Poll: Adult Industry Split Over Content Piracy Action
 

More adult entertainment professionals would prefer to call in the lawyers to fight rampant content piracy rather than do nothing about it, according to the results of a new XBIZ Research poll.

The adult entertainment industry in the past few years has seen bottom lines sharply eroding because of illegal streamed content, leading to growing discontent over online thievery.

That discontent is so strong that one-third of those polled also feel that end-users should be held liable for poaching and sharing videos.

The results are based on opinions of members of XBIZ.net, the adult entertainment industry?s leading social network.

XBIZ asked community members, "Should legal action be taken against end-users involved in content piracy?"

XBIZ found that 33 percent of respondents said, "Yes, any and all end-users accessing pirated content." Another 38 percent said, "Yes, but only those who share and distribute pirated content. But 29 percent of those polled said, "No, legal action against end-users is ineffective."

Pirated adult content can be found everywhere over the Internet, particularly through BitTorrent networks and file-sharing lockers. In fact, some companies' entire catalogs are available online.

"Piracy has affected our entire industry," Burning Angel's Joanna Angel says, "but in our case we are a small company, and we would have been a bigger company if piracy weren't so rampant."

Piracy extends well past BitTorrent networks and file-sharing lockers. Some tube site operators, too, poach and republish adult content.

Being clubbed so hard by piracy, adult companies are fighting back with litigation, bundling defendants in large numbers, and going directly after tube site owners and file-sharing locker operators with multimillion-dollar suits.

Adult companies Corbin Fisher, VCX Inc., Grooby Productions, Titan Media, Lightspeed Media, BlazingBucks, Elegant Angel, West Coast Productions and Axel Braun Productions have been the most prolific in filing porn BitTorrent claims.

And Private Media Group and Pink Visual have taken the strongest legal approaches against tube sites posting content online illegally.

http://www.xbiz.com/news/133911

I am Paul Markham

Thats an easy one to figure out. Fans and surfers are for free and producers and people that make money off of porn say "no."

Start by asking the following.
 

How many adult webmasters or people in this industry pay for...

* Music
* Movies
* Video Games
* Software
* Scripts

That will give you some idea of this industry's 'thoughts' on the subject.
:2 cents:

alienating potential customers....?

I pay for every one of those things. Can't stand thieves and I was raised not to steal.

i do not think i have not paid for the above.

though to be honest i have not purchased music for ages. i used to by records all the time, then cd's, but never bothered with mp3's as they seem to have no value to me.

with films you get extras on dvd, plus the quality is much better. i see no point spending a few pounds less to get some rubish filmed direct from the screen. plus the cost is not that much. even blue rays are cheap now.

though if i was a serfer i would presume its ok to dopwnload porn free as its all over the place. a lot of forums have it on free. and lets face it, most porn site owners seem not to do anything about it.

yep I buy, dont very often buy videos but we always rent them and i have a tone of purchased CDs Dont really buy video games any more im to old lol, and have been ripped of with buying scripts but still buy them and yep i buy software

I am not saying that there are not people in this industry who DO pay for their Photoshop, or other scripts and software. Or that there are people who pay for their music. As there are many who do, myself included.

However, there is not a day that goes by on GFY that someone does not reference, "they have not paid for music for years" or pointing people to some website, forum, or torrent to download the latest hacked, cracked, whatever.

If you want to cry in your beer about that stuff, look in your own back yard at your peers. Many of the same people who arrogantly brag about the above (not paying for blah blah blah), are some of the same people crying in these daily Paul Markham tube threads for the past three years. Where the collective attitude is, "it's ok to steal music, movies, software.. but if someone steals my content... oh lawd....".

You can't have it both ways.
:2 cents:

You're overlooking the fact that 99.9% of the people on GFY are not in this business or they THINK they are because they signed up for an affiliate program.

Most real business people are respectful and not thieves. It's the pissants in life who are the ones to hunt for everything "free"

I don't and won't steal anything.

I do understand, and concede your point that most of those on the board regulars on the forums are not full time in this industry and neither do, nor have, made any real (six figure) money in adult online.

I am not going to name some of the most recognized on GFY or other forums I have seen repeatedly bragging about this over the years with not paying for this or that. But some of those guys are 100% in this industry.

don't equate not paying for music in years to be supporting piracy

i live in a country that has a piracy tax that goes straight to the music industry

i haven't paid for music since the supreme court ruled that tax made p2p downloads fair dealing (valid contract with offer acceptance and consideration).

Regarding the Poll Options.

Say I'm a surfer. I go on the internet.. There's free porn to download..

How the hell are you gonna blame that guy that has no clue?

Because the end-user is the easiest to intimidate into a cash settlement, that's why.........

