New Visa rules for Internet porn billing
Visa has imposed new strictures and fees on third-party billing services used by Internet porn sites, which has many adult webmasters very angry. Companies like CCBill, Epoch and iBill are basically middlemen who handle the credit card billing and subscription processing for pay-site operators who don't have their own credit card merchant accounts. Some of the new guidelines are reasonable consumer protection policies in response to credit card abuse in the Internet porn industry. But many adult webmasters accuse Visa of gouging small businesses and abusing its near-monopoly position. Read Heather Corinna's outraged response at her online journal.
Visa's new rules could lead to a shakeout in the web porn industry. They won't affect the big pay-site operators with dozens of sites and millions per year in revenue. And they won't affect the webmasters who run free sites and make money by sending traffic to the big pay-site operators' affiliate programs. The new rules will mostly affect webmasters who run small pay-sites, which includes the more creative sites run by individuals and serving particular niches. Most of these sites aren't all that lucrative, and the new guidelines and fees may push some to close up shop, which would leave the Internet porn landscape blander and narrower.
