[3057] in Humor
HUMOR: Porno for kids?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan Reed)
Fri Dec 31 00:23:23 1999
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 00:24:13 -0500
To: humor@MIT.EDU
From: Jonathan Reed <jdreed@MIT.EDU>
Although somewhat disturbing, I still find this amusing:
(apologies for the lousy formatting)
********************************
Porn-laced kids' videos bought in retail stores trouble families
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Copyright =A9 1999 Associated Press.
All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
JONESBORO -- Two northeastern Arkansans say they were
shocked
when pornography turned up in the middle of videotaped
movies they had
bought for children.
The two tapes, Pinocchio and Passport to Paris, were
bought at
different stores, but the technique is similar in each
case: The movie
advertised on the box is interrupted with about an hour
of pornographic
material, and then the children's film resumes.
In both cases, the dubbing is of amateur quality,
with the tape speed of
the inserted pornographic material not matching the speed
of the children's
movie.
A lawyer for Erin Smith of Harrisburg, who bought
Passport to Paris for
her 8-year-old daughter, said he had been dealing with a
representative of
that movie's distributor, Warner Bros. Studios, in an
effort to determine how
the material got on the tape.
Lawyer Martin Lilly said the Warner Bros.
representative told him that
pornographic material had turned up in a third children's
movie, Jack Frost,
bought in the Jonesboro area. Jack Frost was also
distributed by Warner
Bros., Lilly said. The video of Walt Disney's Pinocchio
was bought by
Dianna Hemminger of Jonesboro for her granddaughter.
Julie Jacobson, with whom Lilly has been dealing at
Warner Bros., said
the company would not comment about either film other
than to say the
company is "investigating this and will have a comment
after the holidays."
Lilly said his client's daughter was exposed to the
material.
"We are still talking with Warner Bros. in an attempt
to isolate the point of
contamination of the video," Lilly said. "Once we locate
who did this, then
we will make a determination if any further action is
warranted at that point."
Lilly said that he was told by Warner Bros. that a
preliminary investigation
of the Jack Frost video indicated that the film had been
tampered with
outside of the company's dubbing studio in Ventura
County, Calif.
Lilly also noted the shrink-wrap packaging on the
Jack Frost video did
not appear to be a factory product.
"Warner Bros. said that -- according to their report
-- that this was not
done during production or reproduction for mass sales,"
Lilly said. "The best
we can tell, from what we have and from talking to them,
this is being done
on the local level."
"This isn't about money or lawsuits," he added. "But
people are
concerned that this is getting out to children."
The copy of the movie Smith bought for her daughter
contains scenes
from what appear to be several videos produced by an
adult film company
based in Spain. Close to an hour of adult video footage
was included on
Passport to Paris, followed by film credits and previews
for other graphic
adult films and a message that reads "Private. XXX."
The children's movie then resumed playing without
further interruption.
The Pinocchio video purchased by Hemminger also
contained about an
hour of pornographic material, followed by the porn
film's release date, a
listing of actors and a message that read "Thanks for
Watching ... Adults
Only Please. This Video Rated XXX."
"This has really invaded our privacy," Smith said.
"When you go to a retail
store, you don't expect this. Maybe if you bought it at a
yard sale."
=20
