Think back to early YNot, Rick, Ron, Serge, RB and JoeBonix days ? admittedly, my partner and I saw an opportunity to create membership sites with a fuck-load of content that we stole from newsgroups. We organized the stolen content beautifully, threw it up behind password protected areas and hooked up with DMR to process our sites.
At this point "stolen content" wasn't even a subject matter; back then, it was simply a free-for-all (*hint*nudge*hint* ? like tube sites today). After about a year of kick ass profits from our well organized stolen content we decided to cover our asses, got rid of all of the 'free' content we took and searched hard for company's that sold legal net content - we bought up all available copyright content that we could get our hands on.
Most of the alumni of our industry started their membership sites in this way. The point is, we saw an opportunity and we took it; and then we self-regulated (along with the rest of the industry).
In that same vein, I completely agree with you DrinkingHARDEST, "large tube sites are ALL going legit." Looking at the big picture, it's smart business (to be where the traffic is) and it's only a matter of time before the industry evolves to legit tube sites, the same way the industry has always grown, improved and evolved.
