[firemanx]

I don't know about innovation - I can't think of anything off the top of my head that has been innovated by the criminal and/or darker sectors of society. I can certainly see a massive demand for certain innovations (that are later created or innovated by other sectors), but I wouldn't conflate the two. This isn't like military applications where you may see inventions created and used for nefarious purposes then later retooled to support society as a whole.

Although, come to think of it, I suppose you could possibly consider reliable P2P transfer an offshoot of the piracy world, but I doubt you'd get too many people to admit that :) So I'm not entirely correct, but I think its a bit of a stretch to say that its quite often the case.

[hucker]

TamDenholm mentioned porn kings, and I think they are a good example of the "darker sectors" driving innovation. The porn industry were some of the first to provide streaming of videos for example. While they may not be the inventors, porn is often a driving force in adoption of new technology, it being a new format or a new delivery vector for media.

If porn is part of the "dark sectors of society" however, is obviously debatable.

[toyg]

Porn has also been somewhat instrumental in affirming individual freedom and occasionally pushing the boundaries of civil rights. Similarly, illegal p2p helped shaping a debate on the limits of current copyright legislation (which is far from over).

Not all innovation is technical.