The city didn’t provide sunny weather for day two of the Cybernet Expo, and the conference similarly didn’t provide much of a sunny disposition either.
It’s quickly shaping up as the 2257 and .xxx conference, two things that, understandably, are center stage at the moment.
Tuesday opened with the Newbie Support Workshop, but the second seminar – The Current State of Billing – set the tone for the day.
Much as day one proved, there are two things on everyone’s minds. Since seemingly 90 percent of the people at the show have sat through the same billing seminar before, the most interesting points were made about the dreaded 2257.
ChargeMeLater CEO Stephane Touboul, who has battled the Federal Trade Commission with his former company Alyon and won, spoke to the government’s relationship with the industry and processing in particular.
“These people make us a target to go after and get votes,” he said, “so it’s really important to keep your business above board.”
Epoch co-founder Clay Andrews told the crowd that several webmasters have approached his company about processing overseas in order to avoid 2257, a solution that’s not a solution at all.
“Since 2257 came down we’ve had a lot of requests to move to offshore processing. We decline them,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you process.”
“You’re always going to be safer in a U.S. bank situation,” he continued.
The third seminar, Hot Issues and Problems in the Adult Internet seminar, really took things to the next level. The discussion was almost exclusively focused on the .xxx-sponsored Top-Level Domain (sTLD).
“As I’ve said before, it’s probably the worst thing that could happen to this industry, unless the government says they want nothing to do with this,” attorney Eric Bernstein said in his opening remarks.
At times, the discussion became heated and even contentious. With the panel and the standing-room-only crowd packed with anti-.xxx forces, Adult Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) executive director Joan Irvine, whose organization has a strongly stated neutral position on the matter but a perceived level of support for it by those in the industry, was left to take her lumps.
YNOT editor Connor Young openly asked the ASACP, whose advisory council members actually vote on whether to support the sTLD, to join his fight against it.
“I would hope the ASACP would back down from this letter and give us their support,” Young said, referring to the letter Irvine submitted during the .xxx open comment period professing her support to help the applicants, ICM Registry, in child pornography reporting if the sTLD became reality.
The seminar was easily the highlight of the day and sparked conversations that carried on into the evening, but Free Speech Coalition communications director Tom Hymes cautioned those obsessed with finding out the players behind .xxx.
“Every minute taken up with that is a minute taken away from fighting to stop this,” he said.
