as if made by small independent film-makers: * J.D. Candidate 2005, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. This note is, in many respects, the work of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law as a whole; every student and professor who heard about this paper had something to comment or add. Special mention should be made of the late Rhett Rountree, whose assistance was invaluable in preparing the early drafts. I Allcard v. Skinner, 36 Ch. D. 145, 182 (Eng. C.A. 1887) (Lindley, L.J.). 2 Suzanne Smalley & Rebecca Sinderbrand, This Guy's Gone Wild, NEWSWEEK, Sept. 29, 2003, at 35, available at 2003 WL 8639919. 3 In fact, the problem of women caught on camera when they least expect is so well-known that it was a plot point in Law and Order. See Law & Order Special Victims Unit: Brotherhood (NBC television broadcast, Jan. 6, 2004). 4 William T. Abbott, Show Us Your Torts, 50 LA. B.J. 350, 350 (2003). 5 See Fox News: Big Story Weekend with Rita Cosby (Fox News Channel television broadcast, Aug. 2, 2003), available at 2003 WL 7459134.

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