Legal Exposure of Hosting Porn
 

Hey GFY,

We run several review sites which mostly feature PG-13 images - not full porn. We're considering hosting some preview clips (with the permission of our partners) which will have full-on sex. Do I need extra legal disclosures, or an "are you 18" button? Is there anything we should know about hosting explicit clips?

Thanks!

This is adult, no one is coming after you unless you're flagrantly/intentionally distributing seriously illegal content

you could go spend low $xx,xxx like I did getting the proper legal documents written up; your lawyer is gonna say everything he can to convince you there's major risks and you need him (while charging you hundreds of dollars per email/phone call), but it's a crock of shit

does pornhub have an "are you 18" button? No

does pornhub frequently have copyright-infringing content or underage content? yes. do they remove it when asked? yes

does pornhub distribute a large percentage of their content through Limelight networks CDN, an american company? yes

if the US govt isn't going after limelight (or seizing the domain pornhub.com, which they could do anytime they wanted--ICANN is a US company), they're not going after you

Heya SecondFloor, one thing to watch out for is - make sure your hosting company allows adult content in their TOS. You don't want to get your sites shut down for an acceptable use policy violation.

Great points - thanks! I guess as long as we have permission for the clips we use and they're from established studios, the risk is pretty low. I think I'll include a "18 USC 2257" disclosure, since most of these sites seem to have one.

I appreciate the warning! Do you happen to know which video/image hosts are good options for adult webmasters?

18 USC 2257 disclaimer and a warning page will cover your ass. They may not enforce the stupid law but it’s still a law.

Take a few hours and surf. See where other sites host their images. View the terms in their license. Some sponsors allow you to hotline and they carry the cookie over so your get credit for the signup

always just do what pornhub does :pimp