Subject: Marty Rimm's INFOBAHN Shopping

From: "Declan B. McCullagh" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 09:49:24 -0400 (EDT)

The attached email is courtesy of Mike. INFOBAHN's Berch told me that he
blew Marty off and forgot about him until the TIME cover: "I did write
hime back for more info, but he seemed sort of reticent about details
and I took him for a misguided academic who thought INFOBAHN was a
journal or something, and just filed his messages in my 'closed'
proposals/submissions file."

Note that Marty anticipated "considerable interest" in his study
*before* CMU's Usenet censorship brought him publicity by way of AP and
TIME articles. He also seems a bit unclear about what INFOBAHN is.

-Declan

---

 From [email-masked] Mon Oct 17 17:24:15 1994
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           Mon, 17 Oct 1994 20:15:31 -0400 (EDT)
 Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
 Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 20:15:31 -0400 (EDT)
 From: Martin Rimm <[email-masked]>
 To: [email-masked]
 Subject: Info Superhighway Porn
 Status: OR
 
 Michael,
 
 I am part of a research team at Carnegie Mellon University. We have
 undertaken a large, systematic study of pornography on the Information
 Superhighway. While we anticipate considerable interest, we are yet to
 settle upon a publication outlet. Our paper will be complete in two
 weeks and we would like to know if you are interested. Attached is an
 overview.
 
 Martin Rimm
 Carnegie Mellon University
 
 ......................................................................  
 
    As Americans become increasingly computer literate, they are
 discovering an unusual and exploding repertoire of sexual imagery on the
 Usenet portion of the Internet and on "adult" computer bulletin board
 services (BBS). Every time they log on, their transactions assist
 pornographers in compiling databases of information about their buying
 habits and sexual tastes. The more sophisticated pornographers are using
 these databases to develop mathematical models to determine which images
 they should try to market aggressively. They are paying close attention
 to all forms of paraphilia, including pedophile, bestiality, and
 urophilic images, believing these markets to be among the most
 lucrative. They are using the Usenet to advertise their products, and
 maintaining detailed records of which images are downloaded most
 frequently. 
           Modem technology also enables researchers to use computers to
 acquire vast amounts of information about pornography on a scale
 hundreds of
 times larger than previously established methods. Because BBS
 pornographers rely primarily upon verbal descriptions to market their
 images, researchers can develop computer programs that classify these
 descriptions according to category (e.g. oral, anal, vaginal, lesbian,
 etc.). The descriptions may be sorted by frequency of downloads, size,
 and the date on which each image was first posted onto the bulletin
 boards. What is even more useful, the data can be easily reanalyzed
 under many different sets of definitions and assumptions. This
 multidimensional characteristic of digital pornography enables
 researchers to provide unbiased information to most, if not all,
 factions involved in the heated public policy debate. 
         The research team at Carnegie Mellon University has undertaken
 the first systematic study of pornography on the Information
 Superhighway. The study is also the first to track detailed purchasing
 habits of consumers of sexually explicit materials. All prior studies
 have assumed that those surveyed about their sexual tastes would offer
 honest replies, while this study focuses entirely upon what people
 consume, not what they say they consume. This proved especially
 important when analyzing such taboo imagery as incest, bestiality,
 coprophilia, and urophilia. 
         All available images from five popular Usenet boards were downloaded
 over a six month period. In addition, descriptive listings were obtained
 from 68 BBS located in 32 states. These lists described 450,620
 pornographic images, animations, and text files which had been
 downloaded 6,432,297 times; (approximately) 75,000 for which only
 partial download information was available; and another 391,790 for
 which no download information was available. Finally, approximately
 10,000 actual images were randomly downloaded or obtained via the Usenet
 or CD-ROM. These were used to verify the accuracy of the written
 descriptions provided in the listings. 
         This interim report analyzes only the 450,620 images and descriptions
 for which complete download information was available. A brief survey of
 the remaining images and descriptions suggests no substantive
 differences between the two datasets. At least 36% of the images studied
 were identified as having been distributed by two or more "adult" BBS.
 These "duplicates" enable researchers to compare how similar imagery is
 consumed in different regions of the country. 
         Parts IIa and IIb of the study outline the methods used to obtain and
 analyze the data. Two important aspects of reliability and validity were
 carefully considered: 1) How well do the verbal descriptions correspond
 to the categories? and 2) How well do the verbal descriptions correspond
 to the actual images? Part IIIa addresses three issues concerning
 pornography and obscenity on the Usenet: 1) the origins of such imagery;
 2) the percentage of all images available on the Usenet that are
 pornographic; 3) the popularity of pornographic boards in comparison to
 non-pornographic boards. Part IIIb comprises the major portion of this
 report. It examines 1) the image portfolio and marketing strategies of
 the Amateur Action BBS; 2) the concentration of market leaders among
 "adult" BBS; 3) the availability and demand of hard-core, soft-core,
 paraphilic and pedophile imagery; 4) market forces common to all "adult"
 BBS. Part IVa offers a summary of the significant findings of this
 report; Part IVb offers suggestions for further research. Part V
 presents a more informal discussion of the data, including a) the appeal
 of digital pornography; b) the relationship between images and words; c)
 the importance of descriptive lists. Appendix A lists the categories of
 imagery according to the Dietz-Sears, DSM-IV, and Carnegie Mellon
 models. Appendix B offers the reader an indication of the power of the
 linguistic parsing software developed for this report. Appendix C
 provides graphs of the statistics discussed. 
         It is assumed that the reader has a basic understanding of the Usenet
 and BBS. Only the technical aspects of BBS which relate to pornography
 will be explained in detail. 

