Quote Originally Posted by typhoon663 View Post
To just further the discussion, here's the law in Texas:
(a) A person commits an offense if, in return for receipt of a fee, the person knowingly:

Offers to engage, agrees to engage, or engages in sexual conduct; or
Solicits another in a public place to engage with the actor in a sexual conduct for hire.

(b) A person commits an offense if, based on the payment of a fee by the actor or another person on behalf of the actor, the person knowingly:

Offers to engage, agrees to engage, or engages in sexual conduct; or
Solicits another in a public place to engage with the actor in sexual conduct for hire.

An offense is established under Subsection (a) regardless of whether the actor is offered or actually receives the fee. An offense is established under Subsection (b) regardless of whether the actor or another person on behalf of the actor offers or actually pays the fee.
Nice addition Typhoon. The interesting thing about this, which tends to further prove my original point, is that subsection b) of your quote means that pornography is technically prostitution. Indeed, there has been voluminous debate and appeals about that in our courts over the decades.

However, realize that federal law is typically going to supercede most state laws on prostitution. We also have to look at various federal, district, or supreme court precedent setting rulings.

Pornography by the strictest definition of many states and federal law is "technically" a form of prostitution, but legal precedent has basically made it an acceptable and ignorable offense. It's "similar" to what has happened with cannabis in recent years. Cannabis is still, even now, a Schedule 1 drug, but is all but decriminalized at this point. Schedule 1 is the DEA ranking for only a few drugs, drugs that are *highly* addictive, extremely deadly, and have no known pharmacological uses. No doctor can prescribe these drugs for any reason, and no pharmacy may contain them. That list is very small: MDMA/ecstacy, methamphetamine, heroin, crack, and cannabis. However, that's not true of cannabis any longer even though it's still very much listed as a Schedule 1 on the DEA controlled substance list.

-MG