SUNKAT is a company at the forefront of the fetish, kink and femme-domme scene, specialising in providing services to help creators find customers.
We like to think we're a little different! Instead of using every sneaky trick to make money from everyone and everything, we prefer to give you control over your privacy and personal data. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, we have a set of best-of-breed services - use them all, or just the ones you need - your choice!
And we're here for our creators too - whether you need a hand setting up the perfect web site, are looking to build a following or sell clips (and other things!), our team are dedicated to supporting you and helping you maximise your income
Since the beginning, we have been unafraid to put our heads above the parapets and fight for our customers. With our expanse of experience and knowledge, we have the ability and bravery to ensure each and every customer, client, and creator is protected from all angles. This strength of character developed from our involvement and fight with ATVOD, the self-proclaimed ‘video-on-demand’ regulators.
Those of you with longer memories might remember ATVOD, but for those who don’t, here’s a bit of history for you… ATVOD was initially set up with a simple purpose: to regulate video-on-demand and “on-demand program services” which had, until that point, been unregulated, alongside the more-established OfCom. For a while, ATVOD completed this task acceptably; policing VOD (“Video On Demand”) services that were like TV channels and provided “programmes”… But before long they started thinking of the children, largely due to their Chief Executive, Peter Johnson’s, interesting interpretation of the law. The other problem with ATVOD was the fees they charged websites they deemed under their regulatory sphere, which inevitably led to accusations of self-interest on ATVOD’s part as it was in their own best financial interest to decide that something was a regulatable service. These things combined resulted in a situation where individual content producers were being targeted directly by ATVOD, whether on their own websites or via their accounts on services such as Clips4Sale.
By this time, a number of groups had taken an interest in ATVOD, thinking of ways to support content producers and help shelter them from the increasing risk of this ‘regulator’. It became quickly obvious that incumbent players like Clips4Sale weren’t going to help – the famous “Section 203” law from the US introduced a distinction between “platforms” and “publishers”, and they were all making very sure to be on the “platform” side so as to avoid scrutiny and leaving their individual creators to be categorised as “publishers”… Directly in ATVOD’s firing line! Unhappy with this state of events, we decided to look in some detail at the situation and discovered that ATVOD’s powers massively relied on the definition and interpretation of “On-Demand Programme Services”.
During this research, we discovered that alongside the common-sense definition, there were a couple of quirks involved in defining what qualified as “on-demand programme services”. Most importantly, we found that in order to qualify under this definition, it had to be shown that:
These two aspects caught our attention, because by taking “editorial responsibility” away from individual creators, we became the publisher. And yes, we realised that put us firmly into ATVOD’s sights. We literally offered to stand between our content producers and ATVOD, taking the bullet if that’s how it went.
Of course, we didn’t decide to do that without a bit of a plan…
Put simply, our plan was to use their own definition of “On-Demand Programme Services” against them.
Look again at the definitions we highlighted above… that the services needed to be “comparable to the form and content of programmes normally included in television programme services”…
So, we looked into what people were selling on other clip sites and found… clips.
It might sound obvious, but a simple “clip” is unlikely to stand alone as a TV programme. To put it another way, we contended that the “form” of “programmes” we were producing was different to what was required under this definition and therefore outside of the realms of ATVOD.
And, of course, we doubt there’s a TV channel (in the UK at least) that specialises in BDSM, kink, and fetish content!
With this information, we devised a plan to tell ATVOD that our service (and of course, your, our creators’, services!) did not, in fact, form a regulatable service under their own definition.
We’ll skip the hours of tedious legal research, but we weren’t the only ones to figure this out. Actually, ATVOD’s worst enemy in this whole situation was the OfCom appeals process and the very public nature of their findings… They were literally forced by law to publish all the information we needed! And we will be forever grateful to those footsteps in which we were able to tread.
Well, the result is Clips Fatale and Sunkat Limited as you see it today!
And ATVOD? Well, they came calling of course!
In April 2015, ATVOD wrote to us, claiming we were an ODPS and therefore subject to their regulation. Funny thing though… In order to make this determination they had to give us money, so we were already ahead of the game!
For those of you paying attention, that’s right, ATVOD brought porn from us!
We replied to their letter, laying out the broad strokes of our argument. Although we, like everyone else who received an ATVOD letter, were tempted to respond with some less-than-polite words, we restrained ourselves and replied in a formal, business-like tone… Although we couldn’t quite resist goading them gently by informing them of our intentions to appeal when they inevitably got their decision wrong.
Again, we are indebted to those who came before us for the use of their documents and experiences. Because of these soldiers, we were prepared for the follow-up letter from ATVOD clarifying their point of view (and extending their 2-week deadline for a response – a feat nobody else had managed to pull off!), and we could refer to the full documentation of previous cases when preparing our response.
ATVOD, as expected, declared us an ODPS and we immediately registered our notice to appeal the decision.
It was while we were working on our appeal that we got a surprise gift… from none other than OfCom themselves! – Notice that following a review of ATVOD they had decided to disband the organisation, putting the redoubtable Mr. Johnson out of a job, and leaving us with nothing to defend!
We would like to think that we had a hand in the decision to disband ATVOD, but in all honesty we believe that they had dropped the ball so many times that OfCom had simply had enough.
While OfCom did continue to implement the same regulations as ATVOD until the turn of 2016, the regulator fees were immediately dropped and, in the new year, they quietly dumped the rest of the existing framework.
Naturally, the UK government didn’t stop with simply disbanding ATVOD. Instead, they hatched a mad plan to require all sites carrying adult content to implement age checking, whether they were UK-based or not.
Thankfully, and as we all now know, they finally realised that this plan was a bad idea for an exceptionally long list of reasons.
Don’t get us wrong, we salute the aims of these government schemes, but a sledgehammer approach is all wrong and, until they manage to work it out and keep content providers safe from those who might exploit them, we will remain on the front line… Protecting our partners, content producers, and customers to ensure everyone is able to stay safe, secure, and free from threats of legal action simply for choosing a lifestyle.
While we are confident that this will not be the last time that the government or legislators try to act against our industry, we can guarantee that we will always be at the forefront of any action… Defending and supporting customers in every way possible.
And we will always be happy to share our knowledge and experience to advise and assist our users come what may.
The fact that we're a publisher, not a platform which means you can upload your clips in complete confidence that if there's a change in the law (and you know there will be...), we deal with it, not you.
Other platforms will simply say "Oh yes, its your problem" and promptly forward all the legal threats to you. If there's a real problem, we'll let you know. But when we contact you, we'll give you a list of what we've already done, and an idea of what we're planning next.
Simple really. We don't expect you to be a legal expert, nor do we imagine you have a vast array of expensive lawyers at your beck and call. But that's OK - we have those resource and we'll deploy them in an instant to make sure you don't have to.
