If you can't beat 'em join 'em
 

The issue of content theft can easily cause emotions of anger, hate, and frustration - especially if it's your content that is being stolen!

Producers and buyers of content spend a great deal of money, time and creative energy to make this world a better place by creating unique, interesting and alluring content. In the adult industry this becomes harder to do each day as new companies keep pushing towards new frontiers. Finding out your content is available for free or being sold by someone unauthorized to do so is a formula for burst blood vessels!

What solution is there if you are a content producer and after spending thousands of dollars and dozen of hours to make a film that is of high quality only to see it listed everywhere for free?

The adult industry would benefit greatly by adopting the eventual solution the music industry has recently put in place which is - "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".

Consider iTunes business model. They offer high quality music downloads form a trusted source at a very inexpensive price.

In a market condition where music listeners could download, for free, high quality songs via p2p and other file sharing programs - the music industry had it's work cut out for them.

Several artists, record labels, and other industry players who all had a monetary interest at risk tried at first to fight back. Legal suits were filed but never amounted to any significant change. Pleads for pity "please support the artists" were ignored or laughed at. CD prices were slashed, but still the end user did not respond.

As in all great shifts of power, a new contender emerged. iTunes saw an opportunity and have successfully seized control by offering the end user what they want. - As the saying goes "the customer is always right".

Offering the user high quality downloads was something that was already offered by the p2p networks. What sets iTunes apart is the convenience and security factor. It takes time to download a song off limewire or bit torrent, then copy it your mp3 player or ipod. Also, the risk of viruses or faux songs (I myself uploaded one of my own songs and named it "TOOL's unreleased track!" and received many downloads so I could spread my musical seed) is always a factor to consider.

Charging a small amount for a small increase in convenience and the piece of mind of knowing what you are downloading from iTunes is the 'real deal' - allows iTunes to flourish and dominate the music industry.

Bringing this back to the adult world. Content producers can steer around the issue of content theft and piracy by offering the end user high quality product, that is convenient, from a source they trust, for a SMALL [pun intended] fee. As long as you don't make the mistake of instituting shady 50 site x-sales, or $.99 2 day trials that convert at $59.99 -and truly meet all of the customer needs - you will certainly have success.

You have one fucking post and you're stomping in here with a suggestion? WTF?

funny shit

If it is that easy you can do it yourself and better don't share the secret of your wealth with others before you have done it so that nobody steals your brilliant idea for their own profit leaving you out.

Eric -
I am not sure if this is the right solution, but it's the kind of thinking out-of-the-box that this industry needs. Don't be surprised if you get bashed here, I was in the music industry in the 90s and I know what I am talking about.

Also, it is not surprising that this kind of thinking comes from someone who (apparently) is quite new in the industry. That's just a little bit of history repeating.

In a recent post I was also mentioning iTunes - it is a striking example of what the music industry SHOULD have done and failed to do, until it was too late.

I am happy to talk to you further about the topic.

How about if you can't beat them, you change your tactics. Just producing and marketing your content isn't enough these days you will also have to take steps to protect it.

From our experience the paying customers of the past and of today pay for one reason. Convenience. These are people with more money than time. We've all made that transition as we've gotten older. These customers also have more to lose by pirating it than they do by purchasing it.

That's why we see tube sites as the number one threat to your sales, they are not putting the user at legal risk (torrents) they are not forcing them wait 1 hour+ to download then view a video before they even know if they like it (file locker websites) and they do not have to spend hours googling around registering to find links (forums).

Tube sites with instant streaming and seeking to any point in the video are taking your paying customers because they provide the convenience with no downside risk.

If you want to continue to prosper in the age of rampant tube site piracy then look into a content protection service like ours.

Tube sites are not the number one threat facing producers. If that was the case then you wouldn't see so many of them working with tubes. Tubes are the next MGPs. The "Illegal" tube sites make up less than 3% of the overall content piracy we encountered this year. Producers are not uploading site rips to rapidshare or hd vids to torrents. Big difference.

According to the google double click ad planner...

Pornhub: 8-10 million daily unique visitors
Xvideos: 6+ million daily unique visitors
Xhamster: 6+ million daily unique visitors

Like any good business, the producers go where the eyeballs (and their most likely customers) are. So to answer your question, this is why producers work with the tube sites. From our experience the relationship is actually friendly between all involved once the producer knows their content can't appear unless it is authorized.

I sent you an email :thumbsup