opinion

Will Times Change?

Recently, XBIZ asked several industry leaders, "Will the industry always be in danger of governmental regulation/intervention, or will times change?"

Here's what they had to say:

"I most certainly think that we will always have the government looking to intervene, regulate or even destroy our industry. Porn will always carry a certain amount of political power as its a moral hot button issue for many. Politicians will continue to exploit that in effort to forward their political careers and attempt to impose their moral agenda on everyone. On the opposite side, we will continue to have people that want to allow what I believe is the most important right of a democracy (the freedom of choice) and allow adults to make personal choices on whether to enjoy and/or participate in porn. So this is an issue that will continue for a very long time."
– Jimmy (Wizzo) Foreman, Program Manager, Mayors Money

"Since we are based in the Netherlands, we don't suffer directly from U.S. government decisions, but we still make sure we comply as a great deal of our business comes from the U.S.A. I do believe that the industry can expect some new regulations in the next few years, simply because there is no way back with everything that has been started over the last few years. One thing that I am curious to see is if European regulations will be influenced much by the changes in the U.S."
– Maria Motzo, RevenueCash.com

"Times will never change as the adult industry has forever been under scrutiny. As long as there are right-wing religious fanatics that believe that porn was sent by the devil, our industry will be under a lot of pressure. However, if we can self-regulate the industry, the pressure will lessen in some areas."
– Mitch Farber, President, Netbilling

"Unfortunately I think we will always be subject to some governmental intervention. The level of governmental action will ebb and flow, but it will always be there. Because our business is not completely accepted by everyone, we are an easy target for politicians looking to further their career or to make headlines. Additionally, I don't see the Religious Right changing their views soon, and they will continue to pursue their fight in the political arena. This is why it is so important to vote your voice and support causes like the ASACP and the Free Speech Coalition."
– Vegas Ken, Director of Marketing TheBestPorn.com

"More laws and regulations have been put in place for many aspects of the online business: domain names, trademarks, copyrights and 2257. Before that, everybody had so much freedom! They could do whatever they thought would be lucrative, either they were well-intentioned or shady. New laws, I think, have cleaned the market from those shady businesses and limited all sorts of scams. In the long term, this should be positive and not put the industry in danger at all. It will give people confidence in surfing/joining porn sites and give everyone a more positive outlook on our industry.

We have to look at it this way: The laws and regulations will not put the industry in danger, they will limit certains players and will create new opportunities for others."
– Magalie Rheault Affiliate Manager, FameDollars

"I think at varying intervals our industry is always going to be subjected to government regulation and intervention. We've already seen it happen once and very strongly in recent history during the Reagan years. By comparison the Clinton administration was pornapolooza bliss for the biz. Conservative governments have been coming and thankfully going for as long as there have been governments and their fascination with and desire to interfere with sexuality and all things to do with sex has been insatiable. As it no doubt always will be."
– Brian Randall Founder, Pistol Media

Copyright © 2024 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

opinion

How to Halt Hackers as Fraud Attacks Rise

For hackers, it’s often a game of trial and error. Bad actors will perform enumeration and account testing, repeating the same test on a system to look for vulnerabilities — and if you are not equipped with the proper tools, your merchant account could be the next target.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

VerifyMy Seeks to Provide Frictionless Online Safety, Compliance Solutions

Before founding VerifyMy, Ryan Shaw was simply looking for an age verification solution for his previous business. The ones he found, however, were too expensive, too difficult to integrate with, or failed to take into account the needs of either the businesses implementing them or the end users who would be required to interact with them.

Alejandro Freixes ·
opinion

How Adult Website Operators Can Cash in on the 'Interchange' Class Action

The Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement resulted from a landmark antitrust lawsuit involving Visa, Mastercard and several major banks. The case centered around the interchange fees charged to merchants for processing credit and debit card transactions. These fees are set by card networks and are paid by merchants to the banks that issue the cards.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

It's Time to Rock the Vote and Make Your Voice Heard

When I worked to defeat California’s Proposition 60 in 2016, our opposition campaign was outspent nearly 10 to 1. Nevertheless, our community came together and garnered enough support and awareness to defeat that harmful, misguided piece of proposed legislation — by more than a million votes.

Siouxsie Q ·
opinion

Staying Compliant to Avoid the Takedown Shakedown

Dealing with complaints is an everyday part of doing business — and a crucial one, since not dealing with them properly can haunt your business in multiple ways. Card brand regulations require every merchant doing business online to have in place a complaint process for reporting content that may be illegal or that violates the card brand rules.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

WIA Profile: Patricia Ucros

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Ucros graduated from college with a degree in education. She spent three years teaching third grade, which she enjoyed a lot, before heeding her father’s advice and moving to South Florida.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

Creating Payment Redundancies to Maximize Payout Uptime

During the global CrowdStrike outage that took place toward the end of July, a flawed software update brought air travel and electronic commerce to a grinding halt worldwide. This dramatically underscores the importance of having a backup plan in place for critical infrastructure.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

The Need for Minimal Friction in Age Verification Technology

In the adult sector, robust age assurance, comprised of age verification and age estimation methods, is critical to ensuring legal compliance with ever-evolving regulations, safeguarding minors from inappropriate content and protecting the privacy of adults wishing to view adult content.

Gavin Worrall ·
opinion

Account-to-Account Payments: The New Banking Disruptor?

So much of our industry relies upon Visa and Mastercard to support consumer payments — and with that reliance comes increased scrutiny by both brands. From a compliance perspective, the bar keeps getting raised until it feels like we end up spending half our time making sure we are compliant rather than growing our business.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

WIA Profile: Samantha Beatrice

Beatrice credits the sex positivity of Montreal for ultimately inspiring her to pursue work in adult entertainment. She had many friends working in the industry, from sex workers to production teams, so it felt like a natural fit and offered an opportunity to apply her marketing and social media savvy to support people she truly believes in and wants to see succeed.

Women In Adult ·
Show More