I posted this in another thread...but it seems to apply here too.
Lawrence Walters from Weston, Garrou & DeWitt published an article quite a while ago on how Vulnerable the "Gate Keepers" of our industry are to Government pressure.
He lists the billing processors, AVS's, hosts, ISPs and merchant banks as gatekeepers. It looks like he can now add registars to that list.
"While the adult Internet industry was bracing for an onslaught of obscenity prosecutions against adult Websites, government officials were one step ahead, and plotting actions against the industry's Gatekeepers: the billing processors, AVS's, hosts, ISPs and merchant banks. The conversations taking place in the prosecutors' conference rooms have not focused on whether fisting or double penetration is obscene, they have honed in on choking the industry's Gatekeepers. Law enforcement departments have a budget too: they try to get as much bang for their buck as the average webmaster. "How can we shut down a thousand webmasters for the price of one prosecution?" they may be asking. It didn't take them long to figure out that access to adult Websites is critically dependent on the permission and continued services of a Website's: (1) hosting company; (2) third party billing processor (now called ISPS); (3) Age Verification Service (AVS); and/or, (4) merchant bank."
the full article can be found at
http://www.firstamendment.com/chokeh...tekeepers.php3