[Editor's Note: This is a preview, not a review. Middle Men hits theaters on Fri., Aug. 6. To read reviews of all the latest releases, check out the Daily Loaf Movie Review Index.]

The seemingly limitless potential of the Internet to create money-making enterprises is a steady phenomenon, with success stories regularly popping up on the world’s desktops. Just the other day, I heard a radio interview with a California teenager who used Craigslist to trade his way from a cell phone to a 2000 Porsche Boxster S.

Nonfiction stories of people who have pioneered their way to financial victory make great movies, with Hollywood executives seeing dollar signs as scriptwriter imaginations run wild with the freedom that comes with the five words, “Inspired by a true story.”

This, of course, has all lead to the highly anticipated film The Social Network due out in October. However, while everyone else is all hot and heavy for a movie about a guy who makes enemies while spawning a communications revolution and becoming the youngest billionaire alive, I find that I'm more interested in a much sleazier World Wide Web success story — the transformation and outrageous beginnings of the online pornography business.

This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.