INDUSTRY NEWS
Now that the party-induced fog from the Las Vegas Internext conference has lifted, it’s a good time to look back at the seminars. Once again, a large number of the industry’s leading entrepreneurs and legal experts combined to provide attendees with an entertaining and informative series of presentations.INDUSTRY NEWS
Now that the party-induced fog from the Las Vegas Internext conference has lifted, it’s a good time to look back at the seminars. Once again, a large number of the industry’s leading entrepreneurs and legal experts combined to provide attendees with an entertaining and informative series of presentations.
The end-of-June show was my fifth industry conference in the last year and a half, and the second set of Internext seminars that I have helped organize and moderate. Even in that relatively short time, there have been some interesting changes in the attitudes of the attendees and the tone of the industry in general.
In particular, the questions asked at the June show underscored how seriously people are taking the change of administration in Washington. There is clearly an awareness of the risks posed by an Ashcroft-led Justice Department and a belated recognition of how cozy things were under Janet Reno. The main problem lies in the fact that President G.W. (as in “God, Why?”) Bush has something to prove — that he’s not as sleazy as Bill — and debts to pay to the hard-core conservatives who largely kept their mouths shut during the election so as not to frighten away more mainstream voters.
The primary focus of concern is on 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2257, the federal law that imposes strict record-keeping requirements on producers and distributors of sexually explicit materials. Out of the 12 seminars put on in Vegas, 2257 made an appearance in at least ten. Depending on how the line-up for the January 2002 seminars takes shape, there’s a good possibility that an entire seminar will be devoted to that statute alone.
It’s always amusing to see which seminars are well-attended and which are not. Some are predictable, of course — the newbie seminar always draws well, as does the legal update seminar. But I was startled to see how many people showed up for the seminar on the psychology of the porn consumer. That topic will definitely have to make a reappearance at some point in the future.
Conversely, I expected more people to show up for the seminar on the legality of celebrity nude sites. I was impressed with the idea when YNOT President Greg Geelan suggested it, in large part because I think that celebrity nude sites are one of the riskier types of site to run. Sure, there are a lot of people that want to see — or believe they’re seeing — Brittany Spears and Christina Aguilera making beautiful “music” together. The problem, of course, is that the stars get pretty irritated and have the money to do something about it. In fairness, I don’t think that the attendance was a reflection on the topic but more on the fact that it was a 9:30 a.m. seminar, something not terribly compatible with the combination of jet lag and hangover. There is some discussion about pushing back the time at which the seminars start; the downside, of course, is that it cuts back on the amount of information that can be given to attendees. This is not an industry where ignorance is bliss.
Overall, the tone of the Internext conference was a little more muted and serious than previous shows. The shifting political climate is one reason, but another major change is the depression of the Internet economy. Pornographers, producers and distributors are better protected from economic downturns than more mainstream retailers (in fact, some would argue that an economic depression is actually a boost for the industry), but it’s clear that the revenue streams are not gushing now as they were in the not-too-distant past. As my good friend Oz (http://www.ynotmasters.com/wm_directory/profiles/_Oz_.html) put it, “It may be that the cash flow we had a couple of years ago was simply phenomenal, and now we’ll just have to settle for pretty good cash flow.” I think he’s right — the online adult industry is hardly going to sag and lie completely inert — but webmasters are clearly hoping they can find a shot of economic Viagra.
With that in mind, one possibility for the January 2002 seminars will be to give webmasters more economically and business-oriented seminars. Certainly, there will be a return of the popular payment processing topic, with a strong focus on scrubbing and fraud prevention. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve received a number of suggestions for additional topics, and welcome any suggestions that readers would like to pass on to me at fsl3@avn.com .
AVN is also considering the possibility of putting on a Newbie Tutorial on the day before the show opens. It would consist of 5-6 hours of seminars specifically aimed at new and inexperienced webmasters, covering the full range of topics from start-up to operations to legal issues. The idea is still being discussed, but could be a powerful one-day source of information for new webmasters. Once a decision is made, the breakdown of seminars will be posted on the Internext conference site (http://www.internext-expo.com).
During the fall, I’ll also be looking at some logistical changes to help make the seminars more enjoyable and more valuable for attendees. For instance, having floor mikes might make it easier for everyone in the audience to hear questions, and preparing outlines for each panel in advance would help people take notes and remember the information they receive. Again, additional suggestions are welcome.
From an industry perspective, this is an interesting time. It’s the first time that adult webmasters have had to deal with a period of adversity, and it’s definitely helping to shake out weaker companies and improve business practices generally. Laws like 2257 are definitely burdensome and expose careless business owners to arguably excessive penalties, but finding ways to cope with the law is improving industry behavior in general and can only help in the long run.
There’s no question that Ashcroft and his minions will be more aggressive in enforcing obscenity laws, and there are definitely those with their (Seymour) butts exposed. Still, a look at the history of pornography in this country makes it clear that this is a ship that has sailed. Even in a much more aggressively conservative climate, former Attorney General Ed Meese (under Reagan) was unable to make a significant dent in the overall growth of the industry, and he didn’t have to deal with the profound changes that the Internet is wreaking in the community standards of this country.
Ashcroft is simply not going to be able to turn back the pages of time and technology. In my opinion, the tougher challenge for the industry is reshaping the economics of online pornography and finding business models that are both reliable and scaleable. We’ll continue exploring these themes in the January 2002 seminars. I look forward to seeing you there!
Frederick Lane is the Internext Seminar Coordinator and author of “Obscene Profits” (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415920965/fsl3com/107-9628227-0558938) (Routledge 2000; see ad on this page). In mid-August, he is launching SexBizLaw.com, a comprehensive online library of pornography and obscenity laws with weekly updates of new legislation, prosecutions, court decisions, and adult business news.
