Geoff -- read this, it could be important
 

I was browsing through AdultDVDTalk, and apparently there are some changes coming to the way 2257 is enforced. (2257 is sort of the Traci Lords law, where the producers of adult material are required to keep records/proof of age of the performers in their movies.)

The way the folks at ADT are interpreting said changes is that they will be required to have the same proof-of-age documentation on-hand for any explicit images they host on their site, including box covers.

I haven't heard anything else about this anywhere, but if ADT isn't over-reacting, this could impact a lot sites quite hard.

The relevent information is here:

Where it started: http://www.adultdvdtalk.com/forum/to...id=3/41086.htm

Their new image policy:
http://www.adultdvdtalk.com/adtalk/info/images.asp

Discussion of the new image policy:
http://www.adultdvdtalk.com/forum/to...id=1/41878.htm

More discussion of 2257 changes:
http://www.adultdvdtalk.com/forum/to...id=1/42459.htm

The text of the new policy:
http://www.adultdvdtalk.com/2257_proposed_changes.pdf

I realize that DVDTalk doesn't generally host explicit images, except for some box covers (the raunchiest of which are blurred out), but I thought this is something you guys might want to know about, and it's probably better to be aware of such things than not to be aware of them.

Hmm... I generally agree with measures keeping minors far away from porn sites. Viewing and focus of...
However I just can't shake the feeling that Ashcroft/Bush have something to do with this and their goal of eliminating Porn (and porn discussions for cryin out loud!) from the internet. I'm from the Greenville area of SC and I know all about Bob Jones University. The religous implications of having a Bob Jones disciple as Attorney General has always scared the living shit out of me. I'm sure there are some Bush supporters here at DVD Talk so try not to take offense when I say Bush and his staff (except for Powell) are a cancer to this country's future.

There are about 190 other countries on this planet. Most of them would happily take the income generated by Internet porn. Blocking of content based on physical boundaries is difficult, at best.

That is, don't worry about it.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

One of the things we decided when adding adult DVD reviews to the site was that within the reviews we WOULD NOT show any nudity in any of the screen shots we had posted.

So from that perspective I feel that we're in ok shape.

In terms of the box covers, we've removed any and all titles from our DB from studios who have notified us of issues with documentation. (We had one DVD which was sent to us which we were instructed to shred because of these issues). We will continue to be extremely vigillant about that as well as continue to monitor the changes with 2257.

Since our adult reviews are focused exclusively on providing adults with information and editorials to help make them make informed decisions about consuming adult entertainment our focus has never been to present or host adult entertainment itself, so 2257 might be less an issue for us than sites who are focused soley on delivering adult entertainment.