opinion

A Chilling Effect

With all of the talk about ‘2257 inspections and worries over whether or not their sites are compliant, it’s no surprise that many adult webmasters and affiliates – whom are now legally classified as “secondary producers” – are pulling the plugs on their operations; either in full, or partially, as they sanitize their servers from undocumented content.

The chilling effect that the handful of inspections held to date has had is profound, and doubtlessly welcome by the enemies of adult entertainment. While no real “problems” have publicly arisen from these inspections, the fear of them, especially on the part of at-home operators, is difficult to overstate in some quarters. Still, the sky isn’t falling, and those with legal, documented content are striving to fill the increasing void left by industry departees.

As for “better late than never” advice, JD Obenberger said it best, “Don’t purchase or post content that you don’t have the required ‘2257 documents for, including sponsor-provided content as well as banners and other ads depicting covered content.”

As for me, I’m off to pack my bags. I have a late-night “red eye” flight to Florida tonight, heading to the Internext Expo, where I expect the hot topic of conversation to be inspections and the impact on affiliates. Stop and say “Howdy!” if you see me there!

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