 >From [email-masked] Mon Oct 17 17:26:31 1994
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           Mon, 17 Oct 1994 20:26:09 -0400 (EDT)
 Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
 Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 20:26:09 -0400 (EDT)
 From: Martin Rimm <[email-masked]>
 To: [email-masked]
 Subject: confirmation request
 Status: OR
 
 Our server indicated it did not recognize your address. Please confirm
 receipt of our Info Superhighway / Porn proposal.
 
 Thank you,
 
 Martin Rimm
 Carnegie Mellon University
 
 >From mcb Mon Oct 24 17:55:02 1994
 From: [email-masked] (Michael C. Berch)
 Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 17:55:03 PDT
 In-Reply-To: <[email-masked]>
 X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.5 10/14/92)
 To: Martin Rimm <[email-masked]>
 Subject: Re: confirmation request
 Bcc: [email-masked]
 Status: OR
 
 > I haven't heard from you regarding our Internet-Porn overview. Please be
 > in touch.
 
 Thanks for the followup.  We are still putting together plans for the
 first issue of INFOBAHN, and getting through the backlog of queries
 and submissions from the original announcement in September.  I guess
 part of Internet and e-mail culture is that people tend to expect
 responses much more quickly than with paper mail, but we are a print
 magazine with typically-long editorial advance time, so queries will
 still take a few weeks to be dealt with, and manuscripts undoubtedly
 longer.
 
 I am not quite sure how INFOBAHN could use the material on your
 Internet Pornography study.  First of all, we are a consumer magazine,
 not a journal, and therefore could not formally publish the study in
 the customary academic manner (it would undoubtedly be way too long
 for that in any case).  And running an overview and pointer to it (one
 assumes it will be online somewhere, yes?) does not meet our editorial
 goals.  The most interesting thing I can think of would be to put
 together a story on the study itself, and the people and research
 effort behind it, what difficulties (practical and political) you
 encountered, etc.  This would typically be accomplished by an
 interview, photographs and some graphics, a few exceprts from the
 study, and so forth. 
 
 We are planning a feature on the Thomas (Amateur Action BBS) case but
 it may not be ready for the first issue, and this would be an obvious
 companion.  
 
 In any case, if this is of interest let me know, as well as what your
 formal publication schedule is, and I will see if we can assign a
 writer and photographer.  
 
 Best regards,
 --
 Michael C. Berch
 Editor, INFOBAHN
 Postmodern Communications, Inc.
 [email-masked] / [email-masked]
 
 P.S. Thanks for the reference to Prof. Sirbu.  I didn't get a chance
 to meet him personally, but I attended his talk on the NetBill project.

 >From [email-masked] Mon Oct 24 18:02:47 1994
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           Mon, 24 Oct 1994 21:04:57 -0400 (EDT)
 Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
 Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 21:04:57 -0400 (EDT)
 From: Martin Rimm <[email-masked]>
 To: [email-masked] (Michael C. Berch)
 Subject: Re: confirmation request
 Cc: 
 In-Reply-To: <[email-masked]>
 Status: OR
 
 Excerpts from mail: 24-Oct-94 Re: confirmation request by Michael C.
 Berch@netcom. 
 > We are planning a feature on the Thomas (Amateur Action BBS) case but
 > it may not be ready for the first issue, and this would be an obvious
 > companion.  
 
 We have included an extensive statistical analysis of the Amateur Action
 BBS and your writer may wish to consult with our study before completing
 the article. As soon as we have formal publication plans finalized,
 we'll let you know.
 
 Martin Rimm