Oh Dear

Questions about the Video iPod...

Uncertainty surrounding the level of demand for the product, the sources for compelling content, and its possible use to view pornography seems to leave more question marks than exclamation points...

Brian Milburn, president of Solid Oak Software in Santa Barbara, Calif., which sells software that filters out objectionable content on the Internet, says he's certain video iPods will quickly become a favorite tool to download and view pornography.

By Christmas, he predicts, the ability to download pornography "will be one of the main attractions for getting a video iPod.... These kind of technological advances can have a lot of unintended consequences...

Yes, we've certainly done the job of keeping porn off of computers. Now on to the iPod I guess. Since when has video technology *not* been driven by the porn industry? (I think there may be a lesson, or two, there.)

Of course I live in a fairly relaxed climate for such things. Here's a description of my fair city (link may not be safe for work)...

With more strip clubs per capita than anywhere else in the United States, Portland, Oregon had become known as a hot bed for erotic dancing. Add to that an extremely accepting public, a growing sex worker movement and a liberal constitution that protects the right to dance nude, and you will find a city where an oft-marginalized subculture has gained a degree of acceptance almost unknown anywhere else in North America.