Both Sides Add Porn to Debate Over File Sharing

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.

Titan General Counsel Gill Sperlein said he was simply trying to do what the record companies have been doing: defending works against file-sharing piracy.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in Washington ruled this year that the RIAA could use the subpoena provision of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act to force Internet providers to identify customers who allegedly shared copyrighted music. While Verizon Communications Inc. appeals that ruling, Pac Bell is looking for a more favorable ruling from a federal judge in California.

Any ruling against the subpoenas would be a blow to the record companies’ drive to identify and sue file sharers who make large amounts of their music available for free copying online. The RIAA has issued more than 900 subpoenas in preparation for the first round of lawsuits, which are expected to be filed in September.

In Congress, lawmakers are considering a handful of bills that would crack down on file-sharing piracy and pornography. But as the RIAA piles up the subpoenas, some members of Congress are starting to question whether Internet users have enough protection.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, started an inquiry last week into the RIAA’s subpoenas. And the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to hold a hearing as early as next month on potential abuses of the subpoena process.

The Pac Bell lawsuit tries to demonstrate “the great potential for abuse with DMCA subpoena power,” said Joe Izbrand, a spokesman for Pac Bell parent SBC Communications Inc. “Part of our concern is surrendering private, confidential information without any judicial oversight or proof or any evidence.”

Lawyers for the RIAA have rejected such arguments, as did Judge Bates, who ruled that the law provided enough safeguards against abusive use of subpoenas. Pac Bell’s lawsuit adds fuel to the music and movie companies’ contention that file-sharing networks give minors free access to pornography.

Said Lamy, “We think parents want to know what their children are doing online.”