edu_universityofmaryland_1006ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Students at the University of Maryland weren’t going to take it lying down, so to speak. They wanted their porn, and they wanted it last night.

They got it all right, all 30 minutes of the opening of Digital Playground’s swashbuckling, cock-gobbling, bustier-overflowing porn flick, Pirates II: Scagnetti’s Revenge.

After a week of back-and-forth threats, promises and retreats by state legislators, college administrators and university students, 30 minutes is all they got to see, according to a post by Stan Moore on a blog called Inside Charm City.

“Students packed a campus lecture hall, filling every seat, standing along the walls and sitting on the floor, to hear four experts speak on freedom of speech and then watch the first 30 minutes of the hardcore film,” he wrote. “After the first sex scene, they applauded and cheered – congratulating themselves for having seen it in a campus classroom.”

Moore said he believes “discussion on topics such as this are characteristic of a vibrant educational community,” but legislators disagree.

In apparent response to the opprobrium displayed by students and faculty who allowed even the abbreviated event to take place Tuesday night, “a panel of Maryland lawmakers has decided to require public colleges to submit policies for the showing of pornographic films,” according to an Associated Press report,

A budget amendment introduced by Sen. Andy Harris [R-Baltimore County] outlines the requirements.  That lawmakers intend to slide the rules into the budget does not bode well for opponents who wish to challenge the measure.

Not all Maryland legislators are on board for codifying campus porn regulations. Sen. Jamie Raskin [D-Montgomery] said that while he is pleased to see Harris retreat from a broader amendment he introduced last week — a measure that would have denied millions of dollars in operating funds to public universities that allowed pornography to be shown on campus — the latest maneuver also amounts to overkill.

“The university already has a policy on pornography. It’s called the First Amendment,” Raskin said.

The measure reportedly will be introduced in the Maryland Senate on Thursday.