Porn More Addictive Than Heroin? - by Lawrence Walters
The fundamentalist extremists did not waste any time in pushing their agenda after the re-election of George W. Bush to a second term as President of the United States. In less than 10 days (and with little notice to anyone), they started holding Senate hearings on how adult materials forever change the human brain's biological composition, and are more addictive than heroin. The Hearing was stacked with anti-porn activists with questionable credentials, and nobody from the adult industry or the Free Speech community was invited to present a balanced view...

PERFECT 10 STRIKES OUT IN COURT - by Lawrence Walters
Norman Zada, the owner of Perfect 10, Inc., filed a lawsuit against Visa, MasterCard, First Data Corp., Cardservice International, and Humboldt Bank in January for contributory and vicarious infringement, which was dismissed by the United States District Court for Northern California. Zada's lawsuit alleged that the companies and banks facilitated and profited from the illegal use of his copyrighted material on other adult entertainment websites. The case was dismissed by Judge James Ware for Perfect 10 failing to provide enough evidence that the companies participated in copyright infringement...

PRIVACY POLICIES MAY NOW BE REQUIRED! - by Lawrence Walters
California's new Online Privacy Protection Act is effective starting this month. The Act requires all commercial Internet businesses doing business in California to conspicuously post privacy policies in one of the following three ways... The Act requires that the privacy policy text or icon must be bigger than its surroundings. The Act also requires sites to disclose what personal identification information they collect, use, and share. Third parties and those who offer managing services are exempted from the Act...

ASHCROFT WEIGHS IN ON 2257 INSPECTIONS - by Lawrence Walters
Attorney General John Ashcroft weighed in on the issue of age records inspections as required by Title 18 U.S.C. § 2257. On June 14, 2004, he proposed tougher regulations that would narrow the list of acceptable forms of identification, and eliminate such options as college I.D.'s and selective service cards. The forms of I.D. would also have to be accessible to government agencies to verify their legitimacy. The new guidelines will take effect after the public has an opportunity to comment.

BRUCE TAYLOR REHIRED BY DOJ - by Lawrence Walters
Adult industry update by Lawrence Walters, Esq. for March 2004: Bruce Taylor Rehired by Department of Justice; The Supreme Court Revisits COPA... Again; Obscenity Prosecutions; Federal Crackdown on Indecency; Paris Hilton Co-Owner of Sex Tape?; Sex News: An Acacia Update; Strange Arrests Across the Country - and much more in this month's Adult Industry Update... Adult Industry Update is a monthly column provided by Lawrence Walters of FirstAmendment.com, to offer industry legal news and updated information to adult webmasters and other adult industry professionals.

Get Into Jail Free Cards - by Lawrence Walters
It's the oldest legal debate on the Internet: How can we protect children from inappropriate materials without compromising the rights of adults? The first misguided attempt was to criminalize all "indecent" material on the Web by adoption of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. The United States Supreme Court made quick work of that travesty of justice in a rare unanimous Opinion striking down the law as a patent violation of First Amendment rights. In doing so, however, the Court acknowledged that the government has a compelling interest in protecting minors from exposure to sexually-oriented materials on the Internet...

HIGH COURT STRIKES DOWN CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION ACT ON FIRST AMENDMENT GROUNDS BUT COULD BE UPHELD AFTER FINAL HEARING - by Lawrence Walters
The United States Supreme Court today decided one of the last controversial cases left this term: Ashcroft v. ACLU, Case # 03-218, involving the issue of online age verification. In a stunning victory for Free Speech advocates, the High Court, in a 5/4 decision, upheld the preliminary injunction against the law that was entered by the Third Circuit Court of Appeal...

Legal Issues Associated with Online Pharmacies -
by Lawrence Walters & Heather R. Schwarz
As adult webmasters continue to search for new ways to generate revenue and stay competitive, opportunities arise to participate in unique affiliate programs; each filling a perceived consumer need. The latest such craze relates to the online distribution of prescription drugs. Any webmaster considering such an affiliate program should carefully consider the legal and political issues relating to this business model. Long before the days of the Internet, prescription drug distributors ran tiny advertisements in local newspapers for individuals to order medications directly from the distributors...

First Amendment Protections for Employees Involved in the Adult Industry -
by Lawrence Walters
Imagine showing up for your day job one Friday afternoon and being summoned by your boss for a "chat." When you arrive at his or her office, you are handed a stack of pictures of you downloaded from the adult Web site that nobody was supposed to know about. Your employer then hands you a pink slip, and tells you to immediately clean out your desk. Welcome to the world of workplace discrimination - but this kind of discrimination is usually not against the law...

Guilt by Extreme Association - by Lawrence Walters
The prosecution of Extreme Associates and the adult industry's response thereto is, and must be, the single most important issue for adult webmasters to presently consider. Therefore, an analysis of the contours and implications generated by this case is worthy of substantial consideration. Marybeth Buchanan, the Assistant United States Attorney heading up the prosecution against Extreme Associates, claims that even Playboy may be obscene in parts of the country. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the United States, in year 2003...

Keeping Children Away from Adult Material - by Lawrence Walters
Now that the Child Online Protection Act has been declared unconstitutional again by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, it is time to revisit the issue of age verification, children, and adult materials. While no self-respecting adult webmaster would argue that children should have a right to view erotica, opinions are mixed regarding the actions webmasters should take to accomplish this laudable goal. Plenty of free explicit material exists on the Web, even today, with the purveyors justifying such content under the theory that it is the parents' primary obligation to monitor their children's Internet usage...

Creating Adult Web Content Outside of California - by Lawrence Walters
However, should a curious webmaster trot down to the local library, or pull up his or her state's statutes online, it will not be long before some law will be found that appears, on its face, to prohibit paying people to engage in sexual activity. Most assignation, prostitution, pandering or lewdness laws are written broadly enough to literally prohibit the creation of any adult content, where money or other pecuniary gain is exchanged for a sexual performance. How can the existence of such laws be squared with the widespread availability of adult materials created all over the United States?...

20 Practical Tips for the Beginning Adult Webmaster - by Lawrence Walters
Too many beginning webmasters attempt to get into this industry without familiarizing themselves with the complicated regulatory scheme applicable to adult Web site operations. Numerous resources exist to assist you in determining whether this is the right business for your personality and risk tolerance level. Resource sites, industry trade publications, legal resources and court opinions should all be consulted before the first dime is spent on purchasing content or marketing...

The Perfect Host - by Lawrence Walters
The legal issues affecting adult webmasters have been analyzed, and over-analyzed, ad nausem. However, little has been written about the unique legal concerns of adult hosting companies. This article is intended to provide a reasonably comprehensive legal checklist, identifying the key areas of concern for hosts that accept adult Website clientele. Of critical concern to any hosting company is strict compliance with the dictates of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). While an exhaustive review of the specific requirements of the DMCA - which must be followed to the letter...