The Cybernet Expo is indeed all over the place, but that’s more about the Shelter Pointe Hotel, which covers a fairly large strip of land on the San Diego coastline, than anything else.
Of course, it could be said the phrase applies a bit to the event itself too, which doesn’t seem to mind trying something different. Take for instance the opening-night party: The White Trash Bash.
If there is a place in Southern California where more people wearing fake mullets, drinking Pabst and listening to an all-female AC/DC cover band on a Sunday night can be found, it’s certainly not on the map. Outside of the spectacle itself, it was fortunate that there were hotel employees driving around in golf carts to take some partiers the considerable distance back to their rooms.
The first official day of the conference convened Monday with a lineup of seminars that also were something a little different. How about a seminar not devoted to mainstream adult traffic? Niche and Fetish Marketing touched on just that, the highlight being the question of whether the Department of Justice’s planned crackdown on hardcore sites would have any effect on the industry.
Some business owners were emphatically defiant, saying they would challenge whatever the government brought down on them.
Cue applause.
Such issues dominated the day’s conversations and came to a head during attorney Eric Bernstein’s Legal Q&A, in which the attorney gave his interpretation of the regulations in response to questions about 2257.
“As far as I’m concerned, this seminar is worth the price of admission alone,” YNOT's LAJ told the standing-room-only crowd in his introduction.
While Bernstein freely answered questions, the seminar may have suffered from having the presence of only one attorney, who, while obviously having sorted through the law gave just that – one opinion. Of course, add any more attorneys and we’d still be there.
“We (attorneys) don’t know where things are going to go. We only have opinions,” Bernstein said.
As is becoming more apparent, though, there are going to be some in the industry who take the fall.
“Some people, unfortunately, are going to be casualties of this war, and some people should be casualties in this,” Bernstein said, referring to those companies that haven’t bothered to prepare for changes in the regulations governing the enforcement of 18 U.S.C. §2257. “[The government] isn’t going to kill this industry unless we let them,” he continued.
At the conclusion of the day, the Cybernet folks threw another curveball with the Webmaster Psychology seminar, i.e. how to maintain your sanity in the industry. The seminar included a highlight in the form of one of its panelists – F.U.B.A.R. Webmasters’ JFK, who made his first-ever panel appearance.
“I feel like I should be out there shooting,” he professed while answering the first question.
