Dateline tracks down a porn spammer

We thought the stuff Julie in Texas got was the worst of the worst, so we decided to see if we could figure out, step by step, who pressed the send key.

Right off the bat, we know this isn’t going to be easy. The e-mail itself says the sender’s name is Nastassja Kinski — could they mean actress Nastassja Kinski? We clicked on the e-mail and we’re attacked by pornographic popups. We wade through those, dig a little deeper — we find a list of real names and addresses. These people are called “custodians of record.” We have no idea what a “custodian of record” is. These are real names.

One of the "custodians of record" is named "Rosebush." He's on 7th Avenue in New York, a stone's throw away from NBC. He's in a tiny corner in the same building as Carnegie Hall, the hallowed home of highbrow.

Porn records in Carnegie Hall?
With hidden cameras rolling, we went down a long corridor past rehearsal studios and cello teachers, where we found Judson Rosebush.

John Hockenberry: Hi. Judson?

Judson: Yes?

Hockenberry: Judson Rosebush?

Judson: Yes.

Hockenberry: Hi, I’m John. I just want to ask you a couple of questions, do you mind if we come in?

Judson: I do.

Hockenberry: OK, we'll talk out here in the hallway. First, what is your job? What's a custodian of records?

Judson: I hold model releases, proofs of age, contracts and licenses...

He admits he's in the porn Web site business somehow, but he says he was hired by the explicit porn site to keep records that prove that naked girls are at least 18 years old. 

Hockenberry: Do you think you’d be more comfortable discussing this not in the hallway?

Judson: Who are you and why are you asking me these questions?

So, we tell him about Julie and her disturbing women and animal pictures.

Judson: We don’t know who is sending those things, and a lot of those are occurring offshore. I am not involved in the distribution of this material. I am merely a keeper of records.

Okay, how about the names of the people who hired him to keep those records?

Judson: I dont believe it’s my business responsibility to share information with you about who I do business with.

So nothing from Judson, so we head back to the computer, back to the "Spunkfarm" e-mail.

What if we could find the Web site owner? There has to be one — like Larry Flynt owns Hustler.

Sadly, no owners are listed on the Web site itself, but Web sites have to be registered, kind of like a car has to be registered. And we found the place that keeps those registrations.

We were told that "Spunkfarm" was associated with a company in Toronto, Canada.

Whoever sent Julie those pictures is in a nice place like Toronto? 

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