Usenet search engine preps porn for video iPod

LONDON - It may not be quite what hadin mind, but an online search engine called Guba is set tooffer vast amounts of pornography and other video files,specifically tailored for Apple's new iPods.

Guba is a subscription-only search engine that culls videofiles from the Usenet newsgroups, a huge repository of onlinecontent -- much of it adult, pirated, or both.

Beginning this month, Guba will convert video files fromUsenet into the format used by the iPod, known as H.264. AppleChief Executive Steve Jobs launched the video-enabled iPod lastmonth along with deals to sell downloadable music videos and TVshows.

Although Guba offers up a wide variety of video, from thesatirical news program "The Daily Show" to Japanese animation,its "erotica" section is likely to be the biggest draw.

"We can kid ourselves, but in the end it's probably pornthat people want," said Guba Chief Executive Thomas McInerney.He noted that the site offers a "safe mode" to filter out adultcontent.

Usenet predates the World Wide Web by more than a decade,and it has developed alongside more mainstream file-sharingnetworks like Kazaa and BitTorrent.

Guba specifically searches through Usenet's multimediacontent, which is not indexed by popular search engines such asYahoo or Google. It also converts video into standard formats,and lets users stream small versions from its Web site.

At a time when movie studios are hyper-vigilant aboutonline piracy, Guba's easily accessible videos could raisehackles among Hollywood's content owners.

Guba counters that it will strictly abide by the , which requires search engines to takedown any content upon request of the copyright holder. It hasalso blocked access to music files and videos longer than 70minutes.

McInerney said Guba is blocking MP3 music files "becausethere has been so much litigation about music, and the RIAA(Recording Industry of America) has been so aggressive aboutit." However, Guba does offer TV files, because "the TV guysseem to understand the Internet ... they seem to be the nextindustry after music to go online," McInerney said.

A search of Guba revealed a wide range of TV shows,including Disney's "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," which areboth sold online at Apple's iTunes Music Store.

McInerney said that Guba, which charges $14.95 per month,is profitable and has about 15 employees.

"What we'd really like to do, and what we'll need to do, ispartner with a large content company," he said. "They'regetting wise to the Internet, and they're understanding thatthey can't litigate it away."

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