Frederick S. Lane III - Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age

By

Published in 2001 by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001

Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE

First Routledge hardback edition, 2000
First Routledge paperback edition, 2001
Copyright 2000 by Frederick S. Lane III

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Book design by The Whole Works , New York

10 9 8 7 6 5 4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lane, Frederick S., 1963

Obscene profits: the entrepreneurs of pornography in the cyber age / by Frederick S. Lane, III.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-92096-5 (alk. paper) 0-415-93103-7 (pbk)

1. PornographyEconomic aspects. 2. PornographyTechnological innovations. 3. Sex-oriented businesses. 4. Computer sexEconomic aspects. I. Title.

HQ471.L26 2000

338.437004538dc21

99-35383

To my parents, Warren and Anne Lane,
for giving their children the confidence to choose
their own paths, and for their unflagging
support for the occasionally
unorthodox destinations.

It is with great pleasure and deep gratitude that I undertake the task of thanking the people who assisted me in the writing of this book. The past year and a half has helped me to understand that the writing of a book, although it appears at first glance to be a uniquely solitary endeavor, simply could not happen without the vision, encouragement, support, criticism, and patience of numerous others. I hope that these acknowledgments will help to illustrate my sincere appreciation to everyone who participated in this project.

First and foremost, the members of my immediate and extended family, who spent the past year and a half dealing with the long days, late nights, and frequent weekend absences that writing this book required. Writers can be a selfabsorbed and demanding lot, so I offer thanks to the people closest to me who helped make it possible for me to do this work.

I would like to extend particular thanks to my agent, Martha Kaufman Amitay of Adler & Robin Books. From the moment of our first conversation, Martha has been a consistent source of calm encouragement and sound ideas. Although this project has undergone some fairly radical changes from the initial proposal, both in terms of content and deadline, Martha's support and enthusiasm have not wavered.

Equally special thanks are due my editor, Melissa Rosati, former publishing director of Routledge in New York City. Not only was Melissa willing to go to bat for a potentially controversial idea, but she was willing to do so with a first-time author. It took a terrific leap of faith, particularly when it was clear from my first submissions that I was well on my way to an unrequested new four-volume history of pornography. I suspect that when editors (and agents, for that matter) get together, they tell first-time author jokes: How many first-time authors does it take to screw in a light bulb? Just one, but he needs an extension ladder. Throughout this long process, Melissa did a terrific job of offering encouragement in the midst of shifting schedules and multiple revisions. It has been a real pleasure.

Throughout this project, I have had the distinct privilege of working extensively with Linda Smith, a former writing instructor at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst and now the principal of Final Draft, a freelance editing service. Linda read every word of this manuscript at least twice, and her insightful criticisms on structure, style, and substance were invaluable. I can say with complete confidence that this is a far better book than it would have been without her help. Any remaining errors in form or content (including my law-school-induced fondness for semicolons, subordinate clauses, and of course, parenthet-icals) are mine and mine alone.

During the course of this project, I have had thoughtful input from a number of different people, some of whom have discussed various ideas with me and others who have read some or all sections of a draft. Among those whose comments and questions were influential in shaping this books were: Jessica Smith Lane, Dennis Heron, Keri Toksu, Chris McVeigh, Warren Lane, Anne Lane, Jon Lane, Rob Backus, Adam Snyder, Mark Hughes, Laurel Neme, David Smith, Lincoln Holmes, David Punia, Al Hudson, Judy Hudson, Kate Hudson, Geoff Hudson, Ralph Faulkingham, and Linda Faulkingham. It has been an enormous help to have a collection of interested and well-informed family members and friends with whom to discuss this occasionally discomfiting topic.

I would also like to thank the many adult Web site operators (many of whom appear in this book) for taking the time to answer numerous questions. Without exception, the people I interviewed were helpful, supportive, and very interesting.

Another enormously important part of this process was the environment in which I was fortunate to do much of my writing. I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the owners and staff of Muddy Waters, a coffee house on Main Street in Burlington, Vt. for creating such a terrific place for writing and communing with other writers, and for cheerfully refilling endless pots of tea.

The process of writing a book is not merely a creative process; it is also a mechanical one. A number of people deserve special recognition for helping to make the actual process of writing this book a little easier. Among them: Adam Snyder, whose timely offer of computer hardware assistance solved a difficult logistical problem and made writing this book so much more enjoyable (I will always be touched and honored by his act of generosity); Christine Rouleau, a freelance court reporter who transcribed a number of lively and educational interviews about the operation of online pornography sites; two used-book store owners, in particular, Dave Warden, co-owner of That Book Store in St. Johnsbury, Vt., which provided a number of useful reference books, and Debby Barnard, owner of Bygone Books in Burlington, for her interest and enthusiasm; Philip E. Varricchione for his patience and understanding of the writers often erratic cash flow, and for his genuine interest and continuous encouragement; and the technicians at Computers Plus in Burlington and Ontrack Data Recovery in Minnesota, who at the very start of this project helped retrieve large amounts of essentially irreplaceable research. Although they wiped out a marvelous excuse (The computer ate my homework), they helped to keep this project from getting off on completely the wrong foot.

In addition, there are a number of software programs that helped make this project far easier than it would have been otherwise. Despite the occasional frustrations, a tip of the hat to the programmers of Microsoft's Win 95/98 (operating system); Corel Wordperfect 8.0 (word processing), Micro-Logic's Infoselect 5.0 (information managementa terrific program!), Netscape Communicator 4.5 (Web browser), Eudora 3.2 (e-mail), and Together Networks, my Internet service provider.