The real problem with the discussion is that WE DON’T KNOW what the US authorities interpretation of the recently passed bill will be. Reading the conent of the bill is hard work – but it does not appear to specifically deal with internet affilaites in a coherent way.
However, we have seen over the last 3 months that the DoJ, and federal authorities have a pretty inflated idea of their ability to prosecute people under the exisiting laws … and this bill will simply beef up their views.
The issue that I see being discussed here is the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) over potentially being arrested, and charged and prosecuted for something as lightweight as running an affiliate website.
It’s not a crime overseas, and it MAY NOT be a crime in the US either (we cannot be sure), but if a US affiliate had to go through that experience then it would be a major negative event in their life. And EVEN if they did avoid prosecution there would be major expenses incurred.
SUMMARY :
I don’t think that ANYONE here can say it’s 100% legal or illegal to be a US based affiliate right now – the bill is (deliberately?) vague.