Commentary

Free Porn

By Amber Plaunty

As it has been for most every medium, pornography could be found on the World Wide Web since its inception. Despite objections from a variety of groups, supporters of online freedom have fought numerous battles to protect pornography from censorship.

Free speech was the central argument made by the American Civil Liberties Union against U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the 1997 Communications Decency act, which sought to regulate the content of files shared over the internet. While the First Amendment to the Constitution provides for the most obvious defense of online pornography, there is another force at work to preserve this prurient liberty: free enterprise.

Individuals and/or organizations try to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people's needs and wants - this is the key principle of business. This industry isn't exactly hurtin for money; as a whole, it has been fabulously successful. Playboy Enterprises alone reported average quarter sales in 1999 of $74 million. Seth Warshavsky built an empire and is now worth billions; a veritable Bill Gates of internet pornography.

Pornography is a legal business, and the rules governing businesses worldwide protect it as well. The government should not regulate Internet pornography any more than it already does, because it would infringe on its rights as a profit-driven business.

In a free-enterprise system, companies that can efficiently manufacture and sell products that consumers desire will probably succeed. Similarly, if a business cannot sell its products efficiently, it will most likely fail. There is obviously a market for pornography and plenty of industries to supply the market with needed products; however, by attempting to ban internet pornography, the government further limits the channels through which pornographers can conduct business. It crushes the rights of the pornography business to exist.

There are many different basic business rights which must exist for free enterprise to work:

1) Individuals and businesses must have the right to earn profits. All business is based on exchange - the idea that one thing (money, credit, labor, goods) is worth giving up in return for something else (a good, service, or idea). Pornography is a business based on the exchange of products - for example, a Hustler Magazine or a lap dance at a topless bar, for (usually) money. By restricting pornography from the internet, the government limits profits the business can make. The company can no longer sell its products online, nor advertise its products for purchase at a government-approved location.

2) Individuals and businesses must have the right to make decisions that determine the way the business operates - the government is to permit maximum freedom within a set of fair rules. The government decides the warnings and precautionary process users must go through in order to purchase pornographic material. Any further regulation violates a corporation's right to make decisions in the way they conduct business.

3) Businesses must have the right to choose where to locate, what goods and services to produce, what resources to use in the production process, and so on. Pornography is already regulated to the point where it cannot be advertised, promoted or sold in many places - only specific stores and the Internet carry pornographic material. Eliminating the Internet as a channel for distribution in effect, puts pornography out of business by not allowing it to be effective in serving consumers.

Other businesses have been able to succeed despite regulation. Cigarettes and chewing tobacco companies cannot advertise on television but can advertise in magazines. It can be sold just about anywhere, but pornography does not have that option; its regulation is stricter than almost any other industry. Yet why should the rules be any harsher on it than on other businesses, just because some find it offensive? The art world can offend many too - or is that considered close enough to pornography?

In 1962, John F. Kennedy outlined a consumer bill of rights. Included in this bill was the right to choose, which ensures that consumers have access to a variety of products and services at competitive prices. How much access do consumers have to pornography? Selective stores or rental shops - banned in many cities - and the Internet. Taking away the internet leaves a very small amount of access for consumers, certainly not enough to reach a variety of pornographic material and services at competitive prices.

A business is considered stagnant if it does not continuously grow in profit. Corporations are expected to meet - and exceed - forecasts year after year. Take for example, the Davidson Hotel Company. In 1999, the Eugene Hilton and Conference Center obtained a contract to host a week long seminar for the Intel Corporation, resulting in a one million dollar transaction. Unfortunately, Intel does not need Davidson's services in the year 2000, therefore leaving the Eugene Hilton with an additional $1,000,000 it has to make in order to meet the previous year's gross profits. Whether by stirring up new business, or cutting back costs, the Eugene Hilton must make this budget or Davidson will shut down that branch of its corporation. With the circulation opportunities offered by the internet, industries - such as that of pornography - are able to make vast quantities of money through it. To suddenly have those opportunities whisked away would cut profits drastically, hence causing more than just stagnancy, but quite possibly the failure of that particular business.

Marketing is a vital part of any business venture. A basic philosophy that guides all marketing activities is the marketing concept, the coordinated activities and process an organization goes through to try to satisfy customer' needs and also allows it to achieve its own goals. Many more marketers will be jumping on the cyberspace band wagon to cash in on the potential. Success will depend on whether or not they can provide what online shoppers are increasingly demanding If online shoppers are demanding pornography, businesses should be allowed to provide it. Marketing creates utility, which refers to a product's ability to satisfy human needs and wants. The Internet provides the best place utility by making the product available where the buyer wishes to buy it - in the privacy of one's own home. Internet service provides the best time utility by making the product available whenever the buyer wishes to buy it-noon or midnight. And the Internet provides the best ownership utility by transferring ownership of the product to the buyer quickly, efficiently, and anonymously. No other channel of distribution can create that kind of utility for the pornography business.

There are a number of reasons to prohibit the government from censoring the Internet, but business laws holds the strongest and most persuasive argument for doing so. It's not enough to say "Well, we don't like the government telling us what we can or cannot have access to" or "It's the parents' responsibility to guard their children from what they don't want them to see." Solid evidence, like the fact that pornography is a thriving business, protected by business laws. And this business in particular has as much rights to satisfy consumers needs with a pornographic product as an individual has the right to purchase it.

Amber Plaunty, a sophomore majoring in Journalism, is a staff writer for the Oregon Commentator