CYBERSPACE – Do investors care about how their money grows, as long as it does? Some do, according to an ongoing series about “ethical investing” at the UK’s MSN Money website.On Tuesday, the site published James Andrews’ treatise about how many public companies pad their bottom lines by dipping their financial toes in pornography’s dirty water. Though Andrews began with what seemed like it might hedge toward an anti-porn perspective, his piece ended on the moral fence about the issue,

“…[I]f you start applying morals to firms whose only purpose is making as much money as possible, you are left with very few companies you can make any money out of yourself or even whose services you can use,” he concluded.

Along with a brief discussion of overtly adult public entities like Playboy and AdultVest, Andrews takes a look at less-obvious porn profiteers like the British satellite television networks Sky and Virgin. He also reveals that every hotel chain in the UK except Travelodge offers pay-per-view, in-room porn.

“Some estimates place adult pay-per-view films as being more profitable than the ubiquitous mini-bars for hotel chains,” Edwards notes.

Adding to the list of shockingly immoral public companies, Edwards outs telephone companies for their roles in spreading smut to the tune of what the BBC estimated as up to $4.6 billion annually by 2012.

Then, of course, there’s the internet’s remarkable economic engine. Koenig told Edwards AdultVest’s iPorn.com is worth as much as $1 billion. More scandalous, however, is that search engines, broadband providers and Amazon.com all make money from online porn. Credit card companies reap the most return from cyberporn.

Imagine that.

Although Edwards presents what amounts to significant intuitive evidence that most, if not all, major public market players make at least part of their monthly nut by hawking adult merchandise of one kind or another, he admits pinning down actual amounts is anything but easy. Primarily, that’s because mainstream companies don’t include line-items for “porn” in their annual financial reports.

“But what’s undeniable is that these companies do make money from adult services and media, and that leaves an awkward question for investors:
Are you investing comfortably?” Edwards asks.

And there’s the rub, he points out. It’s nearly impossible for any investor to know whence his return on investment. Even those whose only investments are in insurance annuities and pensions may be earning from pornography, as diversified funds typically keep at least a portion of their holdings in top performers…like Amazon.com, Sky, Virgin, telephone companies and hotel chains.

“Pornography gets headlines as one of the more controversial topics in society; it’s generally consumed in private, with the curtains drawn in your home or hotel room,” Edwards concludes. “Throwing light on it is shocking, and people rarely talk openly about it. But once you start pulling at that thread, you have to ask if there are bigger moral issues for investors. Sky might carry the odd risqué channel, but it doesn’t advertise cigarettes, get people drunk or sell guns.”