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 students, and entrepreneurs of every stripe are eager to jump on the smut band wagon. Following the money trail, or in this case, the telecom routes, the author reveals how some big phone companies are cashing in too. Obscene Profits offers a startling and entertaining new look at this very old business, and shows why pornography, in all of its variations--videos, magazines, phone-sex, spy cameras, etc.-- is one of the most profitable and popular new careers to come out of the electronic age.
I am an author, attorney, expert witness, and professional speaker on the legal and cultural implications of emerging technology. After graduating from Amherst College and Boston College Law School, I clerked for two years for the Honorable Frank H. Freedman, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. After practicing law for five years and writing my first book, Vermont Jury Instructions -- Civil and Criminal (with John Dinse and Ritchie Berger), I launched a computer consulting business that in time led to my current work as a computer forensics expert and author.
In response to the passage of the Communications Decency Act in 1996, I began researching the legislative and media response to the rise of the online adult industry. The resulting book, Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age, was the first of what is now five mainstream non-fiction books. The others are:
The Naked Employee: How Technology Is Compromising Workplace Privacy (Amacom 2003);
The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture (Prometheus Books 2006);
The Court and the Cross: The Religious Right's Crusade to Reshape the Supreme Court (Beacon Press 2008); and, most recently,
American Privacy: The Four-Hundred-Year History of Our Most Contested Right (Beacon Press 2009) [coming this November];
In addition to these books, I have have written numerous magazine articles on a variety of topics, including constitutional rights (particularly freedom of speech), privacy online and in the workplace, the impact of technology on our rights and liberties, and the separation of church and state.
On August 23, 2006, I had the honor of appearing on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" to discuss The Decency Wars. I have also appeared as a guest on a variety of other national television programs, including ABC's "Good Morning America Weekend," NBC's "Weekend Today," ABC's "Nightline," CBS's "60 Minutes," and assorted BBC documentaries. In addition to those televised appearances, I have been interviewed by numerous radio shows, magazines, and newspapers around the world on topics relating to my books.
Over the last fifteen years, I have frequently been invited to lecture before college, university, and professional audiences to lecture on Internet technology, workplace and personal privacy, computer forensics, and censorship issues. I am represented by the Jodi R. Solomon Speakers Bureau in Boston, MA and Vermont Voices in Essex Junction, Vermont. An extensive list of recent lecture topics is available through the menu listing at the top of the page.
In my capacity as an expert witness in the field of computer forensics, I have worked on pornography and obscenity-related litigation for a variety of clients, including the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the City of Charlotte, N.C., assorted businesses, and individual defendants.
I live in Burlington, Vermont with my partner, Dr. Amy Werbel, and four boys. Since October 2002, I have served on the Burlington School Board. I chaired the Board's Finance subcommittee for the past four years, and served as Clerk of the Board from April 2003 through March 2009. I am currently the chairman of the Board. For the past two years, I have also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Vermont Community Access Media, one of the region's three public access television stations.
