I know it’s a very uncommon question but my friend and I are seriously thinking about producing porn videos (just normal sex, nothing weird).
We would like to live in an Asian country. We read on Wikipedia that selling porn would be legal in Taiwan.
I’ve been browsing this forum for a bit and i.e. in this thread I read that Taiwanese laws are often unclear and it depends on the government person how things are getting handled.
Can you suggest a good english speaking lawyer who might be able to answer our questions? Maybe someone whose field of competence are expats and self-employment.
For sure we’d be happy about your knowledge / opinions concerning this question as well. But as legality is very important to us and it’s a sensitive topic we’d discuss this further with a lawyer.
Selling porn is legal, but it’s not the selling part that you need to worry yourselves on. It’s the working without a permit part and taxes part. You would need to open a limited company in Taiwan.
Give me a couple minutes and I’ll recommned a CPA who will help you open a company here and get you work permits for that. It requires paid in capital of TWD $500000 imported into the country.
In Taiwan pornographic films can be legally traded and pornography is available via a number of routes, including DVD, television and the Internet. The level of piracy of pornographic films in Taiwan is high because authorities have not traditionally recognised their copyrights. Copyright protection is usually strictly applied in Taiwan, but pornography has been seen as an exception.[[21]](Pornography in Asia - Wikipedia)
The public display of adult material is strictly prohibited. The National Communications Commission (NCC), the Taiwanese media regulator, monitors and categorizes the level of media and public material into four levels. Thus adult material is not seen for sale in authorized shops, but only in small and hidden places. Due to the lack of copyright, adult content produced in Taiwan has stayed in the form of “webcam chat”. Prostitution is illegal in Taiwan. The Taiwanese government has planned to set up a zone for prostitution.[ citation needed ]
Seems like not the best place to do commercial production, even if you legally can.
Thank you very much for the contact Marco! We will probably get in contact with him. A paid in capital of TWD $500,000 would be possible for us
@RBE I also read the part on Wikipedia that porn video are not copyright protected in Taiwan. But as we would distribute the videos mainly on international websites and not so much locally, we are mainly dependant on the copyright regulations of these websites. And there seems to be no other south east asian country where the production of porn is legal besides of Japan and there you have to censor it.
I’m curious to the legality of production myself. Surely there must be something about it or else Taiwan would have some porn production. Or maybe there is and I don’t know about it.
You should really consult with an attorney. Websites can ask you to assign certain rights to them when you upload your content, but copyright itself is national in scope.
If you’re hiring people in Taiwan to appear in your videos, you should consider what rights they might have in the content you produce. If you don’t deal with those rights, it could create headaches for you down the line.
Also, you’d want to make sure that you can operate your business 100% legally. For instance, if you hire people to appear in your videos, is it above board? Most foreigners don’t have open work rights. If you hire locals, are you following all the relevant employment laws? What are your liabilities if they contract an STD, or something happens on set and they go to the police?
Even if what you’re doing is technically legal, in many countries, foreign-owned businesses are at the mercy of the authorities and if they don’t like what you’re doing, they can often find a way to make your life difficult or shut you down.
But it is possible for foreigners with a limited company to hire local employees or freelancers, isn’t it? We will double check this with the lawyer for sure, I’m just curious now.
I’m also gonna contact several websites to ask how they would handle it if we produce videos in Taiwan and somebody else pirates them and uploads them on the site.
Also a good point to check who is liable for STD’s and what preventive measures we would have to follow.
I made the same experiences. We will try to avoid attracting too much attention and always be polite to everybody.
Just don’t lie to the authorities, and be aware that if your landlord(s) (residential and commercial) find out that you’re filming porn in their places, they are not likely to react favorably, no matter how polite you are. There are already stereotypes here about foreigners and sex.
Actually, thinking of that, I wonder how much success you’d actually have trying to hire locals for porn here as a foreigner, and whether your efforts might cause you to cross paths with people associated with organized crime.
I’m pretty sure it means that you have money in your business bank account that you can show to the relevant authorities for approval. You do as you please with the funds after showing the proof. Beyond that you will simply need to show the required gross revenue to renew the visa. Of course please confirm this info from someone more knowledgeable than me.
Yes, we will be well advised to follow the rules and not to offend anybody, especially not the authorities. Concerning the house it’s probably good to search one with lots of privacy, so that the neighbours don’t see who’s coming and going or even worse, see what’s going on on the terrace. Not that we are planning to necessarily film on the terrace, but we would want to hang out with the actress there.
We were also thinking about the risk of having to deal with the Mafia. But in Japan, Hong Kong and Macau, where porn also seems to be legal, we’d also have this issue. In the worst case we’d have to pay them or shut the business down. I guess we would not get killed right away ^^
Yes, paid in capital is the money you start the business with. Not sure if the film equipment we already own also counts though.
If you and all people involved have proper work permit or status, all are legal.
There is at least one Taiwan production company that hiring both Taiwanese and foreign actress for the movies.
Google “JVID” for research purposes.
Thank you so much for your help 
