Getting Ready for 2257 Changes
I decided to write this article as a way to give some advice on how to prepare yourself to comply with the 2257 laws. First off you need to know that I am not a lawyer and this article will contain no legal advice. This article is simply going to give you some ideas on making your life easier when the day comes that you have to make your sites compliant.
Recently the DOJ has released its current proposal for changes to the 2257 law. Judging by industry reaction there is both good and bad things that have changed. My personal opinion is that the law will be open for comment for a period of time during which there will be extensive comments. The DOJ will then close the comment period, review the comments, toss them aside and publish the law pretty much as is. Then lawsuits will be filed, injunctions issued and we start another round of the game. This has been going on for a couple of years now; I can’t imagine it is going to stop anytime soon. That said, there is a strong chance that eventually there will be a version passed that will set forth explicit guidelines that everyday ordinary webmasters will have to follow. They will need records for their galleries, free sites, tgps, avs sites and so on. This article is going to give you some ideas on how to prepare yourself for that day to make the changes as easy as possible.
LOG YOUR SITES
Use a spreadsheet or database, whatever works best for you. If you want a spreadsheet and don’t have Excel, Open Office has a nice one you can get for free. List the urls of all your sites and galleries and any other information you feel is needed. I would strongly suggest you put in what type of content is on the site (movie or pictures), what niche, what sponsor and even the exact urls of the content (meaning the direct urls of the thumbs, full size pics and movies). One of the proposed changes is that you will have to catalog every pic’s url in a database so having this list of all your pics/movies already made can really help you. This will take some time but it will give you a clear list of all your sites, the content on them and where you got it. If it’s sponsor provided content, note that, if not, note who you bought it from and make sure you have the correct docs for it. If you don’t, contact the content provider and get them. This purchased content is useless to you if you don’t have the proper compliant docs.
As you make new sites make sure to add them to your lists. If it takes another year for everything to get settled, you still want to be up to date and it is easier to maintain it as you go then to catch up later.
LINK 2257 INFO
Buy a domain that you use to store all of your 2257 info on. Only use that domain for storing this info and put nothing else on here. On all of your sites point your 2257 link to that domain. You can copy and paste the 2257 statements from the different sites you are promoting onto this page or you can just make a list of all the sites you promote and link directly to the 2257 statements for each of those sites. Use the same link text on every 2257 link that you put on every gallery and site you build – by making it uniform it will save you time later. This will now have all of your sites and galleries pointing to the correct 2257 docs. As things change it will make your life easier.
GET READY FOR CHANGE
There are a couple of things you can do to prepare yourself for change. First, contact all the sponsors you use and ask them if you – as an affiliate – are required to maintain records, will they give you the proper docs so you can be compliant. If they say yes, cool. If not, I would consider not promoting them much more. There is not much use in building another 50 sites that you may end up having to take down 6 months from now. Keep your list of everyone that is going to provide you with docs and everyone that will not, you might even put this info in your site list.
Second go out and purchase some content. Take an inventory of your sites and what niches they are in. Take careful note of all your sites that use sponsor content where the sponsors won’t be giving you the 2257 docs you will need. Use this information to compile a list of what types and how much content you will need to replace this if you need to. If you are required to have the docs in your possession and you can’t get them from the sponsor then you can either replace their content with some you have bought and keep the site up, or shut the site down. Obviously, keeping the site up is a much better option. Once you have your list of what type of content you will need and how much of it you will need you can start shopping around and making a budget. Keep your eyes open on the different webmaster boards for good deals. You can always use new content, and you just may need it down the road. Buying a little bit here and there can spread the cost out over several months instead of in one lump at the last minute.
REPLACE IT
If, after the dust has settled, you have to change things you will need some tools to do this. One of my favorite tools is an html editor called Ultra Edit (www.ultraedit.com). This has a built in FTP function that will allow you to log into your server, open multiple html pages and do search and replaces through them all then save them right on the server. You can do a lot of this stuff with Dreamweaver, but not everyone wants to drop the $400+ for that and Ultra Edit costs around $50 and is easy to use.
One of the proposed changes to the law is that a link to your 2257 page isn’t good enough and you will have to actually put your records information right on every page. If you have used identical text for each 2257 link you put on every site you can now just do a mass search and replace and change all of that easily. This tool will also make swapping out content a lot easier because you can do 100 identical tgp galleries at once, instead of having to do each one separately.
As you make your changes make sure to update your database list so you can keep track of everything you have done.
DON’T 404 IT IN AN UGLY MANNER
If you can’t get replacement content for a site and you have to remove sites or pages, don’t just send the now gone sites to a 404 page that has a ton of pop-ups or garbage on it. This could get you blacklisted on different link lists and tgps. Instead I would suggest both pulling all the content off the site/pages and leaving a note on it that says something like, “Due to circumstances beyond my control I had to remove the pics/movies from this site. Please hit your back button to return to the site you came from.” You could also probably put a link on the page the sponsor for that site with some text like, “This site was a sample site for –insert paysite name – you can click here to check out the full site if you want.” And link to a no pop-up tour for the site. Or make a custom 404 page for your server that basically says the same thing and tells them to return where they came from and offer them an option to check out a paysite.
Before doing any of this I would contact the tgps and link lists for the sites you will be pulling and ask them what they think. Again, if you plan to continue submitting to them you don’t want to do something to get yourself blacklisted.
GET REAL ADVICE
In the event you have to start complying with this law in one form or another beyond linking to the 2257 pages for the sponsors you are promoting it is a must that you get some real legal advice. Don’t depend on what is posted on the boards or what other webmasters tell you. Contact an attorney that knows about this stuff, tell them what you do and give them some examples. Ask their advice on the best way for you to comply with the law. It may cost you a little money, but it will the best money you have ever spent.
Once they tell you what to do you can start making your changes which, if you have followed some of my advice, should be a lot less painless. My motto has always been: plan now and relax later. I would rather put in a few hours a week over the next couple of months getting ready for changes and maybe never having to make the changes I have prepared for than I would suddenly finding myself having to make changes and spending a couple weeks of 20 hour days scrambling, stressing and pulling my hair out to comply. Remember, even if you are just a part timer that builds adult websites as a way to make a few extra bucks, it is a business, now is the perfect time to start treating it as such.
