Important!!! We Need Your Help Asap!!! New 2257 Laws!!!

Not only does this law essentially fuck the American porn industry, but it'll trickle into other ares too.

1. You're returning home from a trip out of the country and the border dicks decide to take a look at your laptop. They find your porn stash. Well, under this law, they can assume that you're a porn distributor and demand documentation of every single person in every single picture on your hard drive. Porn isn't like drugs where X amount is considered "personal use" here and I don't know how many of you have been to customs lately but the folks there aren't nice and whether you're an American citizen or not, you're guilty of everything they suspect you of until YOU prove YOURSELF innocent.

2. Under this law, the home addresses of every porn actor or actress will be in the hands of thousands of people which poses a serious risk to their privacy and security. Even the guy behind the counter at the local porn shop will have access to Jenna Jameson's home address and phone number, as well as a copy of her driver's licence. By performing in porn under this law, you give up all rights to privacy.

3. Potentially sex scenes in mainstream movies will fall under this law. Actors go through great lengths to protect their private information due to the likelihood of stalkers and crazy people showing up on their doorsteps by being in the public eye. Is it fair to them that just because they showed their tits in a movie that they are allowed to be less safe than anyone else and that the teenager behind the counter at Blockbuster has access to their home address? John Ashcroft himself is in the public eye, but I bet none of you know his home address.

4. This law means that every single porn site run by an American company on American servers are going to have to keep more records than the CIA. For every person in every picture on every porn site they will have to have a document that has a copy of the person's photo ID. This means that if I were American, every single picture I take on my cam or upload to this site, will require an accompanying document with those things available to the Department of Justice at the drop of a hat. If there are multiple people in one picture, there must be a document for each of them. So if my friend Crystal comes over for the afternoon and we decide to take cam pics together in a spur of the moment impromptu cam session, I have to first scan her driver's licence, have her fill out a release form and record on that document every single pic I uploaded with her in it. And I have a small site. Imagine what the big sites will have to go through. Every single time I upload a picture to Camwhores (if I were American) I would have to attach that document. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

5. Within the cam scene, the average "mix" of cammers is 1/4 American, 1/4 British, 1/4 Australian, 1/4 Canadian. Pretty much across the board. Under this law, foreign ID isn't applicable. There goes 3/4 of the content on every American-run cam portal. And again, for the most part, that's a small portion of the adult internet industry. Think of the porn sites featuring hot asians, or specializing in South American beauties...the fact of the matter is, modelling is an international industry and so is porn. Think of how badly this would fuck something like SuicideGirls.

6. Art. It's sometimes nude, especially photography. It would fall under this too.

7. Want to post porn from your hard drive on your favourite forum? Guess what? That's distribution and unless you're prepared to also upload an age verification document for each and every picture as well, you can't do it. Even if the pics are of yourself.

AS you can see this law will efect EVERYONE, from those of us who make the stuff to those of you guys who like to look at it and post it and share it. We have a big problem here and it seems once again that the government is trying to censor EVERYTHING including now the internet. This is an outrage which we must fight to the best of our abilities. WE CAN NOT LET the government take over our lives as much as they already have. The geniuses who voted republican voted for a govt that does not intrude in our lives to control us. Now under BUSH we are going to see the Christian right dictating our lives including what we do in the privacy of our homes....dictating what we can and can not watch. This new 2257 law is masked as a form of protecting children from porn and child porn. Otherwise it would not have passed. In reality it manes the closing of most porn sites...or adult oriented...most XXX shops....everything simply due to that fact that no model will want to give her personal info to 100000 different places. Also the govt is passing the .XXX domain law, which will force ALL adult sites into .XXX domains no longer able to use .COM What this means is that they will eventually pass laws (from city to city) banning .XXX domains from ISPs, meaning you won't be able to get access to a .XXX site from your ISP whether it is AOL or some cable company. They are trying to shut us down and the people need to speak out and let them know we will not stand for it.

Please take a minute to write to your congressman here:
CLICK HERE

For more information on the ruling itself, go here.
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-10107.htm

To keep up to date with the efforts being made to amend the law to be more realistic, go here.
http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/
Let them know that we the people will not stand for it!

 

This sounds extremely urgent.

How the hell will they enforce this with all the porn out there? From sites to message boards...it seems like a monumental feat for them.

 

too many words. It can't be that important!!!

 

Read it boy, it´s really important!!

 

um, Anne, i dunno where you got that "bad news" but you've been a little misinformed.

here's the most important part for Phun.org members

taken from the site Ann linked above:

The record-keeping requirements apply to ``[w]hoever produces'' the
material in question. 18 U.S.C. 2257(a). The statute defines
``produces'' as ``to produce, manufacture, or publish any book,
magazine, periodical, film, video tape, computer-generated image,
digital image, or picture, or other similar matter and includes the
duplication, reproduction, or reissuing of any such matter, but does
not include mere distribution or any other activity which does not
involve hiring, contracting for[,] managing, or otherwise arranging for
the participation of the performers depicted.'' 18 U.S.C. 2257(h)(3).[/I}

 

wow this sounds like it could really inconveinance a lot of filthy whores

 

Didn't we have this discussion already?

