As part of the AVN show in Las Vegas, there was a Legal Seminar held yesterday on issues of import to the adult community.
According to AVN.com, One of the speakers Paul Cambria, who is one of the leading 1st amendment attorneys in the country, who has represented such diverse clients as Larry Flynt, DMX. and Marilyn Manson, spoke about the Escorts.com case and sites that carry ads for adult services.
“”Cambria spoke specifically of the recent bust of Escorts.com, whose offices were raided by over 100 Philadelphia police and FBI agents in October, although no federal indictments have yet been issued, and Cambria’s own sources have indicated that the Justice Department has no interest in the case.””
“It’s really new [legal] ground,” Cambria said of the raid, observing that courts around the country have held that advertisements posted on a host website are merely “republished” material, with the host having no responsibility for the ads’ contents.””
“”However, he noted, the FBI has taken the position that allowing such ads to be posted on the sites amounts to “facilitating prostitution,” and that the web host could be charged with criminal facilitation and even money laundering—both very serious federal felonies.””
So while Mr. Cambria had some words of encouragement for National A-1, (although certainly this is just based on what he has heard and nothing official has been released on this case) he had cautionary words for sites that carry ads which the government might deem the advertising of prostitution and although most domainers do not operate adult sites most use landing pages on which ads appear and therefore any adult domain owner should pay attention to the ads that appear on its domains.
And to think I own 3Descorts.com
That’s total bullsh*t by the FBI.
Streets in cities facilitate prostitution b/c whores can walk on these streets created by the gov’t. and sell their wares. Should the FBI sue the city gov’ts for letting these whores walk the streets?
What a load of crap. I’m so tired of the gov’t pushing their morals on us and twisting the obvious to work in their favor.
Legalize prostitution
Legalize all drugs
Empty the prisons now of these “offenders”.
The FBI needs a cold shower to wake the Fu*k up!
Paul Cambria is one VERY highly regarded attorney, especially in the adult entertainment industry — I’ve seen him in actions many times, including the Free Speech Coalition’s (FSC)action against the DOJ’s U.S.C. 2257 regulations, in which another individual and myself were the two plaintiffs with FSC. Paul Cambria is sharp!!
This is precisely why everyone has to be very careful whom they partner with. We already know that “willful ignorance” on the part of the domain owner is not going to bail anyone out if fraud occurs somewhere down the food chain via a domain name. The internet has a microscopic barrier to entry compared to other forms of media. So I think moving forward our government is going to police it (for better or worse) vigorously for anyone it might think is involved with or facilitating organized crime.
A lot more is at stake these days and we have a lot less room for mistakes.
I think that the owner of escorts.com or moneylaundering.com (random example) should anticipate some kind of scrutiny. There are lots of ways to make money in this medium, just don’t know if its worth the headache of fighting for the right to operate in a “gray area” when freedom of speech isn’t really what people are fighting for.
In advertising there’s the radio test for a domain name. (If you don’t know it, Goog it). There should be a “no brainer” test as well. If you think something’s probably a bad idea or you’ve got to hire an attorney to check it out for you, it’s probably not worth doing.
NEWS: Fascist Obama wants to give you a INTERNET I.D.
No doubt the Big Ears Obuma bunch are not just satisfied with just
F.B.I. intimidation and sticking Gay stuff down your throat!
NOW! ….
Read the Howard Neu Blog on what the “the New Fascists”
are planning for Big Brother erosion of freedoms!
://howardneu.com/blog/social/OBAMA-PLANS-TO-CREATE-AN-INTERNET-ID-FOR-AMERICANS.php?post_id=115
I am shocked, this kind of stuff I would have never considered for my CheapEscort(s).com