When Eliot Spitzer was New York's attorney general, he went after white collar crooks and prostitutes. Now that Andrew Cuomo has taken the helm, he's made turning the Internet into a safe playground for kids a top priority. First he went after Facebook, for allowing lax privacy policies that might let kids become the real-life victims of a To Catch a Predator episode. And now he's heavy handed Internet service providers including Verizon, Sprint, and Time Warner, to block websites that are known to traffic in kiddie porn.

That the online newsgroups where child porn pics and videos are traded are so widely known, and that these ISPs could pretty easily identify customers who visited them, is one thing. The other thing is how Atty. Gen. Cuomo described his relationship with kiddie porn: "You can’t help but look at this material and not be disturbed." Well, some folks can help to look at it, but that's just us.

Earlier this week, New York's attorney general Andrew Cuomo held a press conference where he dragged out 30 Rock star Tina Fey to announce the new Piracy Protection Act, which would turn movie piracy into a misdemeanor crime, which means possible jail time, instead of the lame "offense," equal to a parking ticket, that it is now. As can only be assumed, he had a leisurely lunch with some Motion Picture Association of America reps, who aren't happy with the possibly-inflated figure of $2.6 billion that's supposedly lost to piracy in this state alone. (Actually, he certainly met with the MPAA; flanked by NBC head Jeff Zucker, Cuomo was also joined by MPAA chief Dan Glickman. And a 2005 study by the MPAA says piracy cost the industry, overall, $18.2 billion.)

Your tax dollars are about to be put toward creating a special deputy attorney general post and new efforts to involve the Organized Crime Task Force in intellectual property theft, because as we all know, New York's organized crime families are involved here.

According to Glickman, 90 percent of street and Internet piracy begins with a camcorder. You know, those shady dudes who "cam" movies and then send them off to BitTorrent. But who are we kidding? It's doubtful that New York's law enforcement is going to tread on federal territory and go after Internet file-sharing. Which means most of their efforts will be focused on the streets.

The same streets, in fact, that have all but seen those folding tables and garbage bag sacks of copied DVDs disappear. So, uh, continued success with that.

[Photo: Flickr]

Furthering a story it feels like we've been hearing about for the past year, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed suit against Jaguar Sales, a magazine subscription company that sends young people door-to-door selling Shape and Rolling Stone. Something about setting up employees to actually lose money on the job while spending weeks away from their families. Sounds sorta like being employed as a blogger. [NYDN]

Making jokes about the gays getting their panties in a bunch? That's been done so many times, we're about to let Suze Orman start using the cliche. But gay-minded politicos getting hot and heavy at a public forum — and not the type of "hot and heavy" that would give Michael Lucas reason to pant? Well, that's got our attention.

Last night's Stonewall Democrats meeting was intended to give state attorney general candidate Andrew Cuomo a chance to profess his love for the gays (or, rather, their vote), as well as Eliot Spitzer a chance to spout about his bid for governor. But two of Cuomo's rival candidates for the gig – Mark Green and Sean Patrick Maloney – thought they too should have a chance to speak to the lawyers-by-day, meth-users-by-night. They showed up univited — and by uninvited, we mean they showed up even after Stonewall Democrats head Dirk McCall told them they wouldn't be welcome.

Hilarity – as it often does when you get in the way of a queen and his man – ensued.

But the two men showed up anyway. At one point, Mr. McCall told the crowd of about 200 people at the Center in Chelsea that Mr. Maloney was there, and Mr. Maloney bounded on stage, uninvited, and spoke for three minutes. Mr. Green then moved to the front of the room. Mr. McCall, saying he acted out of fairness, invited him to speak too, and Mr. Green held forth for six minutes.

Mr. McCall said afterward that he was furious at Mr. Maloney, and predicted that his unbidden speech could cost him the group's endorsement.

But just think about how many calories Maloney burned in his rush to the stage. Surely the Chelsea gays can appreciate that.

Rivals Spar at Gay Democrats' Forum [Patrick Healy, NYT]