Why Did Congress Enact the Section 2257 Amendments?
Fourteen years ago, In 1992, the United States Department of Justice promulgated Regulations to implement Section 2257 which included a class of persons called “secondary producers” who used explicit images but who had nothing to do with their creation. They were charged with the duty of maintain the same records as though they were a photographer, with the obligation to provide a disclosure statement, and the duty to make the records available for inspection. Certain constitutional objections to the statute and the Regulations were rejected by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in ALA v. Reno in 1995 and the Regulations went into effect shortly afterwards. Eight years ago in Denver, the United Stated Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, in Sundance Associates v. Reno, determined that the “secondary producer” obligations imposed by DOJ’s Regulations went further than Congress had authorized and that the record-keeping obligation had been imposed
