Yup, everytime something comes up that is related to being an adult webmistress, I turn to the Guru of Gif, Andy Dunn, of Sexswap Trix for guidance and comfort. Check out my latest email to him, posted in his weekly newsletter:

Hello, Andy. I’m a little concerned about the implications of the New Paypal User Agreement. I’ve compared the new PayPal agreement to the old one, and a big flag for me is the word “obscene” on the new agreement. Since “obscenity” is such a subjective word, and what is considered “obscene” varies from state to state, the appearance of this word in the new Paypal agreement makes me feel a little bit uneasy.

My fears about this new development are based on ebay’s adult content history. I remember when ebay had the adult audiences category pretty openly, with only an age disclaimer. I also remember an email they sent me around the year 2000, when they said they were getting rid of adult auctions altogether, and that my account was being closed down. Then they changed their mind and re-opened the adult audiences category, with a more stringent age filter, and lots of (almost impossible) rules to comply with.

Get this, I knew I wasn’t supposed to have photographs that depict sexual acts, or even text that depict sexual acts on my ebay ads. Photos of boobs are okay, though… but you know mine still haven’t grown yet. So I posted an ad with a photo of me, fully dressed in a really short miniskirt and a t-shirt. Not allowed to write about what happens in the video, or post photo captures of the video itself, I had to express the content of the video somehow so that bidders know what they’re in for. So I put the letters “XXX” on the photo and my title said “hardcore.” No dice. They shut my auction down for the letters “XXX” and the word “hardcore.”

So you see my concern about this new Paypal user agreement. I’ve got really nasty videos on a Paypal shopping cart at MaysVideos.com – What is obscene? Is it based on my community standards or my customers’? Who decides what’s obscene? How is Paypal going to enforce this? I think this is a legitimate concern, and hopefully you and other webmasters can make me feel better about keeping Paypal. I really like Paypal, so I’d hate to lose it.

Andy writes: “I personally think this is an escape claus that PayPal wants to have to get out of trouble if they see fit. I think they want to straddle the fence and have porn, but if things get funny with the fed, they want to be able to axe the accounts and not get sued senseless. Time will tell where this all goes. It is shocking how it is 2003 and we still fear sex and nudity.”