Hollywood Groups Seek Changes in Bill on Online Porn

Walt Disney Co. and others in the entertainment industry are pressuring federal lawmakers to alter proposed legislation that is aimed at keeping Internet pornography away from children but could also restrict Hollywood’s ability to take advantage of the evolving medium.

The GOP-sponsored Child Online Protection Act, the second major effort by Congress to protect children on the Internet, would require commercial Web sites to verify an adult’s age before showing photographs or other material “harmful to minors.” The House is scheduled to vote on the bill today.

Disney, the Motion Picture Assn. of America and other groups are lobbying Republican leaders, pressing for language limiting the bill to a company that displays adult material on the Net “as its primary or principal course of trade or business,” according to lobbying documents.

Essentially, Disney and other Hollywood giants are urging lawmakers to draw a distinction between pornography distributors and mainstream entertainment companies whose ability to distribute movies, music and other material over the Net could be restricted by the act if it is not modified.

“We’re all for shielding minors from adult material,” said Richard Taylor, an MPAA spokesman. “We just want to make sure its a smart bomb and not a cluster bomb.”

Rebecca Anderson, a Disney spokeswoman, said the company supports the goals of the act. But she added that “Disney, along with all the other members of the MPAA, as well as other online companies, has been working with members of Congress to improve the language of the Children’s Online Protection Act.”

Disney, with $22.4 billion in sales last year, operates “Disney.Com--The Web Site for Families” through its Disney Online business, part of the company’s massive “Creative Content” division that overall is responsible for nearly half its revenues. That division also covers Miramax, Disney Store, home video releases and some television shows.

But since Disney’s “primary or principal business” isn’t its online activities, the company wouldn’t fall under the new law if the wording were changed. Most other entertainment companies also would be exempted from the law.

The Clinton administration opposes the legislation--at least pending a study of online pornography--saying it prefers the use of high-tech tools by parents over a “static, imperfect solution” such as a new law.