Breaking News: New CDA-Style Bill To be Introduced, 25%Tax On Adult Websites Proposed

oh boy, this is not good

1st 2257 - now this

Thank you to all you shmucks that voted for Bush

Um, did you read the heading?

"Democrat Expected to Take Aim at Online Porn, Introduce 25% Tax on Adult Website Sales"

That is so totally not cool.

25% might actually be a break

It's going to be a long bumpy ride

fuckin retard

Thanks for the link Connor.

Always the bearer of great news.

good luck enforcing it in Uum Boba Mau Wau

Previous "sin" taxes have been shot down numerous times and basicly found illegal. You can not charge a magazine an extra tax just because it has nudies in it, same goes for this.
Yippie for non issues.

Democrat Expected to Take Aim at Online Porn, Introduce 25% Tax on Adult Website Sales
by Connor Young
WASHINGTON, DC - A new bill that targets online adult entertainment is making its way into Congress, YNOT has learned. The Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005, expected to be introduced by Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) sometime in the next few days, would tax adult websites at a whopping 25% while placing new requirements for age verification on ?regulated? websites and billing companies. The Act appears to have been spurred by a July report from an organization called Third Way. The Third Way report, which has not yet been released, argues that adult websites do not do enough to keep children away from adult content, and that many adult webmasters specifically target children in their marketing.

In a discussion draft of the Act obtained by YNOT, the Bill uses the child protection angle to justify the new restrictions and the new tax. The draft claims that the bill is intended ?to protect children from Internet pornography and support law enforcement and other efforts to combat Internet and pornography-related crimes against children.?

Calls to Senator Lincoln?s office were not returned in time for this story.

The Act would have to clear Congress and be signed by President Bush before it could become law. Legal challenges to the Act, if it were passed, are also possible.

The Act begins by placing new age verification requirements on ?regulated pornographic? websites. These requirements include using Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved age verification software packages that check the age of visitors before they are shown adult content. The Act specifically requires that this age verification process take place prior to the visitor being shown any ?pornographic material,? including materials in free areas of the website.

There would also be new restrictions placed on payment processors and IPSPs. Under the Act, companies that process payments for adult sites ?shall only process age-verified? transactions. The restrictions would apply to any ?bank, credit card company, third-party merchant, Internet Payment Service Provider, or business that performs financial transactions for a regulated pornographic Web site??

Enforcement of the Act would be handled by the FTC.

The Act?s definition of a ?regulated pornographic website,? however, is interesting in that it relies completely on 18 U.S.C. § 2257. The Act would define a ?regulated pornographic website? as ?a person required to maintain documents verifying the age of persons engaged in sexually explicit conduct pursuant to section 2257(a) of title 18, United States Code.?

Who actually falls under 2257 requirements is currently being disputed in federal court. The Free Speech Coalition has challenged 2257 and its requirements.

In addition to enacting age verification requirements, the Act also calls for a staggering 25% tax on all sales made by sites that fall under the Act. The funds collected from this tax would then be used to fund various law enforcement initiatives, mostly aimed at protecting children from harmful online activities.

Senator Lincoln, the expected lead sponsor of the Act, is an Honorary Senate Chair for ?Third Way,? an organization that, according to its website, ?develops policy and communications products to help senators and other progressive leaders better advance their values in red states and counties where progressive ideas have lost resonance.?

Third Way this month produced a ?report? on internet pornography. The report, obtained by YNOT, was titled ?The Porn Standard: Children and Pornography on the Internet,? and it claims that some adult website operators purposefully market to children, and that the industry has failed to make use of existing age verification software solutions to screen out minors.

?Parents have a responsibility to supervise their kids,? report author Shawn Barney of Third Way told YNOT, but added ?[the internet] is a particularly challenging medium for parents.?

The report?s claim that some adult sites specifically market to children seems to be based on the long-defunct per-click affiliate program model, which when used would pay affiliates based solely on the volume of traffic sent rather than sales. The Third Way report does not seem to recognize that few if any adult affiliate programs currently use a per-click payout model, and that the model was largely abandoned by the adult industry years ago.

The professional adult internet industry has long attempted to educate lawmakers that it does not want children visiting its websites, and that it does not profit from sales of pornography to children. Sales on adult websites rely on credit cards or other online payments, which children know are easily discovered by parents. The per-click affiliate model was largely abandoned by the professional adult industry years ago precisely because it was not profitable for professional adult website operators.

Asked if the report?s claims of adult content being marketed to children were based on anything other than the per-click or per-impression affiliate model, Barney told YNOT that it also relied on ?common sense online, most people?s experience online.?

The language of the Third Way report at times paints a fairly sinister picture of adult website operators preying on children.

?Internet pornography has become a large and lucrative online industry, and one that is successfully reaching a child audience,? the report claims.

?Tragically, the exploitation of children by internet pornographers in search of quick profits extends beyond just the sale of their product to minors,? the report continues. ?This report details the extent to which a large and powerful internet pornography industry is influencing the lives of children today ? It also reveals some of the strategies that certain internet pornographers are using to specifically target children, as well as the disturbing prevalence with which sex crimes are committed against children in the scramble to profit from the sale of pornography images on the internet.?

YNOT asked Barney if Third Way had made any efforts to contact representatives from the adult industry while researching its report, and Barney told YNOT that it had not.

