Expert: Dan Pepper - 4/17/2008

Question
i want to start my own porn-site, i want to shoot my own material hire some talent, shoot and post it on my website. I was wondering if i need to have a special license? if so what's the cost? and what about the record keeping law, what are the proper steps or who to hire? How can i get a distributor for my shoots. i have a lot more questions but i'll just ask these for now. Thank you for your help.

Answer
There are no licenses required to launch an adult website, however I would STRONGLY recommend you form a business entity which protects you from personal liability against debts and liabilities generated by the business.  The cost to form a business entity varies by state, but it's generally a couple of hundred bucks.  You would be wise to get legal assistance on choosing the right type and state of formation, however.

The federal recordkeeping laws are very burdensome and complex.  The laws and regulations require you to receive and maintain government-issued identification records from your talent that show they are over 18 at the time of production.  The regulations also have very specific requirements on how and where you have to maintain the identification requirements, including cross-referencing them to the content you've produced.  You also need to affix labels and notices to your content identifying who the custodian of these records is, and where the records are located.

In short, I do NOT suggest you go about this yourself without getting legal advice.  When I do this work for my clients, we go through the business formation, talent agreements, website terms and conditions, and recordkeeping requirements step by step to ensure everything is legal.