Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Illinois

Re: Adult Web Owner

Since the fall of the CDA (Communications Decency Act) several years ago, many people have contacted me on this issue. Keep in mind that more than a few local law enforcement agencies in the Chicago area actually surf the Net to ferret out on-line child molesters as well as Chicago-area, easy-access porn sites. The best advice I can give you is as follows:

(1) You can get into criminal trouble if you're showing images, movies, etc. of any person under the age of 18.

(2) You can get into criminal/civil trouble if a person under the age of 18 gets into your site and the authorities are made aware of this.

(3) You can get into criminal/civil trouble if you are running a pay-site and intend to use recurring credit card charges, UNLESS it is very clear on the sign-up page of your site that charges to the user's CC are recurring AND you make it very easy to discontinue membership/charges to their CC.

(4) You can get into civil trouble if you are:

(A) Ripping off significant content from another site;

(B) Placing scans of copyrighted photos on your site;

(C) Placing video captures/movie clips of copyrighted movies on your site.

So, do the following to protect yourself:

(1) Require use of an AVS, first and foremost, to access the more "detailed" portions of your site.

(2) Make sure that all teaser content is toned down... this is my opinion. While there are numerous free and pay-sites that show graphic content up front, it's my believe that it's just a matter of time before these sites will come under attack.

(3) Make sure you own the content you're using or at least have permission to use it on your site. Sure, there's a million sites out there that rip off porno stills and videos... and the 2 main reasons, I believe, that organizations like Vivid Video or Playboy don't fight these sites it is that as long as it's just clips, it can be good, FREE advertising for the real thing, AND as a practical matter, it would be impossible to shutdown all of these sites. As an attorney, I can't encourage you to take an illegal act. However, what you chose to do is entirely up to you.

Hope this helps...