egafd.com

I live in the UK ? England and I?ve just started working on making my first adult site.
At the moment I?m struggling to work out all the legal implications with regards to starting up my site. I?ll be using ccbill.com and an sms payment service to receive membership payments. The content will be original and totally unique to the site in the form of videos and photos, a mix of hard and softcore.

What I?m hoping is that some knowledgeable souls could enlighten me on any of my concerns below, I?d be very grateful if you can help me out.

The first thing I need to decide on is whether to use a server based in the UK or in the USA, and if choosing either of the two will bring any advantages, disadvantages or make no difference at all.

I need to know what the laws are regarding hardcore content being hosted and displayed on a server from within the UK. Is it completely illegal? Is it legal if it?s obtained via membership signup with a credit card? Would it be illegal to show hardcore previews in either the USA or UK?

If I were to have an English based website, with content that was quite clearly made in England, yet I was running from a USA server, would I be able to bypass any laws within the UK? My site will be using both .com and .co.uk version of its address - if that?s of any significance.

I will be using unique content and recording all footage myself. I know that I?ll need a model release form clearly stating that I will have ownership of any of the media recorded and ensuring that the model provides two forms of I.D proving their age and other credentials.

I was just wondering if anyone might have an example release form or even better one that is actually used by someone? I?m also wondering if a form of this type would need authenticating by a solicitor?

I know I?ll need to make a copy of the I.D provided by each model too, will I need to use any form of statement on my website stating I have a record of all models on file? I know about the 18 U.S.C. Section 2257 Compliance Notice, is this still relevant if my site is based on a UK Server?

I think that?s all the concerns I have for now! If there are any important legal considerations I might have overlooked, I?d be grateful if you could make me aware of them.


Thank-you for your time and help.

Without spending all night going into details.

If you don't do 2257, and you happen to find yourself on US soil, you can be taken to jail, as the website will be committing the offense while ur on US soil, so most peopkle do it just because its easier to than the risks.

You can really show what you like, but you should have some type of warning that theres adult content inside.

Keep ur ID to the same that can be accepted to buy booze, ie passport, drivers license, prove it card etc.

Isn't it better to have your own server? Looking at the costs, it'd be a hell of a lot cheaper to buy a server than to pay a hosting company, I've seen the cost of dedicated servers and it's over-priced. Having your own server you could host what you like and know that it'd never be pulled, but going with a hosting company you could get pulled at anytime if you break there t&c's and in these politically correct times it wouldn't take much.

With ID's most people say you have to have 2 ID's and one must be a government issued like passport or drivers license, but there are some people who think that as it's a US law that it isn't applicable, probably best to be safe as it won't hurt to get copies of ID.

You would beed a business SDSL NOT ADSL, adsl is usually between 256kb-512kb upstream, and you would be lucky to stream 2-4 users video on that.

http://www.fluidata.co.uk try ?1500 a month for 4mbps SDSL + ?2500 Setup and Connection, those prices are around average.

You would also have to be a dab hand with linux, as u would need to run ur own DNS, Mail, and Webservers, apply security fixes, deal with problems, etc etc, it far far far from cheap.

Managed Dedicated Server at around ?150-200 a month is easier and cheaper as they deal with all the hassle

UK Law Requires you can prove the model is old enough for the style of images, so need that anyway, however UK law and model releases is another story

When i asked my legal people this some time ago, they said the main act thats going to cause you major issues is the CPA, and being investigated for potential abuses of children isnt high on anyones list, so the law pretty much requires you to provide proof.

Also in order to sign a potentially legally binding contract such as a Model Release, a Minor is unable sign such a thing, so you need to be able to verify the models age, so again you are required to prove the person is capable and legally old enough to sign said contract.

It may not be the word of the law, but it is implied.

I'd recommend you join AITA, where you can get free up-to-date legal and business advice from people in the industry.

The next meeting is in London next Tuesday:

And there's free beer. !happy!

I thought where you came up against a brick wall regardless of whether your server is inthe us or europe is 'it's where you upload the material from' so if you're uploading from the UK that's already breaking the law. Am I wrong?

laralatex wrote:

> I thought where you came up against a brick wall regardless of
> whether your server is inthe us or europe is 'it's where you
> upload the material from' so if you're uploading from the UK
> that's already breaking the law. Am I wrong?

Yep thats my understanding ... in the UK the offence is committed when the material is upload (i.e. published)