Review may contain spoilers
Well after watching the other 2 commentaries on the informational age we live in today (The Social Network and The Pirates of Silicon Valley) I thought i would delve into the murkier world of internet pornography and what really made it explode across the medium in the early 1990s... internet billing.
I was slightly disappointed but comparing it to the above mentioned movies i was possibly expecting too much. I don't know how much of this story is true I tried to find about some information on the history of internet billing(accepting credit cards) and couldn't find anything but how it is portrayed does ring true. First you have 2 very dysfunctional drug addled characters(one a genius ex rocket scientist IQ of 181) who have the GREAT idea and start by scanning some pornographic magazines onto a website and writing a programme to accept credit card payments online. They want content so approach a gangster Russian strip club owner and it explodes into something massive. The main character then comes along and tries to organise the business professionally moves away from producing their own content but working with ruthless gangsters and 2 extremely amoral and idiotic partners causes a lot of problems.
Suffice to says it is a mess and a very interesting story to see how extricates himself from these people and the business and problems such as his partners unwittingly setting up child pornography sites. There is also one hilarious sub-plot involving the FBI wanting them to produce "porn" that terrorists like so they can track them more efficiently :)).
Apparently the story is loosely based on the experiences of the creators experience in the internet during the 1990s, now if even a small part of this story is true you can understand that why it would have made a fictionalised account.
For me it was very interesting movie not brilliantly executed. I have given it 6/10 rating. But as a social commentary on our times i think its useful tool to explore how our culture has been shaped by technology and also to remember the dark side of the beginnings of ecommerce.
Well after watching the other 2 commentaries on the informational age we live in today (The Social Network and The Pirates of Silicon Valley) I thought i would delve into the murkier world of internet pornography and what really made it explode across the medium in the early 1990s... internet billing.
I was slightly disappointed but comparing it to the above mentioned movies i was possibly expecting too much. I don't know how much of this story is true I tried to find about some information on the history of internet billing(accepting credit cards) and couldn't find anything but how it is portrayed does ring true. First you have 2 very dysfunctional drug addled characters(one a genius ex rocket scientist IQ of 181) who have the GREAT idea and start by scanning some pornographic magazines onto a website and writing a programme to accept credit card payments online. They want content so approach a gangster Russian strip club owner and it explodes into something massive. The main character then comes along and tries to organise the business professionally moves away from producing their own content but working with ruthless gangsters and 2 extremely amoral and idiotic partners causes a lot of problems.
Suffice to says it is a mess and a very interesting story to see how extricates himself from these people and the business and problems such as his partners unwittingly setting up child pornography sites. There is also one hilarious sub-plot involving the FBI wanting them to produce "porn" that terrorists like so they can track them more efficiently :)).
Apparently the story is loosely based on the experiences of the creators experience in the internet during the 1990s, now if even a small part of this story is true you can understand that why it would have made a fictionalised account.
For me it was very interesting movie not brilliantly executed. I have given it 6/10 rating. But as a social commentary on our times i think its useful tool to explore how our culture has been shaped by technology and also to remember the dark side of the beginnings of ecommerce.