Many have tried; there are a lot of bodies on those hills. Take chargebacks. Not only does the merchant who gets a chargeback lose the money, they're typicall

Many have tried; there are a lot of bodies on those hills. Take chargebacks. Not only does the merchant who gets a chargeback lose the money, they're typically hit with a $20-$100 fee on top. It's very common and an old trick to use stolen credit cards, download all the premium content, and redistribute on your own site. Or maybe just because your spouse found the line item on your credit card and you're embarrassed. The chargeback rate for the adult industry is said to be about 15%; the vast majority of merchant accounts will drop you after reaching 1%. Porn spam is an unbelievable technical challenge because it's so damn profitable. If you fight them you are fighting the best—and an army of hundreds of thousands of the not-so-best, who can overwhelm you with sheer numbers. Also the spammers tend to be vindictive kooks, and active efforts against them can bring DDoSes, swatting, and other unpleasantries down on you and yours. Child porn and revenge porn are ever-present. You will have to moderate it, which means people will have to see the images. Also people like to use porn sites to distribute snuff imagery (videos of suffering/torture/death). Imagine the job of a Facebook moderator except ultra-concentrated. I don't think the moralistic and execution arguments are opposed; rather they are an ill-virtued cycle of reinforcement. The industry is shady and filled with bad people because it's said to be shady and filled with bad people. I do expect SV & friends to keep trying, because there's just so much money!