The Depiction of Animal Cruelty Law is being called into question in the U.S. Supreme Court today in an attempt to finalize the illegality of distributing film which shows animal cruelty. That would make adding footage to your documentary which depicts something horrible done to an animal as unlawful as child pornography. Showing slaughterhouse footage in your documentary on the food industry could be against the law, if the Supreme court rules broadly in favor of this legislation.

“The threat to the film community is obvious when one considers films such as ‘The Cove’ and ‘Food, Inc.,’ to name two recent ones or ‘Roger and Me,’ to go back just a little ways,” said Michael C. Donaldson, a Beverly Hills lawyer, speaking for four documentary-maker trade groups that joined in filing a brief in support of Stevens. “Certainly videos concerning hunting could fall within this statute, even though, as in Stevens case, the hunting was legal where the video was shot.”

This may be a case in which congressmen wanted to stop a particular perversion, “crush videos,” but wrote a law which reasonably applies to far more than that. You can read more on what the justices have said and the prosecuted filmmaker’s intent on Bloomberg.com.