# Pornography and the net **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 6, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593 "2017-03-06T23:56:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593/22 "2017-03-09T01:26:44Z")
I wonder if it’s being used for laundering, maybe with prepaid debit cards. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593/23 "2017-03-09T11:53:51Z")
> [@Hocus\_Pocus](#): > > I never thought I’d see “intellectual property” and “porn” in the same sentence! It is amazing how the laws have shifted 180 degrees on porn, from combating it to protecting it from piracy. I once read a book on a counter-terrorism expert who was killed in the WTC on September 11, 2001. He had started his career with the FBI, and one of his early successes was busting a mob-controlled porn ring in New Jersey. Decades later, priorities had changed. He’d been pulled off the porn beat and was fighting terrorists. And there were messages at the start of porn films warning people that if they deprived the IP holders of their rightful profits, the FBI would come after them. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593/24 "2017-03-09T15:00:34Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > It is amazing how the laws have shifted 180 degrees on porn, from combating it to protecting it from piracy. > > I once read a book on a counter-terrorism expert who was killed in the WTC on September 11, 2001. He had started his career with the FBI, and one of his early successes was busting a mob-controlled porn ring in New Jersey. > > Decades later, priorities had changed. He’d been pulled off the porn beat and was fighting terrorists. > > And there were messages at the start of porn films warning people that if they deprived the IP holders of their rightful profits, the FBI would come after them. But how much priority would the FBI really put into pursuing it? I think those warnings are standard boilerplate that anyone can put at the front of a video. It’s no guarantee of anything. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593/25 "2017-03-09T20:19:13Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > The financial numbers in the porn biz have always been kind of confusing. At various points in time either the industry OR its detractors have overinflated, the ones to make themselves seem more economically valuable, the others to exaggerate the “threat”. Add how in the 70s and 80s the porn box office was often an exercise in blatant money laundering. > > Everything I’ve been reading about the mainstream commercial porn biz points to the makers’ margins and the performers’ paychecks dropping due to web saturation. Years ago one of the top business magazines tried to figure out if all the supposed profits from porn were real like the industry said they were and their conclusion was “Porn exaggerates everything”. They found it difficult to pin down numbers like say this movie was made for this amount of money and then sold this amount of videos. I mean if it really made the tons of money suggested, then why dont everyday companies and investors get in? ---
**Author:** ![Doubticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@Doubticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubticus)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593/26 "2017-03-09T22:34:42Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I mean if it really made the tons of money suggested, then why dont everyday companies and investors get in? I can’t Google it at the moment, but I believe there are many well known companies that invest in porn because the money is good. But they play down their involvement, because it can hurt their other businesses. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2017, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593/27 "2017-03-12T07:54:41Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I never said that you had to find it interesting. I was simply pointing out that your description misrepresented the article. Well, since we are simply pointing out things, I’ll simply point out that clearly you aren’t contesting the “tedious” part of his description. ---
**Author:** ![1iLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/1ileft/32/4114_2.png) [@1iLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1iLeft)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2017, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593/28 "2017-03-12T12:31:05Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > “_Watching free porn is the equivalent of walking into the grocery store and walking out with food that you’re not paying for_.” Man shall not live by food that you’re not paying for alone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pornography-and-the-net/781593.md?page=1)