 

Don't know why people store porn on there hd and travel abroad. I have 2 lap tops and a desk top. I have been to europe and asia with my lap top and never had anyone ask to turn it on. As for when I upload a movie for the forum, I think the intro screen with all the tiltes and codes is varification enough.

Statement Of Compliance

In accordance with Federal Law 18USC Sec.2257. This so and so productions was produced on so and so date and the documentation of so and so models are kept at so and so address.

 

The link to the congressman isn't a link. It doesn't work.

 

2257 Fallout Continues:

In the Department of Justice’s latest effort to protect the children, they have declared every person who posts an image on the internet a “producer.” That means every one of you who participates in a message forum or writes a blog or has a personal website. We are all producers. And if we choose to post an image that could be construed as containing a sex act (including masturbation or possibly even an erect penis) we must be able to prove that the people in the picture were adults at the time it was taken.

Producers, the one who actually produced the sexually explicit image, have been required to maintain model records proving age since 1988. This month the Dept. of Justice decided that anyone who posts that image on the internet should also maintain these records. While it is unclear how this protects the children, it is very clear how difficult this law makes it to run an adult internet business. The Dept. of Justice has found an easy way to prosecute anyone distributing pornography via the internet and to curtail the adult internet business in the U.S.

The changes to the 2257 record keeping laws are vague enough to require legal advice and cumbersome enough to put small companies out of business. Not only must every producer maintain these model records in a specific filing fashion, but they must publish their business address and have these records available anytime for inspection during business hours. This precludes home businesses from continuing to function unless they want their home address posted on the web. This precludes part-time businesses from operating unless they report the exact hours they will be working to the government, and those hours total 20 per week.

At Adult DVD Talk we have therefore made the decision to remove every sexually explicit image from our site. We do not have the resources to maintain the records for 50,000 movies nor do we wish to open our home to the Dept of Justice for inspections. We have joined the Free Speech Coalition who is preparing a legal challenge. If you would like to donate to the cause you can do so through their website at freespeechcoalition.com.


See the original post here:here

 

RE: Lightspeed Going Softcore

Apparently Steve Lightspeed sent this out to all the TGP owners


Ok, everyone seems to be waiting to see which sponsor will be first with their 2257 announcement. I'd also like to wait and see what everyone else's plans are before announcing ours, but I want to give our webmasters as much time as possible to make required changes.

The 2257 law is here, and it is no joke. Under the best case, this law will be used only to give the people who exploit actual children exactly what they deserve: JAIL TIME.

The media and governments have lumped legitimate adult entertainment companies together with child pornographers for too long. This is our chance to show some real responsibility and SET OURSELVES APART.

However under the worst case, this could be the beginning of a real challenge to the adult internet as we know it. Honest and legitimate company owners could be jailed for simple record-keeping inadequacies. The law seems written in a way that no one will be able to comply with 100% accuracy.

I believe the 2257 law as written has several flaws that will not withstand a legal challenge. Most importantly, the safety and privacy of performers has been completely ignored. It is unconscionable to sacrifice the rights of performers the way this law demands. That is why Lightspeedcash has donated our financial support to the Free Speech Coalition, who plan on filing for an injunction against the 2257 law before the June 23 enforcement deadline. We all must support them and their objective, so donate what you can. Spread the word that there is a fighting chance.

The only prudent course of action for now is to follow the law as it is written and to error on the side of caution. I feel strongly enough about the privacy and safety of our models that I WILL NOT RELEASE THEIR IDS TO WEBMASTERS. There is a better solution for Lightspeedcash, our models, and our affiliates:

Effective June 23, 2005, Lightspeedcash will no longer authorize affiliate use of our SEXUALLY EXPLICIT content to promote our sites.

We may be one of the fortunate companies, as 90% of our content is softcore/nonnude in nature already and our internal 2257 records are perfect. We recommend affiliates use text links and/or SOFTCORE thumbnail links to our HOSTED CONTENT wherever possible. Take advantage of our hosted galleries, hosted TGP, hosted bookmarks page, and our hosted Picture of the Day links. Hotlinking content or the use of IFRAMES will not be allowed. Simply link to us and let us worry about the documentation. This policy APPLIES TO EVERYONE, not just our US webmasters. I won't put our US webmasters at a disadvantage. Failure to comply with this new requirement will result in the termination of your Lightspeedcash affiliate status, and the forfeiture of any outstanding earnings. We simply can't and won't take no for an answer.

I also make a request to the TGP and MGP owners to allow existing galleries to be modified to comply with the new 2257 requirements. We are all in this together. No one wants to lose their traffic or their revenue, but without bending the rules about modifying existing galleries, you will put yourselves and your submitters at risk.

Lightspeedcash is 100% committed to this industry and to our webmasters. We will be available to answer any and all affiliate questions and concerns. I know this solution will not please everyone, and I apologize now if you are inconvenienced by our choices. We are all connected to each other, that is the biggest strength of this industry. Let's not turn it into our biggest weakness.

Steve Lightspeed
CEO, Lightspeed Media
Lightspeedcash.com