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh


So true and so on point.:thumbsup

Stupidest thing ever. Maybe shoplifters shouldn't be prosecuted, as the shoplifter might be a potential customer. :1orglaugh

Suing pirates won't bring the money flowing in. So far no one has found a way to monetise pirates except the pirates. Suing them is about as effective at stopping piracy as jailing criminals stops crime. Does that mean the police should stop doing their job?

he he

we have 4 Paul Markham's

a lot of shops (UK) do not prosecute.

THAT should be a poll

I am paul markham

All these expert opinions...

I don't agree with that statement one bit. Selling a LOT of memberships over the last 15 years I can tell you that porn consumers want the NEWEST scenes.
I personally wouldn't jerk off to a dated 10 year old porn scene...UNLESS it was one of my all time favorites.

And that would be because the girl in the scene did it for me. And then I would be compelled to find her latest work. And if she is already retired...then I would file that one scene away and drag it out every once in a while. Meantime I would hunt for a contemporary girl that makes my cock hard.

One thing IS absolute on the internet....Content ages QUICKLY. It's like dog years.
That's why the new piracy has hurt so badly. No longer was it old scenes from the 1970's and 80's being traded around....now it's full members areas from RIGHT NOW.

Hell I promote over 400 programs...and I'll get hosted galleries from a scene they just released that very day...and I can find the whole scene already stolen and uploaded to torrent, tube, and file sharing.

THAT is what kills us.

congrats on being the two people who never download anything for free.

You look so handsome in your retirement:pimp

I voted :)

If it is from a particular 'brand', clip store or website, yes.

This is ASSuming you/I/we/they have seen it before.

I have watched a lot of toe porn, but I can't say I have seen everything. There is plenty I stumble across on forums, or tubes, that I have never seen. Including some of those old 80's classics. If it is a hot scene, I will whip it out and say, "scream if you want to...".

A hot scene is a hot scene. Old or new. Sure I have favorites I go back to. But I am also purchasing at least a few new clips per week. As are many of my own patrons. There are still plenty of those guys buying some of the first year's shit as well.

Every day/week/month there is a new person with a credit card or surfer who finds you. I do not assume they have seen all you/I/we have to offer. While I can't speak to all of the mainstream porn markets. I know for fetish, if it hits the spot. People will pay for it. Especially with dick in hand.

really how much did you pay for that picture that include man men actor in

that you always use to insult me.

liciencing content from a tv show can be very expensive.

I'm replying to the "10 year old" porn that was suggested would be just fine for everyone.

And I say "no".

You can't just regurgitate old porn and expect it to sell to anybody. The only "old" porn that can be niched is "classic" stuff. But that has a very narrow audience.

I can watch a porn scene from 10 years ago and KNOW it's old just from the way it's shot, the clothing, the hair, etc.. Same as if you watched an episode of a t.v. series from 10 years ago...even if you've never seen it before...you may watch it and enjoy it. But you would damn sure not want that to be the ONLY thing you watch. You'd want to watch the latest stuff that is out now.

Which is why we constantly produce the same "new scene" all the time. :upsidedow

Changing the sofa and the plastic doll many call models, isn't really making that much difference to the vast number of porn surfers.

Even in your greatest best most profitable time you were unable to persuade 99% of the people looking at your galleries.

1-100 of those clicking on a link was considered good by most, except the micro niches.

The newest scene is just the one never seen before, it could be 10 years old it could be 10 days old. If the you saw the 10 day old one yesterday, it's an old scene. If you had never seen the 10 year old one, it's a new scene.

Forgetting the HD effect.

Why don't people admit 99.9% of surfers aren't impressed enough in the product to buy it. They don't care if Robbie protects his product, because the next guy doesn't.

Come on Robbie tell us your conversion figures on views of a sample > clicks > sales.

You know if you tell us it 1-10 we will call bullshit and you know if you say 1-100 we will call bullshit and I'll tell you 99% weren't impressed enough to buy.

Not your fault, it's the fault of all those that thought traffic was king. The answer to nearly every sales problem was usually "You need more traffic." Rarely was it "Create something good if you want good sales."

When 99% were saying no, the answer was get another 100. Never get a better product and convert 1 of the 99. That was a stupid idea.

Welcome to 2011. When 999 don't spend to everyone who does.

Going after individual end-users is largely ineffective. End-users are not so worried about this, so education (scaring other people into not downloading copyrighted media, by making examples out of others) through litigation is not effective. We've seen that with the RIAA and MPAA. Also, it ends up costing more in legal fees, etc than is recovered (monetarily or "educationally").

The way to go is bottleneck it and cut it at the source... the publishers that are stealing it and distributing it.

Read up and take some notes: http://www.eff.org/wp/riaa-v-people-years-later

This ain't music. And some of us have already begun seeing the results of re-educating people who think it's okay to steal shit.

