University of Maryland students stage a pirate-porn protest

Neither side is prepared to lay down its sword.

University of Maryland students — protesting what they see as an intrusion by Big Brother — are planning to defy authority and screen a hard-core porn movie in the name of free speech and academic freedom.

"What we're upset about is somebody is trying to control what goes on on campus. This is symbolic," said Liz Ciavolino, a sophomore who is active in the group Feminism Without Borders.

In response, one conservative state legislator revived his threat: If the porn flick is shown on campus, the university might just kiss some state dollars goodbye.

A university spokesman declined to comment Saturday night.

The tale of the scheduled screening of "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge" has roiled the university's flagship campus and hit newspapers as far away as Australia.

The movie was initially to be shown in the student union Saturday night. But university officials canceled it after Sen. Andrew Harris, a Republican, introduced a bill to withhold state funding from any public university that allowed the screening of a triple-X film.

The fight might have ended there.

But some students, adamant that state lawmakers were practicing censorship, launched plans to show the 2 1/2-hour movie on campus Monday night, the Baltimore Sun first reported. The Student Power Party, a slate of campus leaders, has reserved a lecture room.

A discussion about free speech will precede the movie.

"It's not about porn at all," said Kenton Stalder, a junior helping to arrange the screening. "It's the precedent of a legislator pulling funding for an entire university based on an issue of morality."

Harris, who says that X-rated belly dancers and pirates have no place in a public university, is not backing down. He withdrew his initial amendment to withhold funds from the operating budget but said he would consider renewing his protest as lawmakers take up the capital budget in coming weeks.

The movie, produced by Digital Playground, has been marketed to colleges and has been shown at several across the country without major controversy.

Democratic Sen. Jamie Raskin, a professor of constitutional law at American University, said he's never watched a porn film. But he said state lawmakers have no place dictating which movies are shown on campus.

"Pornographers and censors thrive on one another," Raskin said. "I would hope that Sen. Harris would be content with having gotten the pornographers hundreds of thousands of dollars in free publicity ... They could not have paid for the publicity they got on TV and in newspapers because of the ambush on the budget process."