As CNN notes in an otherwise slow newsday, porn is a popular business on the internet (Sex sells, especially to Web surfers). However, see Seth Finkelstein's dissection of the "report" CNN is relying on (N2H2 "State Secrets" - PR and lying with statistics [part 1]) and (CNN, "web porn", and censorware PR Managers).

Regardless of the validity of the report, it is undisputed that pornography is popular on the internet, including P2P networks (of course, porn has been popular in every medium). Note, that contrary to some claims, pornography hasn't been shown to be more of a problem on P2P networks than the internet generally as a leaked GAO memo obtained by TechNewsWorld concludes (U.S. Congress: P2P E-Smut 'Not Necessarily' More Dangerous than Other Forms).

In any case, the debate over compulsories has raised a serious barrier to their implementation - the political unpopularity of systems which will provide cross-subsidization for pornography. In other words, taxes (whether levy or general) would be collected and then distributed to pornographers. This would not be, to put it mildly, politically popular. Furthermore, I use the term "pornography" only as the most blatant example of content that would be politically unpopular. I can imagine, for example, that certain genres of music, such as "gangsta rap," would raise similar objections (how would people feel about tax dollars subsidizing music that glorifies cop-killing?). This is a serious problem and one that hasn't really been addressed by proponents of government mandated compulsories, especially given the track record of political debate over the relatively small amount of money dedicated to the National Endowment for the Arts.

Nevertheless, the issue of compulsories and pornography may create other problems as well. One I am concerned about is the potential for mandatory filtering to go along with the mandatory compulsories. Although none of the proposed compulsory systems speaks to the issue of filtering (and I am sure the proponents would oppose it), the systems certainly enable a mechanism that would make such filtering possible. All of the proposed government mandated systems envision some form of centralized registry for copyrighted works so that the works can be monitored and tracked and appropriately compensated. How much more of a step would it be to require works in the registry to also include self-labeling information?

I can imagine that many people would make the claim that, for example, pornographers shouldn't be compensated for having their files shared by minors. Two 15-yr olds file share a pornographic movie. Should the pornographer be compensated? If not, then the system will have to include self-labeling by the pornographer as well as parental controls (filters) in the file-sharing/playback devices. How will this work? Will political pressure force "voluntary" labeling schemes onto content producers who wish to be compensated? How will the survey/monitoring systems handle devices with and without filtering mechanisms?

No compulsory scheme advocates for labeling and filtering. However, we should consider likely ramifications of such compulsory schemes, and increased political pressure for labeling, whether "voluntary" or not, is likely.