Bill, I have retired from some of the parts of the business I was doing before. Newer rules have made some things less than productive. My Domain list has shrunk by 75% in 3 years. I am not retired, but I am certainly headed a different direction.
Underlying all the news releases, court challenges, laws, and "enforcement actions" going on is that there is apparently a shift in the shrillness of the extreme left on these issues, and they are winning the battle in many cases.
It isn't just porn on the net - it is everything from Janet's nipple to Roe v. Wade. They are pushing on many sides, and with the assistance of a numbnuts president and a now fairly conservative supreme court, I think they are feeling their oats and are going to push like mad in the next two years. They know all too well that they are looking at a likely shift in the house and senate next time around, and the President only has two years left... so they are bailing as fast as they can. It's working.
The FCC has leveled very large fines against CBS and others recently (
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11847422/ ) and is moving to try to get more family oriented programming to be included in a la carte cable/sat programming choices. They have also talked about attempting to find ways to regulate cable and sat channels to be closer to the over the air rules.
It is a major, major shift, it has been coming for years, and it is actually good overall for the porn business (push us undergroun a bit, and we can charge more for the same thing, guilt tax, I guess). However, it will be painful for some people, as it will change business models and leave the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Alex