A controversial and disturbing case has been repealed and will be judged by the US Supreme Court next year. It involves the case of a 56 year old male S&M master and his willing female slave. He was sentenced for nine years imprisonment for reportedly abusing and torturing his female S&M partner. The female partner went to the FBI after having escaped from the dungeon where she was kept as a slave.

The man's argues that their relationship had been consensual. He also paid her to be her slave. It was like a job that she applied for. But the woman testified that she didn't know she had to endure so much humiliation, pain and hardship under his employ. Instances of mutilation, sexual and psychological abuse were done to her.

The article also noted the presence of Chief Justice Sonia Sotomayor who was on the panel and heard the proceedings. Sotomayor wasn't Chief Justice then during the time of this hearing.

As I read through the article, I ask myself how people in our industry walk a fine line between consensual and abuse. Do performers always take in more risks than what they really sign up for when they appear in extreme hardcore porn? Who's to say that the stuff the director is trying to pull is not only dangerous but potentially damaging? In this world where niches run the imagination, the relative safety and well-being of people become secondary.