NGLTF: Fight 2257 Regulations!

Attention Manhunters, Facebookers, and DudesNudies: the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force has issued an alert regarding pending new regulations that may kill social networking sites, rules ostensibily meant to fight child pornography.

The federal government is proposing regulations that would effectively kill adult social-networking sites. This is being done under the guise of fighting child pornography. You have until September 10 to object to these regulations. It’s easy to do and essential. A sample e-mail comment is at the bottom of this page. Please forward this information to your friends!

What’s the Deal?
The Department of Justice is proposing regulations to implement a federal law designed to combat child pornography, known as Section 2257. The law was first enacted in 1998 and was amended in 2006 and significantly expanded to include regulation of the Internet.

While many of the regulations pertain to companies that produce adult entertainment magazines and videos (and are extremely burdensome), they would also affect anyone who uses an adult social-networking site. Here’s how:

The regulations would require the people running a site to get and maintain personal information from every user (that means you) who posts a “sexually explicit” photo, including your photo ID (driver’s license, passport, or military ID).

The regulations would allow the Attorney General to conduct warrantless searches at will on the sites’ records, including your personal information. There are few safeguards over what the FBI can do with the information it obtains. If a site operator fails to comply with the regulations, he or she would face a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

For more detailed information on Sec. 2257, read our fact sheet. (PDF).

Obviously, none of this has anything to do with child pornography. Instead, it is a blatant attempt to end the ability of consenting adults to use adult social-networking sites to meet other people for sex. Obviously, if these regulations go into effect, they will kill this industry.

What You Can Do: The Department of Justice has published these proposed regulations and the public has until September 10 to comment on them.

Write to voice your objection to these regulations at Admin.ceos@usdoj.gov. Put "Section 2257 Docket No. CRM 104" in your subject line. For a sample/easy-to-copy message, visit the NGLTF site here. Please take 30 seconds and do it right now, before you move on to the next post. Do you want Manhunt to have your driver's license? Nothing against the noble operators of that site, but I don't.

Reminder: Last Day For 2257 Objections

A couple of weeks I mentioned that today would be the last day to object to Section 2257, the government's plan to require that social networking/hookup sites have your driver's license on file. If you have not yet done so, please go the the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's site for an easy to copy protest letter.

Big Win For Adult Websites

You may recall back in September when I passed along an alert from the NGLTF regarding the expansion of the 2257 Regulations, which would have required internet social networking and hook-up sites like Facebook and Manhunt to maintain your photo ID on file, information many would be loathe to put in the hands of such parties.

Fear no more. On Tuesday, the U.S. Sixth District Court of appeals overturned the original regulations as overly-broad and in violation of free speech protections.

Tuesday's ruling is a remarkable win for adult publishers, not just because of the weighty nature of the regulations but also because the lawsuit has been going on for so long. The case was originally filed in September 1995, and this is likely going to be the last word unless the U.S. Supreme Court gets involved.

Although the Justice Department tried to downplay the impact of the record-keeping rules, the court reasonably noted that the regulations apply even to couples taking erotic photos for their own private use. Uploading them to the Web is regulated as well, of course.

"This reach is extremely broad, and the most commonsense limitation, for which the statute and regulations provide some support, would be to limit the statute's reach to photographs taken for a commercial purpose, that is, photographs taken for the purpose of sale," the 6th Circuit said. But, the judges added, "the plain text and definitions of the terms used admit...no commercial limitation on who will be considered producers."

Fortunately, the 6th Circuit recognized this, and concluded: "The government has drawn a similarly over-inclusive line here by including all sexually explicit photographs, whether created for commercial purposes" or otherwise. (The lawsuit was filed by a swingers' magazine called Connection that allowed couples to send in explicit photographs of themselves.)

As the linked CNET article notes, as written, the regulations made felons out of anybody (not just the site owners) who made or uploaded sexually explicit photos without complying with the Justice Department rules. No word yet from BMB about their resuming to allow members to upload their pervy self-pics.

Flu Season Hits Hard & Early

Epidemiologists says that the 2013 flu season has arrived weeks ahead of normal and may be notably worse than usual.

"I think we're still accelerating," said Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman. Twenty-nine states and New York City reported high levels of flu activity, up from 16 states and NYC the previous week. Flu was widespread in 41 states, up from 31 states, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of the week ending Dec. 29, 2,257 people had been hospitalized with flu, and 18 children had died from complications of the illness, CDC reported.

It's not too late for a flu shot.