Payment processor CCBill will update its acceptable use policy (AUP), excluding sites that feature watersports and violent content.
A company representative said that sites within said niches that have already been approved will be able to process “for the time being.”
Official word is that “CCBill is no longer accepting new sites which contain or market person-to-person exchanges of bodily fluids. This mainly pertains to urine/urination, blood, or overall violent scenes or depictions.”
Several employees of the company refused to comment on the matter; however, the new AUP is said to be available this week.
While CCBill is being tight-lipped about their reasoning behind the move, it comes on the heels of the May 5 announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice of the formation of its Obscenity Prosecution Task Force. Also of questionable consequence is a March 23 subpoena obtained by AVNOnline.com filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Missouri, which reveals that the government is looking for similar content, which includes fisting, urination and torture.
“In the current political environment, they probably see a high risk in this type of content and they probably see that as a risk they’re not willing to bear,” says Chicago-based First Amendment attorney Joe Obenberger of J.D. Obenberger and Associates.
Meanwhile, the landscape for the other large payment processors hasn’t changed.
“Paycom has carefully considered its polices. Paycom, at its option, may choose not to accept payment processing for content that could cause an adverse effect on their portfolio. The formation of the task force has not led us to change our policies,” Paycom communications director Rand Pate tells AVNOnline.com.
Netbilling president Mitch Farber concurrs.
“Our only written policy is against sites that are against Visa regulations. We often make moral judgments on sites internally,” he tells AVNOnline.com. “If we don’t like what someone is doing on a site, we’ll turn it down. It doesn’t happen very often, but if someone is doing a rape site—it’s stuff we morally feel we don’t want to do business with.”
