PHOENIZ, AZ – The seminars at the 2005 Phoenix Forum turned to more advanced subjects on Saturday afternoon, and a panel of speakers talked legal issues with a room of webmasters and adult industry professionals. The panel, moderated by CCBill’s Douglas Wicks, included attorney John Flynn, attorney Gregg Piccionelli, attorney Chad Belville, entrepreneur Brandon Shalton, and Michelle Freridge, the new Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition. Topics included record keeping laws, obscenity laws and the problem of keeping kids away from adult entertainment.The discussion began with moderator Wicks asking the panel what a new webmasters should be thinking about when getting into adult entertainment.
Shalton began by suggesting that webmasters incorporate to protect their personal assets from potential lawsuits. He then went on to discuss various software technologies and argued that using a JavaScript tool to redirect incoming search engine hits to the front page of a site – where there’s a warning page – could provide a defense for the webmaster should he or she ever end up in court.
Attorney Piccionelli disagreed with Shalton.
“The ‘click here if you’re over eighteen’ is absolutely not a defense,” said Piccionelli. “That will not be an argument that prevails.”
According to Piccionelli, two possible methods of age verification would be to require customers to fax a copy of their driver’s licenses to the adult website company before they are given access. The other possibility is to place all potentially troubling content in an area that is only reachable after a customer has paid for access with a credit card.
Piccionelli also argued that the politics of government are changing as politicians rush to more conservative positions on issues.
“We’re in a different period of time than we were ten years ago,” said Piccionelli, who also pointed out that politicians from both major political parties are potential problems. “Hilary Clinton is co-sponsoring a bill with the arch-enemy of the adult entertainment industry – a guy by the name of Brownback.”
Piccionelli said that there are ways for concerned webmasters to make themselves less attractive targets including compliance with 2257, and complying with spam laws. He also said it’s important that webmasters do everything in their power to keep kids away from their products.
“Keep the kids out, keep the kids away,” said Piccionelli. “Protection of the kids is the one thing that people from both sides of the aisle agree on.”
“Think about it from a risk-management standpoint,” added Flynn. He said that methods for reducing risk include a solid terms and conditions page on websites, incorporating one’s business, having a DMCA policy and keeping good logs of these various steps.
Freridge added that webmasters shouldn’t hesitate to reach out for help when they need it.
“You are not alone,” said Freridge. “You can learn from other people and their mistakes.” She said an important first step is just learning what one needs to know about doing business in adult entertainment.
She added that webmasters should stay politically active.
“You can’t afford to ignore the politics,” said Freridge. “You need to be involved and be active.”
Belville, a former prosecutor, agreed with previous speaker that incorporating is a good first step, but added that companies “need to act like a corporation.” That means keeping up with corporate legal responsibilities like holding company meetings and keeping appropriate records. “Have your books reviewed by an accountant … make sure your tax records are in order,” he added.
Belville also pointed out that content producers should not consider an expired driver’s license to be an acceptable form of ID.
Moderator Wicks then asked the panel about comments made at a panel the previous day about content and ethics.
“There is a distinction between what you have the right to do and what you choose to do,” said Freridge. “You have the right to publish your ideas.” She added that business owners need to decide for themselves where they will draw the line in terms of the kinds of content with which they will associate themselves.
An attendee next asked Piccionelli how a webmaster with a “facial” site is supposed to market that site if he or she can’t show hardcore pictures on the outside of the website.
Piccionelli replied, “This is unfortunately one of those ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ situations.” He said the political climate would likely be better today had Senator John Kerry won the last presidential election, but added that carefully run businesses can still survive a Bush second term. He then noted that the major companies like Playboy, Vivid and Digital Playground don’t show hardcore in unprotected areas of their websites, including pay site tours. He argued that webmasters have to decide between short term financial gains and long term survival.
The discussion then turned to content and what types of content needs to be kept off of website tours where kids might access it.
“Tasteful nudity, I think, is always easy to defend,” said Piccionelli.
“The standards in each community are different,” added Belville. He added that the ongoing Extreme Associates case might cause a new definition of obscenity.
Freridge added that old obscenity laws don’t work well with a modern age.
“The study of human sexuality has changed dramatically,” said Freridge, who pointed out that what was largely considered unacceptable back when obscenity laws were crafted is quite different than what is largely considered to be unacceptable today.
Freridge added that the attack on adult entertainment stems from deeply held religious beliefs.
“They are trying to use the government to impose those religious beliefs on America,” said Freridge.
Piccionelli agreed with Freridge that recent developments in Congress are disturbing, especially Brownback’s attempts to tie adult entertainment to harmful secondary effects.
“You should all be very concerned about this,” said Piccionelli.
He also said that webmasters can help protect themselves by adding serious literary, artistic or scientific content to their websites.
“It ain’t what you make, it’s what you keep,” he said.
