Andrews Owns Peephole Videos

APRIL 29--Erin Andrews, the ESPN reporter and 'Dancing with the Stars' contestant, is now the legal owner of the naked peephole videos of her shot by an Illinois man who is headed to prison next week on a felony stalking conviction.

The 10 videos were surreptitiously shot by Michael Barrett, who stalked Andrews, 31, at three hotels while she was on assignment for the sports network. Barrett, sentenced last month to 30 months in federal prison, recently signed over his rights to the videos to Andrews, according to Daniel Alberstone, one of the sportscaster's lawyers. With ownership of the videos legally transferred from the felon, Andrews could pursue federal copyright lawsuits against anyone distributing or broadcasting the videos.

According to federal prosecutors, Barrett, 48, secretly filmed 16 other women and uploaded those peephole videos to Daily Motion, a video sharing web site. As seen in this inventory, Barrett gave these illicit clips titles like 'Erin Andrews Spectacular Butt,' 'Erin Andrews in a Pink Thong,' and 'Naked Hot Blonde Ironing.'

Prior to Barrett's sentencing, prosecutors acknowledged that the former insurance salesman had 'displayed some signs of remorse for his conduct,' and had pledged to turn over ownership of the videos to 'Victim Andrews so she can somewhat curb future publication.' However, the difficulty of that task is magnified by the sprawl of the Internet, where web sites like erinandrewsnudetape.com continue to charge for access to the illegally obtained videos. (4 pages)