Title 18, U.S.C. Section 2257 (“2257”) has long been a thorn in the side of content producers and webmasters in the adult industry, but now, the controversial statute is being utilized in ways never intended by the drafters of the legislation. Purportedly created as an effort designed to prevent the proliferation of child pornography, 2257 has historically been used by the federal government as a tool to enforce producer compliance with its onerous record-keeping and labeling obligations designed to verify the age of models appearing in sexually-explicit imagery. Some records inspections have occurred by the Attorney General’s office, although actual prosecutions under the law have been essentially non-existent. Recently, however, the statute is being adopted by litigants, industry participants, and governmental agencies as a sword wielded against adult businesses, instead of the protective shield it was meant to be.
A little over two years ago, the industry witnessed the first use of 2257 in a copyright battle between two adult businesses in federal court. In a lawsuit filed by Ventura Content, Ltd. (a.k.a. Pink Visual) against the tube site Motherless.com, the former alleged, among other claims, that Motherless failed to maintain performer records as dictated by 2257 and failed to post the mandated disclosure statement on its website. The requested relief? Ventura asked the court to shut down the tube site based, in part, on its failure to comply with 2257.
Although the ability to protect against copyright infringement is an essential goal in the adult industry, insiders using 2257 as a weapon to battle each other in court sets a dangerous and unsettling precedent. The DOJ’s enforcement of 2257 is intimidating enough, but the thought of a litigation strategy designed to shut down adult media for violations of the statute would add a layer of credibility to 2257 that threatens the industry’s challenges to the statute, and is ultimately self-defeating.
Much more recently, in November of 2013, a John Doe defendant asked a court to examine Malibu Media’s 2257 records in order to, essentially, invalidate their copyright infringement claims against him. Doe was accused of illegally torrenting 19 of Malibu Media’s copyright films and in turn, made the claim that if a film is not accompanied by adequate 2257 records, then it may not be validly protected under copyright. The case is currently still pending.
Although Doe’s attorney’s strategy may have been a bit of a long shot (as it would be impossible to know the status of plaintiff’s 2257 records short of inspecting them himself), the point is not necessarily whether these 2257 abuse tactics are working, the concern is that they are being employed at all. While these instances of using 2257 to buttress industry infighting are the most prominent, there have been others and the trend is disturbing.
The abuse of 2257 unfortunately doesn’t stop with adult industry participants and John Doe defendants, however. Recently, unconfirmed reports indicated that Cal/OSHA has been subpoenaing 2257 records for various adult content producers with an insidious and ulterior motive: busting the companies for violating the LA County ordinance colloquially known as Measure B, requiring condom usage in adults scenes shot within the county limits. According to these reports, Cal/OSHA obtained the 2257 records in order to ascertain dates and times of shoots – information that would necessarily be contained in the 2257 records. Thus, the County would be able to confirm whether the producers are complying with Measure B and pulling the required permits. If it finds out they are not, Cal/OSHA can impose heavy fines. CAL/OSHA records do confirm that the companies are being investigated.
It seems as though instead of simply maintaining records to ensure age verification, adult industry producers now need to worry about a slew of ancillary legal concerns relating to their 2257 compliance. Any problems with a producer’s compliance regime could prevent them from enforcing their copyrights or result in an unfair competition claim by a ‘holier than thou’ company who claims perfect compliance. The problem is: there is no perfect compliance. The byzantine regulatory scheme created by Congress and the DOJ poses risks of technical violations for even the most diligent producer. Any effort to give credence to an ill-conceived law like 2257 is, at a minimum, bad karma, and at most a tacit admission of the validity of the law. My humble recommendation; leave 2257 out of the industry infighting, and adopt a cohesive position regarding the unconstitutionality of the burdensome federal statutory abortion we know as 2257.
