Policy

The Economics of Online Porn

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Jerry Brito of the Mercatus Center has done a podcast with a researcher who gave his body to save our souls. Or, more accurately, studied the security and economics of online porn. Move over Rover, and let Jerry take over:

I talk to Gilbert Wondracek, a postdoc security researcher who did a study on the security and economics of online porn. He developed a database of over 30,000 porn sites (says he could have gone on for years), and operated 2 porn sites himself (in the name of science). He talks about how he did all of this, the structure of the industry, etc.

Interesting finding: Of all the sites he looked at, only 3 percent were trying to install malicious code on your computer. And of those, 90 percent were doing so because they had been hacked themselves, not because their proprietors were trying to be malicious.

Listen in here.

Speaking of online porn, here's a video about the idiotic obscenity case against adult filmmaker (and friend of Reason) John Stagliano, who thankfully beat a rap he never should have been charged with.