Copyright, Patents. Trade Marks ... all things intelectual property
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A Summer of Really Big Rulings
XBIX - August 2010
From time to time there are rulings in court cases that dramatically affect the entire adult entertainment industry. One such ruling, for example occurred in December of 2006, when a federal judge in Colorado ruled the 2257 regulation’s old secondary-producer requirements to be unconstitutional. That case provided a large number of Free Speech Coalition members who would have been subject to the regulations as secondary producers a nearly three-year reprieve from the onerous provisions until new regulations could be properly enacted by Congress and promulgated by the Department of Justice.
New Senate Legislation Would Ban Certain Internet Sales Practices
XBIZ JULY 2010
On May 19, 2010, Senator John D. Rockefeller, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, introduced legislation that may have a very significant impact on Internet retailers, particularly those offering services or goods via what is termed a “negative option” offer, a sales method that is very commonly used by adult online merchants.
For those unfamiliar with the practice, negative option sales generally refer to offers in which goods or services are sold to a consumer automatically unless the consumer takes some specific action to decline the sale in advance of billing. This sales method covers a variety of techniques and can take just about any form where a consumer must take an affirmative action to say “no” to an offer (such as un-check a pre-checked box) to prevent a sale. Some common examples of negative option sales currently in use in the online adult entertainment industry involve sales of memberships after free or reduced cost “trial” memberships, cross-sales of memberships to additional sites, sales of upgraded or premium services, and sales of additional live chat minutes.
Live adult videoconferencing is big, and getting bigger. Online consumers now purchase enough live cam show minutes to support thousands of regular live cam performers each day. Capitalizing on this ever-increasing demand for live adult content, more and more pay sites are including live chat up-sell options.Additionally, many of the most recognizable adult brand name companies now have their own private labeled version of a live chat site provided by one of the major live chat companies, such as Video Secrets.
"In contrast to previous economic eras, intellectual property will be the primary source of new wealth in the 21st century." - -- Gregory A Piccionelli, 1989
