Hello everyone,

If this is the wrong place, please move this post to the right place. Thx.

I wanted to ask a question about the legal side of the agenting services for adult websites which I'm thinking of getting into and would like to get some expertise from the pros here.

"Agenting" or the business model in this case is to:

1. Uploading the contents to the server created by the customer, which the server is operated by a third person and the server itself is contracted by a third person other than the customer. Or the server can be contracted by me(my company).

2. Online payment for website payment services = just setting it up to work on their website.

3. Domain registration by me for the cutomer. Does the Whois info be in the agent(my address) or the customer's info?

4. and to manage their websites if their should be a problem, such as server problems.


I know that there's this,

A. "18 U.S.C. 2257 Record Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement"

B. "Obscenity and Pornography laws; (Both State and Federal)"

C. "Laws of Publicity and Entertainment law"

and possibly others, but I do not know in depth.
Getting the attorney to do this is like paying them to learn while using up my money, so I wanted to get an heads up.

Can you guide me with the legal issues that I might encounter for 1 through 4 above? Such as what kind of matters I should be aware of and keep in mind at all times.

Hello LaVie,

I'm positive that you will receive great information from other members on the forums here. However, if this is a business model you're looking to adapt and put into place you will certainly need to hire a notary that specializes in IT law vs your typical attorney.

CCBILL www.ccbill.com and EPOCH systems www.epoch.com are the major players in the adult industry when it comes to payment processing. Also, you may have to take a look into offshore hosting if you are not willing to higher a lawyer to go over everything with you.

When you have some free time to spare check out the following site which provides some solid information pertaining to Adult Web Laws:

http://www.adultweblaw.com/ or (Hiring A Lawyer http://www.adultweblaw.com/legal/info.htm )

Good luck and my advice would be higher a lawyer. If you don't have the funds to bring an attorney on board you may want to reconsider your business plans unless you don't want to start things off on a good foot.

LevelHosting,

Thank you for your advise.

It is great to hear from you regarding this issue.

yes, the URl that you've referred to me, I've already searched and found that and some other similar sites, but i wanted to hear some story etc from the people who was already involved in the adult industry via the IT.

My concern was, if I am operating a business to upload the contents to the web server because of an issue such as the customers can do everything(make websites, take photos, make videos) except the "uploading" and FTP it on their behalf, would I be in a situation to have been confronted by the "18 U.S.C. 2257" law and etc if something should happen?

Do i also have to keep the records of the models, etc?

And of course, people I would deal with would be with amatuers and not pros.

I guess I started the thread to be a little to complicated...

If you or some other expert on this forum can help me with the above question, it would be very greatful!

Thank you!

Hello,

To be honest, you will need to be a little more open with this discussion and provide more concrete details. You state:

"if I am operating a business to upload the contents to the web server because of an issue such as the customers can do everything(make websites, take photos, make videos) except the "uploading" and FTP it on their behalf, would I be in a situation to have been confronted by the "18 U.S.C. 2257" law and etc if something should happen?"

When you say operating a business, my take on what you are trying to portray is, the server is going to be operated by your company? From the server your company is going to make available to your 'Clients' to upload their content. The 'Clients' would then create the sites, supply the images and videos and then upload their sites with the content to this server which is your company server?


Regardless if you are the creator of the files, if your company servers/equipment is hosting the data you will still need to adhere to the 18 U.S.C 2257 law. If not then this sounds rather fishy and that the files intended to be hosted are not legal.

Also, you would need to state (COMPANY XYZ (your company in this case) does not produce any content and makes no representation as any content. All products offered by the websites hosted have been licensed through their respective studios or brokers ("Licensors").

Company XYZ does not possess any 2257 disclaimers itself but provides you the information below (where you will provide a full list for all of the Licensors that provide content to the server represent that all models appearing in their productions were over 18 and that the Licensor maintains all required disclaimers or such. In this case you would not need to maintain the actual records but the studios or clients who are providing this content will need to comply to the 2257 code and ensure they have all legal documents on record.

This is all the information I can provide and your best bet would be to try and get in touch with an adult network that already exists where such content is already hosted on their servers/network.

At the end of the day, keep in mind that regardless if you never produced the content you will still be responsible to maintain and ensure all files are legit and adhere to all laws.

Good luck!!

LevelHosting,

Thank you very much for the input from you! It helps very much!
I regret the wording of how I wrote. I didn't mean to hide and/or not be open about it in anyway. Just wanted some input but my English is

not up to the levelto write good.

I(the company) will have the following roles:

1. The server will be contracted by a third person(person A), which I know (a friend).
2. I will have the ID/PW to use the server that will be contracted.
3. The UPLOAD to the server will be done by myself, and not by the customer(s).
4. All files are going to be legit, in terms of the 18 USC 2257, as I can check for any illegit files by screening them before the UPLOAD process.
5. The customer will not UPLOAD any files what so ever to the server space which will be visible to the public via the internet.
6. The DOMAIN will be registered in my name(company) and maintained by myself on behalf of the customer.
7. The customer will desgin and produce the content for the website.

8. The main reason for this business is that the Customer lives outside of America. Where the private spots are censored if published in any media including the internet.



Would you mind once again filling me up with your great expertise?

In terms of "producing the content", would it mean to UPLOAD the content to the server? or would it mean to create the actual content(webpages, images,etc)?

Last but not the least, would managing the server and registration of the domain on behalf of the customer(s) be "representing" the content if in the contract, it will state something like, "COMPANY XYZ does not represent any content" like as you say?

Thank you once again.

Hello LaVie,

I apologize for the delayed reply on my end and I am not sure how I lost track of this thread but I would like to continue by answering the rest of your questions.

Also, thank you very much for clarifying how everything is going to actually work, it makes more sense now.

In terms of "producing the content" this would mean an actual studio where the fireworks take place if you know what I mean . The studios would be Adult Entertainment groups who actually hire the cast and produce the DVDS that are produced for sale. Such studios would be: Vivid Entertainment, Elegant Angel, Zero Tolerance, etc. You can also google up on this. In addition to this you would need to make certain that you and your clients are not making any representation of the content. If your client is asking you to upload content which might be a DVD that is owned by example Vivid Entertainment your client would have to make sure they are providing you with a licensed version of the DVD from the studio in this example Vivid Entertainment or the licensors before redistributing it.

In regards to your second question:

That is correct, you will want to state this somewhere in the legal /contractual paperwork. The reason is, you really won't know what type of content is being provided to you for upload and the last thing you want to do is be representing this content as the owner.

Aside from the information I provided you should really consider having a consultation with a licensed lawyer. Otherwise, one day you might see the judge doing this in the Supreme or Federal Court. depending on where you are located . Hopefully, you already met with a notary since your last post and obtained all the correct information you required.