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Articles by Lawrence G. Walters

opinion

Fact vs. Fiction: Adult Content Prohibitions of the Past and Present

This article will try to separate fact from fiction and provide insight into the development of adult content prohibitions.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Legal Considerations for NFTs and Crypto Art

To make up for this revenue loss, many artists began selling cryptographic artworks called non-fungible tokens (NFTs) earlier this year, creating a cultural and financial phenomenon that seized headlines.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Deplatforming: The Looming Threat to Adult Entertainment

In the blink of an eye, former President Trump was gone from social media. Facebook and Twitter suspended his accounts for violating their community guidelines.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

So, You’ve Been Served: Dealing With Subpoenas

Adult business operators are forced to deal with a number of legal hassles. One of them is receipt of a subpoena seeking information about you, your operation, your finances or your data.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Flame Wars Can Get You Burned: The Legal Limits of Online Speech

Many of us have been tempted to post that snarky comment or call attention to a bad business practice on social media. Perhaps your own business or reputation is being maligned, and your natural instinct is to fight back.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Protecting Stage Names Via Trademark Amid a Tide of Indie Newcomers

Online adult entertainment is booming in these otherwise difficult times. Traffic and profits are up, as so many of us try to fill the days at home and away from each other. The new gold rush has also attracted a lot of new faces — and new names.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Legal Issues Pop Up When Filming Sex in Public

Increasingly, our law firm is asked about the legality of filming nudity or explicit sex scenes in public.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

A Legal Primer to Help Develop Explicit Brands Previously Off Limits

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision involving The Slants rock band, which invalidated restrictions on registration of “disparaging” trademarks, has generated renewed interest in protecting adult industry brand names.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
trends

Visa Cracks Down on ‘Shell’ Billing Firms

There was a time not so long ago when website operators created billing companies in favorable jurisdictions, whose sole purpose was to bill customers for services provided by the operator and remit the settled funds to the operator.

Lawrence G Walters ·
opinion

Legal Options to Address Pirated Cam Performances

Many webcam performers have experienced a new trend in online piracy — the illegal recording and publication of live webcam performances. The “business model” is disturbingly simple: sign up to purchase or view a live webcam performance on any number of webcam networks ...

Lawrence G Walters ·
opinion

Business Models Can Trigger Regulatory Compliance

Adult website operators are typically familiar with the obligations imposed by Title 18 U.S.C. § 2257 (Section 2257) which mandates the compilation and maintenance of certain records relating to the production of sexually explicit content.

Lawrence G Walters ·
opinion

Law of Sex: Close Up the Internet, Election Season Is Here

You know elections are upon us when politicians start talking about wanting to “close up” the Internet, or censor Twitter and Facebook. Throw in a couple terrorist attacks and you have the perfect storm for loss of cherished First Amendment rights.

Lawrence G Walters ·
opinion

Law of Sex: ‘The War on Porn’ Is Rebranded

On October 8, 2014, ThinkProgress.com declared the end to the War on Porn. The censors had lost and erotic media would live on. One sign that the war had been lost was the fact that annual contributions to the well-known anti-erotica group, Morality in Media, had dwindled from over $1 million in 2001 to just over $20,000 in 2005.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Law of Sex: Fighting Private Censorship

Government censorship in the Internet age has been a consistent focal point for free speech advocates. Recent examples of censorship by the American government can be egregious, including the curtailment of First Amendment rights through mass surveillance, over-regulation of disfavored speech, criminal prosecution, and outright bans on books, movies, and websites.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Best Practices for the Live Webcam Space

As the live webcam business continues to surge in popularity, more attention will be focused on operators and performers by law enforcement and other government agencies.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Alternative Currency; Is Regulation in Store?

Hardly a day goes by without some headline referring to developments in legal status or use of alternative currency such as bitcoin. At times it seems the virtual currency is nearly taking over the Internet. How, though, will this new trend affect the adult entertainment industry?

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Placing Regulations on Adult Sites

As stories of the government’s assault on the adult industry based on obscenity prosecutions and 2257 inspections fade into legend, a new legal boogieman may be waiting in the shadows. It is known by several names including the “FTC,” state “Consumer Protection Divisions,” or the “Better Business Bureau.”

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Keeping Your 2257 Records Clean

Model Release? Check! Performer ID’s? Check! 2257 form? Check! Throw them all into a file or load them into a database and your legal tail is covered, right? Unfortunately, XXX law is never that simple, particularly when discussing compliance with the federal regulations applied to highly-regulated, sexually-explicit content.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

2257 Compliance?

Our firm’s approach to adult entertainment law has always included the use of technology in conjunction with legal advice. So, years ago, when Congress passed the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) requiring that all adult websites incorporate some form of user age verification, we created the BirthDateVerifier to offer our clients a legal compliance option, while the courts sorted out the constitutionality of the law.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

Live Cams: Multitasking in the Modern Era

At its most basic level, the live webcam phenomenon is merely the next technological extension of the live phone sex craze that started in the 1980s.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
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