As the battle in the courts and Congress over online music and movie piracy intensifies, both sides are fleshing out their cases by turning to pornography.
The music and movie companies warn that file-sharing sites are rife with graphic pornography that insinuates itself into users' computers. Civil libertarians and Internet service providers argue that music companies' anti-piracy tactics open the door for pornographers and others in the seamy online underbelly to invade Internet users' privacy.
The two camps are playing the porn card in attempts to sway the public as policymakers grapple with the dilemmas posed by powerful and unsettling new digital technologies.
Trade associations for the record companies and Hollywood have prodded lawmakers to view file-sharing networks such as Kazaa as hotbeds of sexually explicit images and video. Members of Congress have held at least two hearings and introduced a bill to require parental approval before minors could install file-sharing software.
Meanwhile, Internet service providers and civil liberties groups have argued that a record industry strategy -- using subpoenas to force ISPs to identify customers accused of file-sharing piracy -- could enable pornographers, stalkers and other shady characters to obtain the names and addresses of Internet users.
Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Assn. of America, called such objections speculative "straw men." By contrast, Lamy said, "concerns about piracy, security or unwanted pornography on peer-to-peer networks are well documented."
Last week, one adult-entertainment company may have given the RIAA's opponents ammunition in their fight against the subpoenas. San Francisco-based IO Group Inc., which sells gay male adult videos under the name Titan Media, sent Pacific Bell Internet Services a pair of subpoenas seeking the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of at least 59 customers accused of infringing its copyrights on file-sharing networks.
When Pac Bell objected to the requests, Titan withdrew the subpoenas. Nevertheless, Pac Bell sued Titan in federal court July 30, asking for an order declaring that such subpoenas were improper.
The same lawsuit also sought to block about 140 subpoenas from the RIAA that sought the identities of people accused of infringing music copyrights on file-sharing networks.