Seems a lot of people want to be Paul Markham.

Music, movies (adult or non-adult), photos (adult or non-adult), they are all forms of media, and they all have issues with piracy. Porn is not some "special" type of media where the basic principles do not apply.

Producers, etc need to get more strategic in fighting infringement and learn from the mistakes of the RIAA and MPAA.

As I mentioned, going after the end-user is pointless. It does not scare them, and they ignore it (this has been well documented.)

Source

** There is not going to be an exception for adult production outfits going after end-users. They will see the same dismal results.


The issue needs to be dealt with at the source level. Going after the publishers (not the end-users)that provide access to the pirated and illegal content distribution channels.

Yes it is. And the fact that you don't realize that is pretty telling. You're talking about "media". I'm talking about a human need...in some people an ADDICTION...porn is VERY different. It deals with human sexuality. You might find more success in this business (above whatever success you already have) when you realize that.

I don't create "media". I create something that I love for people who simply can't get enough of it.

Define effective?

Effective could just be suing pirates profitably. Yes they have to go beyond a simple IP address. But once caught, then they can be offered the options of proving it wasn't them or going to court or settling out of court.

Shopping piracy is not a task industry can achieve, profiting from pirates IMO is fine. They profit from us, industry profits from them.

The suing potential customers is bullshit. Most of these guys will never buy while they can steal.

All is pointless talk unless DMCA laws change.

As long as a site adheres to DMCA what really can be done?

Im not talking about site operators that steal and upload vids themselves, im talking 100 percent uploads by the sites users. Also, at the same time operators that reply and act on legit DMCA removal requests.

i know

scary

I understand that human sexuality is very powerful. And totally agree with you on that. But, I'm not here arguing about the difference between adult and non-adult media. I am talking about the umbrella of media, which porn falls under.

Example: The basic business fundamentals still apply to distributing, marketing and selling an adult magazine, as it does to a non-adult magazine. It's the content that is different.

Taking into consideration the fact that porn is a more urgent human desire, I still don't see how suing "end-users" is going to work or curb any piracy. Again, as we've seen from the evidence gathered from the efforts of other media industries going after end-users and ultimately reaping no benefits.

bump for today

bump for today

I go to the cinema.
I listen to legal webradio.
So i rarely download movies or music.

I code my own stuff. (and sometimes i try to sell it)
People complain when they have to pay (IT IS NOT FREE WTF ????? )

i used to download old stuff that i could anyway not get elsewhere as on the web.
I buy the other games (and i buy some).

What I can tell you from being an attorney that is involved with the mass litigation bit torrent cases, the ISP are hating every minute of this.

What the RIAA and MPAA did was nothing compared to what the adult industry is doing. ISPs are the source. They know people are using their connections to download tons of shit for free. And now they are being forced to respond to over a 100,000 subpoena requests.

It is costing them time and money to deal with this. When it becomes too burdensome - they may actually restrict all the free downloading going on.

Further, one of us is eventually going to join an ISP to these lawsuits as a contributory copyright infringer, then see what happens. Theres no question they now have knowledge of mass infringement and if a court is willing to keep them involved and not dismiss them on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the shit is going to hit the fan.

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ll...ma4ho1_500.jpg

ADG

It's all pressure on the act of piracy.

Will it stop? Not completely.

Will it have a big effect on online porn's income? No the downloaders will switch to Tubes.

I like your style...

Plus Windows 7 is watching my activities. lol.

Bad poll options, I want to say no but I don't want to say going after end users is ineffective when the [good] result is spread throughout the media. I guess you could say I am for holding the end users responsible, but only if they are made an example of, but not made an example of by huge unrealistic fines. Man, it's a really fine line.

+1 for the Paul Markham option. :1orglaugh


So you're saying going after the parent of a child who downloaded a bunch of illegal shit is OK?

You're also saying that no one visiting tubes are potential customers (you don't know whether they are or not), which contradicts everything you have ever said.

Shut the fuck up Paul Markham.

Quoted for truth

I was listening to a podcast yesterday saying that something like 26% of an ISPs traffic now was netflix and how p2p was like 3%. Their suggestion was that netflix had killed piracy because it offered a reasonably priced, easy, quick way to watch movie content.

Suing end users is bad. 1) It is quasi-blackmail 2) It does nothing to stop piracy 3) It makes the industry look like a cunt

As respectfully as can be intonated :
Why eventually? WTF? You mean it has not been done yet after all these years? Or even attempted? Seriously?

Why has a host not been thrown in with infringement in the first place as a contributory infringer? I think that would be logical from the get go of any copyright infringement situation. I know that if I were copyright attorney thats where I would take a copyright battle from the start.

I am confused?