A federal magistrate has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Seth Warshavsky, a brash young entrepreneur who has been dubbed the Web's prince of porn.

Seth Warshavsky, made famous by a 1997 Wall Street Journal article for his immensely profitable online porn business, has been ordered arrested by a Seattle magistrate. A federal magistrate has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Seth Warshavsky, a brash young entrepreneur who has been dubbed the Web's prince of porn. Magistrate John Weinberg issued the no-bail warrant after Warshavsky, 28, failed to appear before him as ordered Friday and to produce business records for his Seattle-based company, Internet Entertainment Group (IEG), covering the past five years. The hearing was set after Warshavsky ignored a lawsuit filed by another Internet company, Netsphere, that claimed IEG owed it money. That resulted earlier this year in a $180,000 default judgment against Warshavsky and a subsequent order that he appear for yesterday's hearing. Reached by phone, Warshavsky denied knowing anything about the lawsuit. Told that Netsphere lawyer Larry Glosser had documents showing that a process server personally served Warshavsky on April 13th with papers ordering him to show up in court yesterday, Warshavsky still insisted that he had never been served. New York-born Warshavsky moved to Seattle when he was 7, but he remained off most folks' radar until 1997, when The Wall Street Journal published a front-page story about his success as a provider of online porn. Warshavsky is a pioneer in the development of "virtual sex" Web sites. Paying customers can interact with young women who cavort nude before cameras and microphones that carry their images and sounds across the Internet.