Porn Free: Purdue U. Student Tries to Block Court-Ordered Search for X-Rated Film

Music companies have pushed colleges to turn over the names of students who illegally download songs without paying for them. Now a film company is trying the same thing with a Purdue University student. This time, however, the student is trying to block the move because the film in question is X-rated. (Decorum prevents us from listing the title.) The student’s lawyer argues in a court motion to block the disclosure—available on the Smoking Gun Web site—that revealing the name of “John Doe #26″ could do serious harm to the student’s reputation. And anyway, the motion adds, someone else with access to the student’s computer or Internet connection could have done the download. That second argument has been used to defend music-piracy allegations. The first claim, however, doesn’t often surface when the content is a Justin Bieber tune. The blocking motion was filed on July 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.