Obscene Profits: Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age

by Frederick S. Lane

Book Overview

Sex sells. Already a ten-billion dollar business-and growing-most sex businesses require relatively low start-up costs and minimal equipment. No wonder retired porn stars, homemakers, college... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415920965
• ISBN13: 9780415920964
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Factual and Fun Reading

I used this book as a reference for a graduate level sociology class, and it was invaluable. The information was rich and accurate. I really enjoyed the writer's perspective.

Now we know

Ever since I was a little boy, I was interested in the world surrounding pornography business. Do they ever have an economic downturn or require a bailout? I have grown older and even more intrigued, it is amazing to find out how this cottage/back alley industry, has grown to be a major influence in today's society and economy. Obscene Profits neatly illustrates the hard changes the porn industry has had to make to last the distance and in the meantime fueling many would-be Hollywood actress's dreams. Even for people who are disgusted by pornography will be interested in this book's portrayal of an industry that has touched almost everyone and created its own entrepreneurs.

The First Half of This Book is a Liberal Education

Don't let the (literally) clueless title turn you off. This is an impressive tour de force. The first half is a concise, entertaining, and enormously informative history of technology and its effects on our social customs and ways of looking at the world. Lane's grasp of mountains of material and his ability to concisely summarize it are awesome. Since I am in a related field, I intended to skim it, but was drawn into reading every word. The second half is more specialized, but is only tangentially devoted to "obscene profits" (that awful title looks like a publicists's handiwork). It poignantly conveys the ways the new technology reveals for the first time that men's obsession with pornography is of epidemic proportions.

Must Read for those who want to grow rich in a growing niche

This is an excellent book, written with a lawyer's research habits and a computer scientist's discipline. For anyone interested in the most profitable industry segment of the new economy, this is required reading material. It is interesting, entertaining, and informative. Pick it up, but know the following. Money doesn't mean power. It means freedom.

A most thorough and entertaining read

Frederick Lane approaches the history of pornography with the eye of a scholar and the ear of a storyteller. Obscene Profits is both informative and entertaining -- no small feat considering its subject. From stag films to Jen-dave.com, Lane introduces the players and the controversies, backed by an informed look at the political, social and cultural happenings at the time. The result is an impressive debut that, above all, manages to "follow the money" while maintaining a lively perspective on one of the most contentious subjects in American society.