Seth Warshavsky (1973-2024) was an American businessman and pornography entrepreneur who was the founder of the Internet Entertainment Group (IEG). During the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

, Warshavsky's welcome of media attention made him the face of the online pornography industry to a public fascinated with what was then virtually the only segment of the dot-com industry operating at a profit. On February 10, 1998, he testified at a hearing on Internet Indecency before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Seth Warshavsky died in October 2024 from unknown causes. Beginning in 1996, with the profits from a

phone-sex Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. As a practice between individuals temporarily separated, it is as ...

operation he started while living in the Oregon building in Seattle, Washington, he had friends at AT&T who would find him sex-related numbers. Warshavsky converted a warehouse in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

into the studios of IEG's flagship website, Clublove.com. The website used computer technology that was cutting edge for its day. The business model was similar to that of a live

peep show A peep show, peepshow, or, a peep booth is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot. Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the devel ...

. For a monthly membership fee plus an hourly charge, customers could watch postcard-sized, low-resolution images of women strip and touch themselves in real time. For more money, they could talk to the

camgirl A webcam model (colloquially, camgirl, camboy, or cammodel) is a video performer who streams on the Internet with a live webcam broadcast. A webcam model often performs erotic acts online, such as stripping, masturbation, or sex acts in exchan ...

s over the phone and direct them. Warshavsky was featured on the front page of the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' in 1997. In 1999, Warshavsky was rated number 40 on

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

's list of 50 "most important figures in technology." The series finale of '' Pam & Tommy'' depicted Warshavsky and IEG.

Early Internet pornography scandals

Warshavsky was involved in many of the early Internet's porn-related media controversies, including: * a 1996

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

over use of the domain name candyland. Hasbro v Internet Entertainment Group (Founded by Seth Warshavsky) * a 1997 lawsuit over the distribution of a homemade pornographic video starring

Pamela Anderson Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian-American actress, model and media personality. She rose to prominence after being selected as the February 1990 ''Playboy'' Playmate of the Month. She went on to make regular appearan ...

and

Tommy Lee Thomas Lee (born Thomas Lee Bass; October 3, 1962) is an American musician who co-founded and plays drums for the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. He also founded rap metal band Methods of Mayhem and has pursued solo musical projects. Early ...

* a 1998 lawsuit over a sex video of

and

Bret Michaels Bret Michael Sychak (born March 15, 1963), known professionally as Bret Michaels, is an American singer and musician. He is the frontman of rock band Poison, which has sold over 65 million albums worldwide and 30 million records in the United St ...

(never aired by IEG) * a 1998 lawsuit by actor

Kelsey Grammer Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained fame for his role as the psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984–1993) and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (1993–2004, and again F ...

over another sex video (also never aired) * the Our First Time

hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible. S ...

. * nude photographs of

Laura Schlessinger Laura Catherine Schlessinger (born January 16, 1947), commonly known as Dr. Laura, is an American talk radio host and author. ''The Dr. Laura Program'', heard weekdays for three hours on Sirius XM Radio, consists mainly of her responses to call ...

in 1998 * Papalvisit.com, a website with information about the 1999 visit to the U.S. by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

that also featured salacious stories and links to pornographic websites * the investment and creation, with David Marshlack, of VoyeurDorm.Com

IEG collapse

At IEG's peak, Warshavsky claimed to have 100,000 subscribers and $100 million annual revenue, although subsequent events cast doubt on the veracity of this earnings claim. Anderson and Lee filed a $90 million copyright-infringement suit against IEG in 1998 to claim a share of the profits of the video of them. A

U.S. district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

judge dismissed the case, ruling that the duo gave up their rights when they agreed to let IEG webcast the footage. Following appeals, Anderson and Lee were awarded a $1.5 million judgment plus court costs and attorney fees in December 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warshavsky, Seth Living people Place of birth missing (living people) American people of Polish-Jewish descent American Internet celebrities 1973 births