OFCOM regulations - say goodbye to yout business!

[Daz Savage]

I have read the regulations in detail and basically...

...Basically we're all out of business! (or we run the risk of trouble for doing fuck-all wrong!)
The regulations state that we cannot display obscene material to anyone that has not proven they are over 18.
The word obscene covers just about anything they want it to cover and they say it may change as and when they wish!
Only a credit card is proof of age and not debit cards!
We are all in trouble.
I am considering getting out now... this is just the governments way of trying to make a fast buck but not realizing just what this is going to do to jsut about the only industry lkeft in the UK.

Can the last one out please turn out the light.
Thanks.

[Daz Savage]

I have just re-read the ATVOD regulations and although the guidlines make absolutely no sense at all the guidelines almost admit that it makes no sense and you get the feeling that it has been written in 'Sir Humphrey Appleby' English to make us all contact them and offer ourselves over to be hung-drawn-and-quartered by them.
"It's been a fun 15 years... (as Basil Fawlty said) but all good things must come to an end"
Another nail in the coffin of British freedoms - I mean what the hell has happened to this country? Since when was porn the enemy of the people?
I'm off back to my old job of demanding money with menaces and rolling people up in carpet for a living - at least the rozzers leave you alone if you do that because they're too damn scared to approach real crims these days!

Come the revolution!
[img]http://fc05.deviantart.net/images3/i/20 ... _Emote.gif[/img]

[Busty Cookie]

I know the this is all crazy daz they were talking about vajazzling and volent porn on newsnight I was like what the fuck they did not even know about porn~ some feminest woman saying all porn violent and dangerous lol

[Daz Savage]

Just listened to the audio interview with Pete Johnson (ATVOD) and Mark Harrison (ICM Registry)
basically there are some checklists to see if you apply:
1. Are you doing anything (because if you are doing ANYTHING we can crowbar it into our regulations and OFFCOM will rubber-stamp pretty much anything we say or do)
2. You're okay of you're not in the UK. (This seems like they are accepting that something magical happens if you live and operate abroad but it's really because they can't bully you if you are not a British resident... and let's face it we're probably the nicest lot in the UK but nobody's gonna go after anyone else... because they just can't... so it's all go for harrassing the Brits again!)
3. If you are Youtube you're okay. (Not because you're actually doing anything different but because if you're Youtube - or REDTUBE or anyone with some clout you will be able to fight back.

I'm closing my sites at the end of the month!
Good luck to all of you!

[Daz Savage]

That's the point Cookie.
They say that if it's obscene you are in trouble even if you have registered and paid them their cash.
The danger is that I have had dealings with regulatory bodies in the past and they move the goalposts on a daily basis - even hourly!!! so that if they want to catch you they can!
I used to work for a TV station and we had a printout every day with NEW regs for the presenters and even then the regs would change in the middle of a shift and we'd get phone calls from the bosses telling us to get the girls to put bigger bras on at three in the morning!
They act like we're making the world a worse place but I seriously used to do some really bad things for a living (some of them for the bloody government!) and I'm not good at anything else! so it's back to the drawing-board for me.

Basically the gist is this:
If you have just ONE downloadable clip on your site (even if it's an instructional video on how to clean windows (FFS) then you must pay a fee to the new regulators. The standard fee is ?2,900 per annum!

Once you have paid this they can have you on file and can monitor you - and they WILL and then every time they want to have some new office furniture they'll find something you are doing that is within guidelines and then change the guidelines without telling you... then next week along comes the fine!
You can laugh but I saw this happen time and time again!

Regulators are PAID to brows sites and watch your material. Then they have to justify their existence so they HAVE to find SOME people guilty of SOMETHING or they would be out of business themselves.

Even Playboy TV were told to fuck off when they raised quite an important and actually relevant point.
Basically it's time to pack-up ladies and gentlemen and leave this shithole of a country to those bastards who have done everything in their power to make it the truly wretched place it is today!

I think I'll keep my sites and just remove the videos now I think about it.

[videokim]

There will be ways around this & we are looking into the loopholes...if any , at the moment you need to be based abroad & upload from abroad to escape the new laws of ?2900 for each URL link to your site/sites.
ATVOD are urging their customers (victims) to shop their competition hence doing ATVOD's work, if you charge for video downloads then you are liable for the fee.
Stick with your sites for now & see what happens as it could take ages for them to get to you & even then when they do you get a time limit to pay or close down, build up your AdultWork sites in preparation for the big shake up as they are based overseas & out of the clutches of this countries laws (for now).

[videokim]

The other thing is all hard-core trailers will have to changed to soft or kept behind the pay section etc.
When we started we were used to dawn raids & everything else fun that came with being adult producers then they spoilt it first by making it legal then introducing the internet.
When the days of advertising in the "LOOT" & selling tapes at ?35 each changed for cheap DVD's & internet we all thought "thats the end of porn" but we all carried on & changed accordingly & will again...us porn producers are an hardy lot.

[Daz Savage]

!previous! "The chances of anyone getting prosecuted are probably very slim." !previous!
I wonder what you base this statement on and can I have your assurance that if I get caught you will foot the bill for me then?
(Actually I won't get caught because I'm going back to images only and gonna sell clips through another avenue."

Look... the chances may be slim but then if this body has gone to the trouble to start this fight then you just know they have the clout to finish it and will make examples of people when the time is right. They didn't go to all this bother just to have you and me stick two fingers up at them - I mean has anyone actually READ the pdf of guidelines? you should because it is truly horrifying. Basically if you sell memberships to your site then you can only do this with a credit card! This is because a debit card can be obtained by a minor. So anyone who thinks they have it all sewn up might find they fall-foul of the law concerning distributing to minors!!!
ARE YOU FUCKING WORRIED YET? Do you think they'll let that one go? This is considered in law as only one small step from underage porn!

Yes there doesn't seem to have been any high-profile cases yet but I am familiar with the way this kind of thing often works and rather than pounce from day one they will prefer to allow people enough time to really hang themselves!
It may be okay to wait and see but what happens on the day they 'get you?'
It's easy to say that if you produced content that you wouldn't be worrying but that's like telling a boxer what to do from the comfort of your armchair.
Basically if your balls are not on the line then your advice carries less weight.

[jimslip]

Unless I'm wrong, I think you'll find OFCOM regulates the providers of on-air programming like TVX, Playboy, Dave and so on. Their lawyers will be busily reading the stuff in detail so they avoid a problem. I can't see how the OFCOM rulings affect the good, hard working work of BGAFD, who make internet stuff?