After more than a month working with Compliance, I have fresh insight into the most recent regulations. I've been submitting various scenes for them to review, and they are giving most of them the OK. We will be allowed to host bondage, ball gags, mummification, pit scenes, stocks, and all that kind of stuff because their main concern is that the model doesn't seem to be trying to get free, or actually struggling, or saying stop or something like that (even if they're just acting). As long as it's all 100% consenting participants, we will be able to start hosting some of the things that I was erring on the side of caution on.

I've been working on a revised TOS to reflect our new understanding of the biller's rules which should be published within the next week or two. Meanwhile, some scenes that would have been rejected will be now allowed, and some older disallowed scenes will start to resurface and possibly be re-promoted.

To the mods: You can flag it but please don't remove anything related to the UMD store or video content for a while. There will be a period of confusion for a while and I want to make sure we're all on the same page.

Peace!
[Edit: Just today, June 4, Epoch themselves have sent out an email letting us know they've just finished talking with Visa and Mastercard and getting a more clear understanding of the rules themselves! I guess we all out here winging it. There are several other compliance and reporting rules that I'll have to adjust to, but nothing for anyone to worry about]

Although it's not my thing, appreciate what you and the team do to keep us all safe

Not sure using hot irons on models will be allowed, even if it does remove creases...

This is great news, thanks for the clarification MM. Crazy that we still have to fight this living in a 'free' society.

BADUMP*TSH

Good point about the good fight! But running a biz is separate from being a free citizen or having free speech, as it has different responsibilities. We can't just do whatever we damn well please because our billers have rules. But they only have those rules because THEIR banks and providers have rules, and those banks and providers only have rules because THEY don't want to get sued or shut down! Nobody upstream seems to really care what they are ultimately billing for, whether it's porn or lawn fertilizer, but we are all navigating ever-changing laws and cultural sentiments trying to stay alive.

I don't think many people notice, but we remove rules almost as often as we add new ones. This is a good example.

This could seem very coincidental considering a recent conversation in the forums about this very type of video production.

Thanks for your work!

There is always a lot going on, and yes it's all interconnected. I could write a novel based on what's been going on the past few weeks. If you have questions, go ahead and ask them

Epoch: So, we're clear on this. We can provide services for people interested in BDSM content?
Visa: Yes.
Epoch: Bondage? Gags? Punishments?
Visa: On a submissive, yes.
Epoch: Cool. Wait, why did you specify submissives?
Visa: Because, and let us be very clear, we believe that brats, and the taming of such, are completely immoral. Full submissive only.
Epoch: That's weird.
Visa: YOUR PAYMASTERS HAVE SPOKEN, WORM!

I'm glad this is pinned for now. Sometimes the TOS change rapidly, so when there are arguments about this and that and folks say, "Well, there was a whole discussion about this 3-4 years ago and we hashed it all out," well, it's just hard to keep track.

Interesting times indeed

Glad to hear that. I'm a big fan of bondage with WAM.

Now you have a rough idea on what it's like to be female in America sometimes. For all the good steps forward, there's some pretty major steps backwards happening now.