IPOrnD

Search engine preps porn for video iPod

LONDON - It may not be quite what Steve Jobs had in mind, but an online search engine called Guba is set to offer vast amounts of pornography and other video files, specifically tailored for Apple’s new iPods.

Guba is a subscription-only search engine that culls video files from the Usenet newsgroups, a huge repository of online content — much of it adult, pirated, or both.

Beginning this month, Guba will convert video files from Usenet into the format used by the iPod, known as H.264. Apple CEO Steve Jobs launched the video-enabled iPod last month along with deals to sell downloadable music videos and TV shows.

Although Guba offers up a wide variety of video, from the satirical news program “The Daily Show” to Japanese animation, its “erotica” section is likely to be the biggest draw.

“We can kid ourselves, but in the end it’s probably porn that people want,” said Guba chief executive Thomas McInerney. He noted that the site offers a “safe mode” to filter out adult content.

Usenet predates the World Wide Web by more than a decade, and it has developed alongside more mainstream file-sharing networks like Kazaa and BitTorrent.

Guba specifically searches through Usenet’s multimedia content, which is not indexed by popular search engines such as Yahoo or Google. It also converts video into standard formats, and lets users stream small versions from its Web site.

At a time when movie studios are hyper-vigilant about online piracy, Guba’s easily accessible videos could raise hackles among Hollywood’s content owners.

Guba counters that it will strictly abide by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which requires search engines to take down any content upon request of the copyright holder. It has also blocked access to music files and videos longer than 70 minutes.

McInerney said Guba is blocking MP3 music files “because there has been so much litigation about music, and the RIAA (Recording Industry of America) has been so aggressive about it.” However, Guba does offer TV files, because “the TV guys seem to understand the Internet … they seem to be the next industry after music to go online,” McInerney said.

A search of Guba revealed a wide range of TV shows, including Disney’s “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives,” which are both sold online at Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

McInerney said that Guba, which charges $14.95 per month, is profitable and has about 15 employees.

“What we’d really like to do, and what we’ll need to do, is partner with a large content company,” he said. “They’re getting wise to the Internet, and they’re understanding that they can’t litigate it away.”

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Now, with new video capability on Apple Computer’s iPods, pornography may push the envelope of video content available on digital content players. Of course, this development presents some issues.

It is tough enough already for parents to monitor the Internet viewing habits of their children. Many parents have home computers located in a central place, such as the living room, so that they can be sure that their children are accessing only age-appropriate content.

However, the ability of parents to monitor is seriously undermined if their children quickly can download adult content onto their iPods and then take it away from the home for easy viewing elsewhere.

Employers often undertake vigorous efforts to monitor and ensure that only work-related and otherwise appropriate content is viewed by employees in the workplace. Many employers insist that the only computers accessible in the workplace are those that belong to the employers precisely so the employers can monitor for proper content viewing.

Yet, iPods are becoming so ubiquitous and are so small, they are an easy vehicle for bringing pornography into the workplace. Employees discreetly could try to view pornography away from the watch of others. By engaging in such behavior, they often could be distracted from their true work functions, and problematically, they might contribute to an inappropriate and potentially hostile work environment to the extent the iPod porn is seen by others.

So, what are we to do?

As video makes its way onto iPods, parents can and should let their children know that they periodically will check their kids’ iPods to see what video content has been downloaded. They also should check on filters that are being developed to prevent adult content from being downloaded onto iPods. Cybersitter, for example, reportedly is researching the process needed to filter pornography video content from iPods.

To the extent adult video content becomes a true iPod phenomenon, employers obviously should ban employees from viewing such content in the workplace. If that does not get the job done, employers should consider banning iPod video use in the workplace.

The Internet and handheld devices of various types bring all of us and all types of content closer together. Of course, this has many beneficial effects. Some may argue that viewing pornography on iPods is a positive development for interested adults. Without debating that issue, the truth remains that iPod porn must be dealt with at home and at the office.