The question before the house: Is Visa putting the vise around Internet porn with a little push from Uncle Sam? Forbes reported May 1 that that's been just one of a number of conspiracy theories snaking around the adult Internet, since Visa USA imposed its $750 fee and "intimate financial details" on adult Internet businesses.
Maybe, to hear two of the adult Internet's most influential legal minds say it. "The requirement of creating more and more records and information could lead one to conclude that they either have been asked by the government to make sure these processors are generating this information, or a more objective concern that now that the information is out there, the government can get it," attorney Lawrence G. Walters told the magazine. "The threat of obscenity prosecutions makes this a real concern."
"Absolute power corrupts, and Visa and MasterCard are dangerously empowered monopolies," said adult intellectual property attorney Greg Piccionelli. "There are no checks or balances. They have the potential to become a worldwide currency."
Meanwhile, Forbes said, it turns out that matters like chargebacks and related headaches that typically surround the adult Internet - not to mention the nature of the beast itself - have apparently given a migraine for InterCept, which bought iBill last year but now tells Forbes they're looking to "focus our sales effort on mainstream business." Apparently, Forbes suggested, taking on iBill proved just a little too hot for InterCept to handle, even if iBill and similar companies, as Forbes described them, "act somewhat as policemen by weeding out extra-sleazy operators and frauds."
Forbes thinks InterCept's refocus could mean "predictable shareholder lawsuits," with the complaints hovering around whether InterCept made "false assurances" regarding iBill's dependence on the adult Internet. "We disagree with the allegations and plan to defend vigorously," said an InterCept spokeswoman in a written to Forbes.
On the other hand, iBill's former president and CEO resigned, and iBill was restructured into a new InterCept Payment Solutions system.
