The Case of the Two Cybersex Studies
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The Case of the Two Cybersex Studies, (c) 1995
By Declan McCullagh
declanm@netcom.com
July 24, 1995
Dr. Michael Mehta's telephone rang.
"Hi, this is Marty Rimm calling from Carnegie Mellon
University. I'm the principal investigator of a study on pornography,
and I'm leading a 15-person interdisciplinary research team. I'd like
to take a look at the research you presented earlier this month."
Mehta, then a graduate student at York University in Ontario,
remembers answering the phone last fall. He never thought then that an
unexpected phone call from Marty Rimm would bring him to accuse the
former Carnegie Mellon student of stealing his ideas and his research
eight months later.
When he first talked to Rimm, he was flattered to be contacted
by what he thought was a senior professor at a prestigious university.
He tried to help the researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.
"Rimm asked for a copy of my paper that I presented at a
conference in November. He said Carnegie Mellon was publishing a book,
and he might include my paper as a chapter if I sent it to him," says
Mehta.
Mehta and Dwaine Plaza, also of York University, had studied
how adult BBS operators were marketing pornography on the information
superhighway. After the two researchers sent "everything they had" to
Rimm, they waited hopefully but never heard from him again.
"I feel like a total fool now," says Mehta. "I was under the
impression that Rimm was a tenured faculty member. He never corrected
me when I called him 'professor Rimm.'"
He didn't know about the controversy Rimm's paper had caused
until last week, when an associate at the University of Waterloo told
readers of a cyberlaw mailing list that Mehta and Plaza presented a
cybersmut paper at a conference last November. Then researchers and
reporters started calling Canada.
Mehta is "flabbergasted" by the publicity Rimm's paper has
generated "down south." His local papers haven't covered Rimm's study,
so he wasn't aware of the controversy its publication caused. Now a
post-doctoral fellow at Queen's University, he had given up hope of
publishing his paper and moved on to researching democratic rights and
public accountability for technology.
After learning that Rimm was an undergraduate, Mehta felt
silly at first. But after he read Brock Meeks' CyberWire Dispatches,
he became convinced of the "seriousness of this issue" and decided to
go public with his concerns.
Rimm reportedly has retained a lawyer and has declined to
comment.
"It's funny how a breakdown in trust between people who have
never met can happen over the wires," Mehta says. "I trusted Rimm, and
he stole some of our ideas, lied to me, and distorted facts beyond
belief."
Looking back, he says Rimm's behavior was peculiar. He
remembers asking Rimm for a copy of the book he was writing. "Rimm
said there was an export restriction on it -- his publisher said there
was an export ban," Mehta says.
Studying CyberSmut: Similarities and Differences
"I don't think the parallels between the two studies are
coincidences. There are a lot of similarities that can't be accounted
for by chance," says Mehta, who's working to document the resemblances.
Rimm's paper, published in the July issue of the Georgetown
Law Journal and cited on the front page of Time magazine, never
mentions Mehta's study.
Mehta says that Rimm changed the direction of his research
without giving the York University researchers credit: "Rimm wasn't
looking at the commercial distribution of BBS pornography until he
spoke with us in November. We told him that we were looking for adult
BBS logos and telephone numbers in Usenet images."
Rimm's study claims that he downloaded and reviewed Usenet
images in September, but doesn't say when they were analyzed.
His study also lingers on the salacious details of erotica,
repeating words like "fuck," "cock," "pedophile," and "paraphilia"
dozens of times. "We also started off with emotionally laden language.
But in the end, we cut down those terms," says Mehta. "That's what the
Journal of Sex Research wanted. You think law journals are tough? Try
peer review!"
The Carnegie Mellon study somewhat resembles the Mehta-Plaza
study, yet it also differs in many ways:
* Rimm talks about pornography on adult BBSs, the Internet,
Usenet, and the World Wide Web. The Canadian study only looks at
images, many from adult BBSs, appearing on a small selection of Usenet
newsgroups.
* Rimm reviews descriptions of hundreds of thousands of
images. The other study looked at the actual images, but only at a
few hundred.
* Rimm sorts images into only one category. The York
University study categorizes each image in 22 different ways.
* Rimm waxes poetic about how "pornography permeates the
digital landscape." Plaza and Mehta discuss "a symmetric measure of
association for 2x2 crosstabulations used when comparing
non-parametrically distributed variables."
Some of the Mehta-Plaza study's findings contradict Rimm's.
Since the Canadian researchers actually looked at the images, they
found that many "bestiality" images were actually cartoons: "There
were only a few actual digitized photographs in our sample showing
such acts."
Also, where Rimm talks about "the ease of copying and
disseminating digitized child pornography," the Canadian researchers
say they found "no actual images showing a sexual act with children or
adolescents."
After presenting their paper at the November 1994 "Symposium
on Free Speech and Privacy in the Information Age," Plaza and Mehta
tried for months to find a publisher, but were stonewalled by the
Journal of Sex Research. "They didn't like our findings," says Mehta.
The journal's editors reportedly also disliked the references to
anti-porn activist Catherine MacKinnon.
Ironically, MacKinnon published a commentary on Rimm's research
in the most recent Georgetown Law Journal, hailing it as a "landmark
study of pornography in cyberspace."
While both papers conclude that adult BBS operators are using
the Internet to market their images, some recent evidence suggests the
practice may not be widespread. Brian Reid, a network researcher and
Usenet guru at Digital Equipment Corporation, says adult BBS operators
become upset when their images appear surreptitiously on Usenet
newsgroups. When they find out, they demand that the images be
removed.