Barney also admitted that existing age verification software solutions were not perfect options for keeping kids away from porn and could be tricked by a determined child, but added that if they were used the adult industry ?could say that they didn?t have a better option.?

Connor Young is Editor-in-Chief of YNOT.
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Comments: 0 Posted

god i hate those people. people need to get the stick out of their ass, and realize it is not the job of government to legislate morality. unfortunately i am almost certain this bill will pass.

Democrat Expected to Take Aim at Online Porn, Introduce 25% Tax on Adult Website Sales
The Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005, expected to be introduced by Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) sometime in the next few days,


you are exceptional stupid, even for an American.

that ought to be lynched

"The Act would have to clear Congress and be signed by President Bush before it could become law. Legal challenges to the Act, if it were passed, are also possible."

Which way do you think Mr. Bush will lean considering his past stance on pornography and everything else labeled sinful?

If this is passed I would go crazy

hopefully not.. but never know
shit does happen

this is how you Bush pay for war in middle east.
off your back with 25% tax.
since it be porn no one try to stop it.

Yea...fuck all you Democrats that keep bashing the conservatives...both sides hate us...face it

hehe....retard.

It is how they mess up these laws. They always get greedy or throw in a few clauses that are illegal which kills the entire bill.

Would be interesting to hear from someone in the FSC to see if they will be prepping court challenge the second it is passed. Ya know like the ACLU does (which they prolly will on this one).

thanks Connor..........

Can I get DSL in Nigeria?

It will not pass.

yeesh ... makes me think of a line from one of my fave. TV shows - West Wing

"You can't go wrong spouting the evils of pornography, they will eat it up every time"

so sad, but so true.

twinkley

be excited
be be excited

Yep, porn and escalating gas prices could pay for years of Iraq.

Those are bad news..

This Bill Is Bananas

B A N A N A S

that's pretty fucked, if this passes 25% reduction in income will hurt :-/

That shit won't pass, 2257 didn't even make it through as planned

These legislators are such idiots. We run businesses here in the USA that already get taxed. Now they will be taking 25% off the top then another third or so of the net. This could top 40-50% taxation. This law will not stop any child porn activity, the taxation money will likely NOT be used for anti-child porn, and in the end lots of businesses will relocate out of the USA and the USA will lose the initial taxation they had. Big success story in the works for sure.

Such retards, and you know what? It might just become law one day.

In this case, I think its safe to bash the south in general.

They want to tax legit sites 25% to fight non-legit (CP) sites... Good move...

If this pass, will it affect Canadian businesses ? I mean those who are incorporated and hosted here in Canada ?

Porn prices will have to be raised. That may make USA webmasters a lot less competitive with those outside the country not subject to the tax.

"The Act?s definition of a ?regulated pornographic website,? however, is interesting in that it relies completely on 18 U.S.C. § 2257. The Act would define a ?regulated pornographic website? as ?a person required to maintain documents verifying the age of persons engaged in sexually explicit conduct pursuant to section 2257(a) of title 18, United States Code.?

so if you don't have to keep records, then you don't have to pay the tax?

good god i hope this thing does not pass.

If something like this ever goes through I suggest everyone break it down for the surfer on the sign up page.
$29.95 Membership
$7.48 United States Federal Porn Tax
Pass it on to consumers.

- 15% fee for your processor & 50% for your affiliates

Leaves 10% for yourself

one more reason to move

My gosh that is crazy. I think maybe membership prices would go up to compensate ?

Simple enough.. This wont go through, but "IF" it did I would just add a 25% tax charge to all my transactions and make sure the surfer knows about it.. It doesn't hurt me at all, it hurts the surfer.

I agree. Just make a point of telling the surfer that you have to pay the US gov thier cut on top of your charge.

I agree just like sales tax.Tell you the truth that would finally wake consumers the fuck up

So basically, the US gov wants to become the King of the Pimps ....

One of these bills gets introduced every 3 months and turned down every session of congress - why in the fuck would anyone push this out in their "news" to scare WMs? Seems to be a tactic lately of people trying to grab headlines - more importantly, why didnt the fact that Kansas has already proposed this (last week) and is serious about it for storeowners there make the news? Or the more important fact that the reason these keep getting shut down before the senate or house even looks at them is because the congressman realize it will look like they are promoting porn on the internet by "legalizing" it - if you tax something you just made it a viable entity - and like someone else posted - you just raise prices. As far as the entry warning page requirement - that has been struck down as unconstitutional every time it comes up - it was just thrown out again earlier this year.

The senator is from Arkansas which did in fact vote for Bush TWICE. Democrats from republican states HAVE to act like republicans if they want to get re-elected. A lesson Tom Daschle failed to learn.

"We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton

don't kid yourself that adding on taxes won't reduce your sales... maybe the sales won't decrease by 25%, but they will decrease for sure...

Haha... nice... I think gangster rap has more sway over the minds of children then porn does. My daughter tells me of guys at school who are 'pimps' and girls who flock all over them and proclaim to be 'hoes'. Girls who tilt their head back and let their man put their dick in their mouth, because she is on her period and R. Kelly says that is what you should do for your man. Girls who think guys shitting on them all the time is OK because they are just 'bitches'... Chicks sharing their man because Kurupt says too...

Not once has my daughter talked about how 30% of the schools girls want to be porn stars because they went to porn sites... I don't even hear about gagging and other shit that is popular right now... just rap shit.

These people are retarded and should be shot.

I think everyone in our government has gone fucking crazy.

Mark