Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Record Keeping Requirements (TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 110 Sec. 2257)

Based upon my reading of the section you provided, I would say that if you were in any way involved in the "production" of the material, you would be required to maintain the records mandated by the section, and provide the notice mandated by the section.

Your second question, "Would there need to be some sort of written understanding to be able to do this?" does not make much sense. A "written understanding" with whom? A "written understanding" to do what? If you were not involved in the production of the material you intend to post on the web site, I would say that subsection (h)(3) would provide an exclusion of the requirement to post the notice, as well as the requirement to maintain the records.

Re: Record Keeping Requirements (TITLE 18 PART I CHAPTER 110 Sec. 2257)

I'm away from my reference material as I write, so I haven't researched the issue. This is an offhand opinion. It's my educated guess that images made available on the Web would fall under the Code's definition of "matter" and that by making them available for viewing at a price is "publication" as meant by the Code.

In other words, the Code applies to you, or at least I think a federal prosecuter could make a strong case that it does.

I could be wrong. My opinion is based upon the tendency of courts to construe statutes such as this to apply across publication media, and to treat the Web as the 21st Century equivalent of the printing press (newspapers, magazines) and broadcast media (radio, TV).