tgp, thumbnails legality ?

[araxis]

Does anyone have or can point me to information on whether or not hosting thumbnails of pornographic material is legal if you don't have the 2257 etc documents.

I don't have a gallery. I'd just like some information before I start something like that.

Looking at GOOGLE's image search. They have cached such images and of course do not have those documents for the images that they have thumbnailed. It would seem that they too would be in violation of the law if there was a need for 2257 documents for the images.

Thank you for your reply in advance.

[graphicsbytia]

Hi araxis,

Yes, you need 2257 docs for any image you use on your pages. You can't just grab content from the internet, it's against the law.

There are a couple ways to get content, you can use sponsor free hosted content, which most sponsors offer when you sign up as an affiliate to promote them.

You can buy content from a content provider (like me) When you buy content, it can be used to promote any sponsor, or build a paysite, whatever you want to use it for. Each content provider has their own terms of use, which you should read. Here's our license, http://www.midnightdigital.com/license.html

If you can't afford to buy your own content right now, I may be able to help you with that. We give a set out free complete with all 2257 docs for signing up for our mailing list. Go here http://www.midnightdigital.com/main.html and on the bottom of the left menu you'll see where to sign up. Your set will be sent to you by e-mail.

Hope this answers your questions :)

[Panky]

The best advice is, to consult with a lawyer who has experience in this area.

TGP sites do not host submitters galleries. Submitters and/or the sponsor provides the hosting. Google simply provides a link to the images, as does TGP/MGP sites.

The proposed ammendments to the 2257 law are still in limbo. The law has not been officially ammended at this point.

What some gallery submitters do, is provide a link on their galleries to where the 2257 information can be found. This is not required by law, but some submitters and TGP/MGP owners want to see it and also may prevent future headaches if the law does become ammended. On some submit forms, a url to the 2257 information must be completed or the submit is rejected.

Some TGP/MGP site owners implemented various measures to become compliant should the law be ammended. Everything from changing hosting, to switching to text only, to not allowing submits.

Whether you use purchased, sponsor, or your own content, you need to know where the 2257 information is.

Keep all 2257 information and receipts when you purchase content. Keep it easily accessible if ever needed.

If you use sponsor content, make sure your sponsor provides a link to where the 2257 information can be found.

If you produce your own content, you are responsible for your own record keeping.

Don't use images that are "borrowed" from somewhere else. Stick with content you purchased that came with 2257 information, the sponsor provided, or that you produced yourself.

[araxis]

Thank you for the responses. Very informative.

To go back to google. The thumbnails that google has for their image search(and of course their cache) aren't any different than a site that provides thumbnailed links to galleries.

So I would have to assume that either the law is worded in a way that protects sites that are categorized as search engines, or that google will be just as guilty as a site that provides the same kind of thumbnailed links without the 2257.

Doing an image search for 'f**k me on google (after taking off content filtering) will yield a results page that looks like any other pornographic thumbnail link site.

I'm not particularly interested in hosting full content simply thumbnailed links. I know that I've been focused on 'google' but It seems like the best way to look at it.

edit: btw for those not familiar with google's image search. Look at the top of the page and there will be a link to it. The search results are thumbnailed images(hosted by google).

[monaro]

G'day araxis. How are you finding things?


Panky, looks like each day someone makes a few thousand sites.
cnn.com/interactive/tech/0312/facts.online.porn/content.1.html

[Panky]

They aren't all mine! LOL! I contribute a few pages daily though. :bonk:

Those are interesting stats. I wonder how accurate they are and what criteria they use to build the database?

[monaro]

Originally posted by Panky
They aren't all mine! LOL! I contribute a few pages daily though. :bonk:

Those are interesting stats. I wonder how accurate they are and what criteria they use to build the database?

Your guess is as good as mine. The only way to really know is to turn on the way back machine and see what I can dig up.

This looks so 90's. does it bring back memories?