COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The innocent screening that has become a national marketing opportunity for Digital Playground, the producer of Pirates II; Scagnetti’s Revenge, continues. Students at the University of Maryland are not going to allow anyone to keep them from enjoying their porn in public, even if it means the loss of state dollars for their school.

The Washington Post on Monday continued its coverage of the saga that began last week when Sen. Andrew P. Harris [R-Baltimore County] introduced a bill in the state senate that would have withheld state funding from any public university that allowed the screening of an adult movie. The university crumbled under the threat and agreed to shelve the showing, which is when students decided to stand by their porn.

The story has garnered national media attention, which may be what the producers intended when they booked the showing in the first place. Digital Playground has provided the flick free of charge to any college or university in the U.S. that would agree to screen Pirates for students.

The University of Maryland is not the first institution of higher learning to show the film, but it is the first to set off a running battle with state lawmakers.

The current squabble could escalate the issue of adult fare on campus into a national discusssion if the Maryland legislature follows through on the threat to pass Harris’ bill, which he says he will revive if Pirates II is shown as planned.