Question about 2257 and blogs?

**unik** · 09-10-2009, 11:16 PM

Hi,

First thank you to everyone who responded to my thread about suggestions for a web designer, I have considered all your sugestions and I continue my research, I also spent hours on the forum to get information very useful for a newbie like me.

Now, my new question mark, concerns the legal side of having a blog for adults. I have read several threads and I wonder if it is possible for a amateur webmaster like me, to be completely in compliance with all laws, I speak especially about the famous 2257. I wonder, if I am a Canadian resident and my domain name ending with .Ca but my host is in the united states and I have mainly pictures or videos related to affiliate programs on my blog, am I really at risk of problem if I just put a warning in the style of:

"this website is not the producer and all 2257 documents are maintained by the content producers
and more information can be obtained on the specific sites as linked on corresponding pages"

I know this is not sufficient by law but is there a risk of problem or if it can be tolerate. I want to follow as possible the rules but to have to hold the documents for all of these pictures or videos for an amateur webmaster like me, that start with a simple blog, it seems difficult.

In any case I will continued my search and thank you all for your opinions and precious help.

Unik

**vaqueros** · 09-11-2009, 12:18 AM

There are legal experts on this board who I am sure can answer your questions and hopefully they will see this and respond. In the meantime, my understanding is that 2257 applies if either of the following conditions are true:

1) Website owner is a U.S. resident or U.S. citizen; or,
2) Website is located (hosted) in the U.S.

So I think if you are Canadian, reside in Canada, and can move your site to a Canadian host, you would not be subject to 2257.

Of course, it becomes more complex if you are directly accepting U.S. credit cards, as a pay membership site does. I think then you might not only be subject to 2257 in some way but also some of the credit card companies and 3rd party processors require their merchants to be 2257-compliant.

As a blog owner, presumably just getting payments from membership site owners, that probably would not be an issue for you.

Kevin