The Man Behind Online Porn's 'Steve Lightspeed'

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "'In the online pornography business, just about everybody has heard of Steve Lightspeed,' who runs a network of sites, reports the Wall Street Journal Online. 'But few in the porn world know much about Steve Jones, the 39-year-old married father of two behind the Lightspeed persona -- and that's the way he wants to keep it.' In WSJ.com's profile of Jones, tension between his job and the rest of his life is evident: 'He said he and his wife mostly socialize with others inside the porn business, in part because it avoids the awkwardness of explaining his line of work. "Most of our friends tend to be in the industry," he said. Relationships with family members can also be tricky. Mr. Jones's mother works for Lightspeed Media, handling customer service duties, but he said some relatives don't know about his work and likely wouldn't approve.'"

Comments

pr0n... the $14 billion business

[xtal]

..nobody seems to know anything about

Re:Click here

[DancesWithBlowTorch]

You know, I love how, following your link, Google tells me

Results 1-20 of about 299 for tawnee stone (0.15 seconds)

Then, I see this little blue link at the top. "Moderate Safe Search is on". So I switch it off. Ergo:

Results 1-20 of about 32,500 for tawnee stone (0.06 seconds)

Maybe I should try that trick with my own name once in a while...

Re:Why?

[freeweed]

Having an successful Internet business doesn't make an interesting in and of itself.

No, but having a successful Internet business in an industry that is used by millions of people daily, perfectly legal, and yet the guy still has to hide what he does IS interesting.

Hence, "YRO".

I think it's a very interesting comment on our society (at least, American society). Even with no government censorship, the societal sanctions we impose on others have a great deal of influence. Parents won't let their kids play with his kids? What do they think Mr. Lightspeed does - porn films displayed 7x24 in his home? I guess they also figure someone who works for a gun manufacturer uses his kids as target practice...