LAS VEGAS - The "Legal Landscape" panel at Internext Las Vegas featured attorneys providing information everyone in adult should know.
The attorneys shared information regarding their experiences with the government and its relation to the adult industry. They shared stories of their battles and warned attendees about what to be on guard for, including 2257.
Panel speakers included Gregory A. Piccionelli, Paul Cambria Jr., J.D. Obenberger, Daniel A. Pepper and moderator Connor Young, president of YNOT Network.
Piccionelli said the industry would be interested in his firm's work on an appeal in the case of the first two webmasters convicted under the CAN-SPAM Act.
"We have the case on appeal," he said, "and we have good reason to believe that this may be one of the best opportunities for the industry to be able to change the obscenity standards by which material is deemed to be obscene or not ... which is generally in the interest of every Internet webmaster."
The attorneys discussed copyright law and agreed that the most important thing is for webmasters to state the law clearly on their sites with concise terms and conditions.
"The key is to have the user consent to the terms," Pepper said. "The terms must be clear [and] conspicuous, and the user must be able to see these things and not have them buried somewhere on a link on your site, where the user might have had no opportunity to see them on the site and understand them."
"Another really nifty thing about Internet law and the way it is developing is that those terms and conditions can afford you yet another really powerful tool," Piccionelli added. "If someone gets into your server beyond the authorization that you give them ... they violate numerous criminal laws, whether it be state or federal. These laws and principles all say that you have the right to tell someone whether they have the right to enter your system or server. So you put limitations on that, like letting them within certain jurisdictions and such. Because what happens is they are violating your intellectual property rights, and they are violating criminal law."
The panel also discussed the importance of keeping children out of adult websites and how to do this more effectively.
Cambria said new ways to increase effectiveness are being tested, but many companies use credit card verification.
"One of the real issues is whether or not there will be laws passed to regulate age verification and whether or not the adult industry will be able to keep congress away from passing any sort of legislation by self regulation," he said.
One of the panel attendees was Joan Irvine of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection, who brought up the importance of the "Restricted to Adults" website label. The attorneys acknowledged her work and said new technologies are will be developed to help the cause.
"It is important for the industry to listen to the news with ASACP and the Free Speech Coalition," Piccionelli said. "We must join together to work on being ahead of the game, in respect to regulations. We must work together to get ahead of the government by working on this new technology. We must show the government that we care about his issue."
Cambria said it also is imperative to keep the dialogue up, self-regulate if possible and keep up-to-date on what is happening in Washington. Cambria and Irvine have been going to Washington often to express their support and that of the adult industry on these issues and to show the government that the adult industry cares about keeping kids out of pornography.
The industry also needs to be careful about self-imposed censorship, the speakers said. They said the Hayes Code, for example, brought a lot of damage to the industry because it led to excessive self-regulation. But Pepper said the benefits of self-regulation far outweigh the dangers.
The next topic was 2257 and the rumors that it's gone because it has been declared unconstitutional.
"Do not think that 2257 will end and that it has bitten the dust," Obenberger said. "Support the people who are fighting it. Do not let your guard down.
"The problem, ultimately, is insoluble. The kids are going to get it, and it's not because of this industry. The content is out there on the peer-to-peer networks, and even though this industry fights to keep kids out of porn on the Internet, you can't lock every door.
"But here is the issue. I've held public office, and I learned one thing about people who sit in legislative positions: If your only tool is a hammer, all of your problems become nails. If you are in a legislative position and you have a problem looking at porn, the only thing you can do is pass a law. And 2257 is that. It is Congress' first effort. In the meantime, everyone must comply scrupulously!"
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