(a) Terms used in this part shall have the meanings set forth in 18 U.S.C. 2257, and as provided in this section. The terms used and defined in these regulations are intended to provide common-language guidance and usage and are not meant to exclude technologies or uses of these terms as otherwise employed in practice or defined in other regulations or federal statutes (i.e., 47 U.S.C. 230, 231).

(b) Picture identification card means a document issued by the United States, a State government, or a political subdivision thereof, or a United States territory, that bears the photograph, the name of the individual identified, and the date of birth of that individual, and provides specific information sufficient for the issuing authority to confirm its validity, such as a passport, Permanent Resident Card (commonly known as a “Green Card”), or employment authorization document issued by the United States, a driver's license or other form of identification issued by a State or the District of Columbia; or a foreign government-issued equivalent of any of the documents listed above when the person who is the subject of the picture identification card is a non-U.S. citizen located outside the United States at the time of original production and the producer maintaining the required records, whether a U.S. citizen or non-U.S. citizen, is located outside the United States on the original production date. The picture identification card must be valid as of the original production date.

(c) Producer means any person, including any individual, corporation, or other organization, who is a primary producer or a secondary producer.

(1) Primary producer is any person who actually films, videotapes, photographs, or creates a digitally- or computer-manipulated image, a digital image, or a picture of, or who digitizes an image of, a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct. When a corporation or other organization is the primary producer of any particular image or picture, then no individual employee or agent of that corporation or other organization will be considered to be a primary producer of that image or picture.

(2) Secondary producer is any person who produces, assembles, manufactures, publishes, duplicates, reproduces, or reissues a book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, or digitally- or computer-manipulated image, picture, or other matter intended for commercial distribution that contains a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct, or who inserts on a computer site or service a digital image of, or otherwise manages the sexually explicit content of a computer site or service that contains a visual depiction of, an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct, including any person who enters into a contract, agreement, or conspiracy to do any of the foregoing. When a corporation or other organization is the secondary producer of any particular image or picture, then no individual of that corporation or other organization will be considered to be the secondary producer of that image or picture.

(3) The same person may be both a primary and a secondary producer.

(4) Producer does not include persons whose activities relating to the visual depiction of actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct are limited to the following:

(i) Photo or film processing, including digitization of previously existing visual depictions, as part of a commercial enterprise, with no other commercial interest in the sexually explicit material, printing, and video duplication;

(ii) Distribution;

(iii) Any activity, other than those activities identified in paragraphs (c)(1) and (2) of this section, that does not involve the hiring, contracting for, managing, or otherwise arranging for the participation of the depicted performers;

(iv) The provision of a telecommunications service, or of an Internet access service of Internet information location tool (as those terms are defined in section 231 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 231));

(v) The transmission, storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation (or any combination thereof) of a communication, without selection or alteration of the content of the communication, except that deletion of a particular communication or material made by another person in a manner consistent with section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)) shall not constitute such selection or alteration of the content of the communication; or

(vi) Unless the activity or activities are described in section 2257(h)(2)(A), the dissemination of a depiction without having created it or altered its content.

(d) Sell, distribute, redistribute, and re-release refer to commercial distribution of a book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape, digitally- or computer-manipulated image, digital image, picture, or other matter that contains a visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct, but does not refer to noncommercial or educational distribution of such matter, including transfers conducted by bona fide lending libraries, museums, schools, or educational organizations.

(e) Copy, when used:

(1) In reference to an identification document or a picture identification card, means a photocopy, photograph, or digitally scanned reproduction;

(2) In reference to a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct, means a duplicate of the depiction itself (e.g., the film, the image on a Web site, the image taken by a webcam, the photo in a magazine); and

(3) In reference to an image on a webpage for purposes of §§75.6(a), 75.7(a), and 75.7(b), means every page of a Web site on which the image appears.

(f) Internet means collectively the myriad of computer and telecommunications facilities, including equipment and operating software, which constitute the interconnected world-wide network of networks that employ the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, or any predecessor or successor protocols to such protocol, to communicate information of all kinds by wire or radio.

(g) Computer site or service means a computer server-based file repository or file distribution service that is accessible over the Internet, World Wide Web, Usenet, or any other interactive computer service (as defined in 47 U.S.C. 230(f)(2)). Computer site or service includes without limitation, sites or services using hypertext markup language, hypertext transfer protocol, file transfer protocol, electronic mail transmission protocols, similar data transmission protocols, or any successor protocols, including but not limited to computer sites or services on the World Wide Web.

(h) URL means uniform resource locator.

(i) Electronic communications service has the meaning set forth in 18 U.S.C. 2510(15).

(j) Remote computing service has the meaning set forth in 18 U.S.C. 2711(2).

(k) Manage content means to make editorial or managerial decisions concerning the sexually explicit content of a computer site or service, but does not mean those who manage solely advertising, compliance with copyright law, or other forms of non-sexually explicit content.

(l) Interactive computer service has the meaning set forth in 47 U.S.C. 230(f)(2).

(m) Date of original production or original production date means the date the primary producer actually filmed, videotaped, or photographed, or created a digitally- or computer-manipulated image or picture of, the visual depiction of an actual human being engaged in actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct. For productions that occur over more than one date, it means the single date that was the first of those dates. For a performer who was not 18 as of this date, the date of original production is the date that such a performer was first actually filmed, videotaped, photographed, or otherwise depicted. With respect to matter that is a secondarily produced compilation of individual, primarily produced depictions, the date of original production of the matter is the earliest date after July 3, 1995, on which any individual depiction in that compilation was produced. For a performer in one of the individual depictions contained in that compilation who was not 18 as of this date, the date of original production is the date that the performer was first actually filmed, videotaped, photographed, or otherwise depicted for the individual depiction at issue.

(n) Sexually explicit conduct has the meaning set forth in 18 U.S.C. 2256(2)(A).

(o) Simulated sexually explicit conduct means conduct engaged in by performers that is depicted in a manner that would cause a reasonable viewer to believe that the performers engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct, even if they did not in fact do so. It does not mean not sexually explicit conduct that is merely suggested.

(p) Regularly and in the normal course of business collects and maintains means any business practice(s) that ensure that the producer confirms the identity and age of all employees who perform in visual depictions.

(q) Individually identifiable information means information about the name, address, and date of birth of employees that is capable of being retrieved on the basis of a name of an employee who appears in a specified visual depiction.

(r) All performers, including minor performers means all performers who appear in any visual depiction, no matter for how short a period of time.

(s) Employed by means, in reference to a performer, one who receives pay for performing in a visual depiction or is otherwise in an employer-employee relationship with the producer of the visual depiction as evidenced by oral or written agreements.

[Order No. 2765-2005, 70 FR 29619, May 24, 2005, as amended at 73 FR 77468, Dec. 18, 2008]