Donna Hoffman, an associate professor of management at
Vanderbilt University, agrees: "On the supply side, the operators
realize that such 'leakage' hurts the market. On the demand side, the
potential customer will say, 'Why should I pay over there when I can
see it here for free?'"
Whatever the reality, after all this controversy, there may be
a happy ending in store for the pair of researchers. Mehta says he was
ready to give up on publishing their study, but now "our paper will
help shed a little light on this issue." In the wake of the Rimm
scandal, he thinks they'll have better luck finding a journal to
accept it.
[Since his paper has not been published, Mehta decided not to put it
online. He has agreed to answer questions about it and can be reached
at: mm39@post.queensu.ca]
A: ABSTRACT
"A content analysis of pornographic images on the Internet"
By Michael D. Mehta and Dwaine E. Plaza
This paper examines the nature and content of 150 randomly selected
pornographic images available through newsgroups located on the
Internet computer network. Using content analysis, we identify themes
which appear most frequently, and explore differences in the type of
material posted by commercial and non-commercial users. Results
suggest that commercial vendors are more likely to post explicit
pornographic material in public access newsgroups in order to attract
new customers to their private, pay-per-use bulletin board services.
B: PARALLEL CONSTRUCTIONS
Following are examples of where the two studies express similar ideas.
Page numbers are in parentheses. Since both studies talk about similar
topics, many parallel constructions could be coincidences. Rimm never
mentions the Mehta-Plaza study in his paper.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RIMM STUDY MEHTA/PLAZA STUDY DRAFT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1867) 17 of the 32 alt.binaries (7) 17 Usenet newsgroups were
Usenet newsgroups contained identified that contained sexually-
pornographic imagery oriented images
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1865) Images are also posted to (16) Other newsgroups besides
newsgroups outside the alt.binaries those studied may contain
hierarchy sexually-explicit images
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1914) Pornography is widely (13) Pornography on computer
available through computer networks networks is widely available
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1852) Pornography is being vigorously (14) Commercial distributors
marketed in computer environments of pornography use the Internet to
market it
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1851,1875) Pornographers are using (14) Commercial distributors of
Usenet newsgroups to advertise pornography post images to newsgroups
products and attract customers to attract customers
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1868) The role of the NSFnet (4) The role of the NSF backbone
backbone began to change is now changing
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1862) The Internet is increasingly (3) The Internet has the potential
being used by pornographers to disseminate pornography
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1861) One of the largest uses for (4) The distribution of pornography
computer networks is the distribution is a new use for computer networks
of sexually explicit imagery
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1910) Pornographers are using (6) Commercial vendors may see
newsgroups to advertise at no cost newsgroups as a way to advertise
freely.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1862) Until recently, the primary (4) Until recently, the primary use
use of the Internet was linking of the Internet was for scientific
university and government computers research purposes
for research purposes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1868) Multimedia graphics are being (16) There are more advanced types
developed of image files which simulate
movement
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1885) The presentation of kappa (10) Kappa coefficients were
values was unnecessary because of the calculated and indicated a good
high level of reliability * degree of inter-coder reliability
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1916) The study lists 4 boldfaced (22) The study lists 22 categories
categories and 18 additional ones
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1852) Consumers enjoy considerable (5) Users download images in
privacy while downloading images from the privacy of their offices
computer networks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1875) An adult BBS sysop can find (14) Most images come from magazines
images in magazines or videotapes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1912) Raises questions about (17) Says the Internet has the
community standards in cyberspace potential to undermine local laws
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1908) Lawmakers are grappling with (18) Content of computer pornography
digitized pornography and may decide will change with regulation of
to regulate the Internet the "global village."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1853) It may be difficult for (17) It is necessary for others
researchers to repeat this study to replicate this study
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1875) Adult BBS operators are more (14) Commercial operators are
likely to post explicit pornography ** more likely to post explicit
pornography
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* = Mehta says: "The kappa coefficient came right from us. He asked how we
calculated reliability, and we told him. It's in there, but he didn't use it.
I don't think he knew how."
** = Rimm's study says that adult BBS owners post 71% of hardcore
pornography but just 59% of the combined total of hardcore and
softcore pornography.
C: ESTIMATES OF WORD OCCURRENCES (1)
Note the highly emotional words Rimm uses in his study. Where
Mehta-Plaza use the term "commercial vendor," Rimm uses "pornographer."
Mehta-Plaza Study Rimm Study (2)
----------------- ----------
Paraphilia / Paraphilic 0 82
Pornographer 0 70
Child (3) 1 52
Hard-Core 0 52
Bestiality 2 45
Pedophilia / Pedophile / Pedophilic 0 41
Commercial 42 39
Dog / Horse 0 23
Fisting 0 22
Obscene 0 21
Cock 0 21
Fuck 0 21
Incest 2 17
Pussy 0 17
Pain 0 15
Abuse 0 7
Torture 0 7
Penis 7 4
"She holds the dog cock! Inserts
it in her daughter's ass!" 0 2
(1) Since the counting technique isn't perfect the data shouldn't be
seen as exact. Also, Rimm's paper is considerably longer so one would
expect a word to occur more often.
(2) To obtain these figures, the Mehta-Plaza paper was saved to a file
with the references and Table 1 included. The Rimm paper and footnotes
from http://trfn.pgh.pa.us/guest/mrstudy.html were saved in a single
file. The following command sequence was used to extract word counts
from the two files:
tr '\040' '\012' < {study} | fgrep -i {word} | wc -l
(3) Usually used in the phrase "child pornography." In this case, data
were reviewed manually for accuracy. The one use of the word "child"
in the Mehta-Plaza study was: "We never came across an image depicting
a sexual act between an adult and a child/adolescent or acts between
children."
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