pocketkangaroo

This is for the affiliates out there. Sit back and relax for a minute, the world is not coming to an end.

First, 2257 has had little to no enforcement in nearly 20 years. I'm not saying that this means they won't, I'm just saying it still doesn't seem too high of a priority on anyone's list.

The law on secondary producers is very vague and still has yet to be tested not only in our courts, but constitutionally as well. Those of us with some law background realize that this case would be difficult to prosecute, and doing so would turn the internet on end. It would force companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to shut down image searches. Myspace, Facebook, and Webshots would be liable for dirty pictures posted and not to mention every message board/blogger who has posted some naked photo at one time or another. I just don't see the government doing something this drastic.

I also don't think secondary producers are going to be targets period. Why bother with a guy running a little TGP when you can target a big porn producer? Even if they went after a secondary producer, would they not go after a very big site, potentially borderline mainstream to make a statement? A site like College Humor or one of those big forums that you see a lot of nude pictures posted on? Or maybe target a site that goes over the line with pissing, fisting, and other extreme hardcore material.

We also can't forget that 2257 is still just a record keeping law. Although the thoughts of 5 years in jail will scare the crap out of most of you, in reality, there isn't a judge in the world who is going to sentence you to 5 years in jail for that. People don't even get that for actually molesting a child nowadays. In reality, all you'd probably have to do is get the documents from the primary producers and show them in court. They aren't going to give you 5 years for not having paper work with you. If the girls are not under 18, you have nothing to do with child pornography.

I don't mean to discount the threat that 2257 potentially has, I'm just trying to talk some people down from the ledge here. There are hundreds of thousands of websites with pornographic material online. The odds of you being singled out is not very high. Unless your content is completely over the lines, your advertising yourself as a pornographer to everyone you know in the community, and your drawing huge amounts of attention to yourself, the government is probably not going to give two shits about you and your blog. They have bigger fish to fry and are not going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in resources on an affiliate. They have already had a year on the books with 2257 and haven't busted in any affiliates door yet.

And finally, this is a controversial business. Any business that involves controversy has its risks. If the government wants to get you, 2257 is not going to matter. They can nail your ass to the door for obscenity anytime they want and get away with it. They can charge you with corrupting the youth, Spam, or anything they think they can get away with. It's a risk you take when you join this industry. I think until we see an affiliate actually prosecuted for this, we can't completely go off our rocker.

If you're worried, lay low. Don't go posting your URLs on the boards, make sure you use private registrations, and heck, even host outside the US where they can't go after your records. Stay away from the extreme stuff and be careful with the teen/lolita crap and what you say on your site. Don't give them a reason to target you.

I know I'll get slammed by many for this, but I just think many everyday affiliates are drastically overreacting to this whole thing. It's the program owners and content producers they want. If there is one thing I've learned about the federal government, they don't go small.