Whether you enjoyed the snarky commentary and graphic content of
"The Gaping Maw", or found them repugnant, there is probably little debate on DKos as to whether or not they had a Constitutional right to exist.
As of 06/22/05 they have effectively gone offline thanks in no small part to ammendments to Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988.
More below the break...
If you're caught hosting sexual content and fail to provide documentation of the participant's name and date of birth, you may go to prison for up to 5 years. This is retroactive to content posted from 1995.
"Boing Boing" has the story.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Rotten.com: our gapingmaw.com, ratemyboner.com sites and others shut in anticipation of 2257 crackdown
Amended Section 2257 recordkeeping regulations go into effect at midnight tonight. The federal law requires website owners to keep records documenting, among other things, that "every performer portrayed in a visual depiction of actual sexually explicit conduct" is over the age of 18.
In anticipation, porn sites and others that include adult content are preparing to make their sites compliant -- or taking them offline. Today, several sites in the Rotten.com family are going dark for that reason, including ratemyboner.com (like amihotornot for amateur snapshots of a particular male anatomical part in a particular state) and gapingmaw.com (which you could call an industrial-strength grossout blog).
Section 2257 is ostensibly aimed at preventing the exploitation of minors in pornography. However, some free speech advocates argue it provides the conservative Bush administration with the power to silence other websites deemed offensive. Here's the full text of the law: Link to U.S. Code : Title 18 : Section 2257.
It's my understanding that before these ammendments the producers of the sexual content had to provide documentation, not the people hosting the content.
I really have nothing more to add.