Like several web sites that recently have completely overhauled terms of service, been investigated by the feds, been forcefully shut down, or gone offline for fear of prosecution… the very popular social networking site www.tribe.net is voluntarily conforming to the VERY SCARY newly updated 2257 laws. Consider that Tribe is simply a free forum for end-users to connect and communicate, kinda like Craig’s List. Tribe is not a porn site. Not at all.
The sites below are absolutely work-safe because they are *gone*.
So blink once and say bye bye to these web sites:
http://www.red-rose-stories.com/ (community submitted erotic stories - site was seized, all of her computers were seized… and there were no pics, only stories)
http://www.nowthatsfuckedup.com (swapping nudie pics of girlfriends and wives was ok here until soldiers began posting real pics from the war and the feds got involved — note this webmaster is still in jail at the time of this posting)
http://www.gapingmaw.com/35150/ (macabre essays)
Wanna know what’s going on? The updated 2257 mandates that all website owners to keep *physical* records such as driver’s licenses and birth cerificates documenting that “any digitally or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, or *other* matter that contains a depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct” is over the age of 18. In addition, web site owners must post a physical business address and absurd “hours of operation” on our web sites, just in case feds need access to official documents. (Or just in case psychos want to find us.) Sexual images or the written word in the form of adult stories submitted by users online are illegal retroactively, and the penalty for web site owners who have no documentation is five years in a federal penitentiary.
I laugh at conspiracy theory types, but concern is not an over-reaction in this case. Most of us who are interested in watching this unfold have believed the government would surely not even attempt to enforce this. But slowly they are. And surprisingly, it seems like few have noticed so many American freedoms are slipping away in so many ways.
Yes, the changes in the name of “family values” greatly affect the US adult entertainment industry on the internet, which in itself is a damned shame. But this kind of open-ended censorship obviously goes way beyond protecting children. Any 10 year can still find tits and ass online, even if the site is not in the US, and kids will probably always be subjected to predators in chat rooms, etc. Many believe the popular agenda of protecting children was tactically slipped in so the government could extend regulatations on us all.
This updated law is a VERY SERIOUS blow to freedom of speech worldwide, our ability to interact with other humans online, and our fucking *privacy*. Scary. And impossible to monitor on sites like my own Butch-Femme.com (or even Live Journal) where adult community members occasionally share themes of an adult nature. Or dating sites where the incidental nudie pic might be thrown in, even if users are clearly asked not to post damned pictures of their genitalia like I do on B-F.com! Besides, it is impossibly unsafe for end-users if any ol’ web site owner possesses enough private information to steal your identity or stalk you.
Oh, and it targets and virtually outlaws BDSM. You know paddles and ball gags and fetish totally freaks ‘em out! And sites where users share body modifications to their own nipples, clits or cocks? Twisted! And the impassioned and tenderly intimate **Daddy/Grrl** current on Butch-Femme.com!?!?? Good lord. What would straight, male, righteous lawmen make of dykes who captivate one another within THAT often misunderstood “taboo”?
“Take away the right to say ‘fuck’ and you take away the right to say ‘fuck the government.’”
- Lenny Bruce (and everyone knows what happened to the comedian Lenny Bruce)
Feel free to share this. But keep in mind I am too old and too fat to go to a work camp, ya’ll.
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