Many people dislike the TV and Internet and other medias for giving powefull access to pornography to the population. But things are not so simple. While there are sources of free pornography much of the surface of “Internet’s underworld” is populated by con websites and fake ads luring people to their traps. There is also a lot of confusing information around, and tools such as Google and Wikipedia can’t help much in these cases. This ends up acting as a feedback mechanism preventing people to have easy access to pornography.

Many popular pornographic videos spread from people to people. One could say, in a “peer-to-peer” way. This is how videos such as Paris Hilton’s got a wide audience. This also happened with Daniela Cicarelli video and now with the infamous “two girls one cup” coprophagous flick. But if you only hear about it, and try to acquire the videos by yourself using tools such as Google or Wikipedia, you might be surprised about how hard it is to find those videos.

You may find people discussing the videos, you will find lots of advertisements promising those videos, you will find fake videos on youtube or whatever, but you will never find the real thing handed to you in an easy way. There are sources for free pornography, but it’s different for famous videos and pictures.

Since these specific and famous videos attract a lot of attention, people use the opportunity to advertise. General videos and pictures are not opportunities for revenue, and end up being less restricted.

Now if you are anxiously looking for a specific video that is not famous, (so it is general for most people) you are also in a bad situation, because general content is not well catalogued, and is not spread everywhere… It’s an interesting situation. There are pornographic images and videos that I have seen in the past that I have never met again, no matter how hard I try to look for them. So specific videos you are looking for are often difficult to find, either because they are (in)famous and kept safe, with lots of baits around, or because they are easily accessible in few unknown remote places.

At the same time many people want to see these famous specific videos, they are also taboo, so few people give away the addresses to others in the open. Few people post links to those videos in their blogs, and Google and Wikipedia won’t do it too. The best way to find out a video like this is to look for comments in blogs. Blogs and their comments end up having an interesting role in the spreading of information on the Internet. Blog comments are a bit like the public restroom doors of the Internet, and parallel conversations between anonymous people in big gatherings…

Now, the same exploitation also happens to things other then taboo sex videos. Whatever gets famous and desired automatically gets full of advertisers and traps. But try looking for something specific but known and less desired like “ultrasound microphone” or “precision resistor”. You most certainly will find out a couple of helpful pages at Wikipedia, or in the first 4 or 5 hits from Google.

In the end, what happens is that society has an indirect feedback system that regulates the access of people to things they develop a great desire for. This sounds obvious for material goods, such as diamonds, as the production has a speed and Earth may not be able to give everyone what, when and where they want. But for non-material goods, such as a digital pictures and ecstatic cookie recipes, this is far less obvious.

Morality ends up winning a bit. When everyone tries to see a specific woman naked, or performing fecal emesis, it gets a little harder then it could be, because smart people try to exploit the situation, and charge a “tax over foolishness”. It’s a kind of regulatory system that impedes the world to be as chaotic and libertine as it could be, and as it is said to be.

…Have you ever taken a walk through Second Life? It is (or at least it was last time I checked) full of “casinos”, with large luminous ads luring people to them. It’s hard to actually find out “hardcore xxx action” without restrictions, or even actually find any dressed, good and honest fun. And the orgies there are never ever even a little bit close to something like the dionisiac and morphetic party at Stanley Kubrick´s Eyes Wide Shut. This ecstatic bacchanals we dream so much do not exist, or at least they are extremely hard to find if not from a “peer to peer” way, as it happens in EWS.

So, don’t go on thinking it’s so easy to get into the devil’s arms. There are lots of small tiny devils that poke you in the way, and make your life a hell before you ever getting there, if you ever do. The (book-based) film Requiem for a Dream pictures a number of people having intense experiences with drugs and sex, but I’m not sure this film is very close to the real world. It does picture the difficulties around buying drugs and having sex and trying to have satisfaction, but I’m pretty sure these difficulties play a larger part in making people’s life a hell then the final self-destruction due to the excesses. The drag during the fall may take more energy then the actual final collision.