Internet Piracy and Porn

[Pilkingtube]

I think one of the reasons people don't care might be that we already have as much porn as we'll ever need. It's not like it's necessary to produce new porn flicks all the time. If the porn industry was to go down, we would still have all the porn we'd ever need floating around the internet. It's not like we'd be missing any new compelling stories.

It's only really necessary to create new porn when we've invented a new piece of technology for displaying it, or a new position to show people

Of course we need new porn. So much of it is crap, you really have to search to find the good stuff. It would be nice if the industry focused more on quality than volume though.

The problem of most porn being crap won't be solved by producing more porn.

But we've all got 3D systems now! It all needs to be digitally remastered and the industry should borrow some of James Cameron's 3D Avatar cameras to film new stuff! We need to see things poking out at us... so to speak.

Also, speaking of story, do you think there is actually a writer for that stuff somewhere in the world? I'd love that job!

 

[superbatranger]

Wasn't there adverts about different porn stars saying piracy was hurting the industry or something like that a few months back?

 

[Gunner_Guardian]

Meh, whatever. Personally I hate what i call professional porn. It looks really REALLY fake. Because it is obv, but anyway, i prefer to watch amateur porn. No, not pro porn actors and actresses pretending to be amateurs, but actual stuff filmed by people at home and stuff. Much more erotic.

I agree with this.

I find ironically the more low-budget porn is, the better it is as industry porn is so fake it turns me off sometimes.

As a result a lot small "couple" videos and other sites created by some college students or something are chewing away at most porn industries cause they can provide better porn for cheaper.

 

[KeyMaster45]

snip

And I can certainly differentiate between porn and art. Art vs. entertainment can be argued ad nauseum, but if I'm going to watch a season of Nurse Jackie or the new Christopher Nolan film, or play the new Call of Duty or listen to the new Black Keys album without paying for it, I'm going to feel bad because artists poured their hearts out into those projects. Though an argument could be made that cinematography, editing and performance have improved the visceral-ness of porn, the end result isn't a master work of storytelling - it's simply a greater state of arousal. I don't think masturbation, as fun as it is, should ever be held in as high esteem as enjoying an album for the first time or discovering a new filmmaker.

I won't argue the first part of your post, I think the issue of companies making oodles of money as an argument for stealing something has been argued to death already and we'd get nowhere dragging that ugly corpse into the conversation.

That last paragraph though is that part that really bothers me, and partly the reason why I made the thread in the first place. It's that mentality that because porn is, well, porn; that it's not entitled to the same rights as other forms of entertainment. The people that work in porn are still doing work; it's their job. Some of them are actually quite proud about what they do, and enjoy what they do.

Yes, it is very hypocritical to say it's not okay to pirate games, movies, and music; then turn around and say it's okay with porn because you don't think they deserve to be compensated for their work. It's a very twisted way of thinking one that most if not all of us are guilty of.

If we're going to fight to protect one area of entertainment then we need to protect them all. By saying it's okay to steal from one but not the others you end up making the whole campaign for the others pointless; that's the way I see it.

 

[funguy2121]

snip

And I can certainly differentiate between porn and art. Art vs. entertainment can be argued ad nauseum, but if I'm going to watch a season of Nurse Jackie or the new Christopher Nolan film, or play the new Call of Duty or listen to the new Black Keys album without paying for it, I'm going to feel bad because artists poured their hearts out into those projects. Though an argument could be made that cinematography, editing and performance have improved the visceral-ness of porn, the end result isn't a master work of storytelling - it's simply a greater state of arousal. I don't think masturbation, as fun as it is, should ever be held in as high esteem as enjoying an album for the first time or discovering a new filmmaker.

I won't argue the first part of your post, I think the issue of companies making oodles of money as an argument for stealing something has been argued to death already and we'd get nowhere dragging that ugly corpse into the conversation.

That last paragraph though is that part that really bothers me, and partly the reason why I made the thread in the first place. It's that mentality that because porn is, well, porn; that it's not entitled to the same rights as other forms of entertainment. The people that work in porn are still doing work; it's their job. Some of them are actually quite proud about what they do, and enjoy what they do.

Yes, it is very hypocritical to say it's not okay to pirate games, movies, and music; then turn around and say it's okay with porn because you don't think they deserve to be compensated for their work. It's a very twisted way of thinking one that most if not all of us are guilty of.

If we're going to fight to protect one area of entertainment then we need to protect them all. By saying it's okay to steal from one but not the others you end up making the whole campaign for the others pointless; that's the way I see it.

It's not that I don't think they deserve to be compensated for their work. It's that they are very well compensated for their work, particularly when they decide to be business savvy or seek advice from other performers who've been in the business for a while. If porn is still taking in over a billion dollars a year and the performers and producers are still living upper class lifestyles, then I don't think they're actually being hurt. Free porn-and free music-can actually help performers. It may appear that there's less money in their pockets but if someone discovers a comely redhead on a free site and follows the link to the paysite, they may well be willing to fork over the c.c. fees for a month to download as much of the star as possible (and apparently they are, as porn keeps on truckin'). Similarly, if I DL a Yeah Yeah Yeahs track for free on piratebay, just as if I stumble across it on youtube, I may fall in love with the band and go out and buy all their CDs.

I made this point on another piracy thread today. Dave Matthews Band used to let fans plug directly into their equipment to "bootleg" their shows. When they discovered that some opportunists were selling their music and not compensating them, the band started putting out their own live albums for sale (Red Rocks is still the best available version of "Warehouse.") They never sued anyone and they let the technology aid in increasing their fanbase (although probably not nearly as much as MTV).

Now, stealing of media WILL hurt musicians and possibly porn stars and companies that aren't yet established, if they aren't savvy enough to translate popularity into sales. And I can understand anyone, from Metallica to Jenna Jameson, being upset with people for enjoying their work and refusing to pay for it. But I never felt bad when I recorded "For Whom The Bell Tolls" onto cassette from the radio when I was 15, and I really didn't feel bad when I used 2 VCRs to record Jenna Loves (Um, somebody) a couple of years later when I rented it from a video store.

I also went into an adult video store with a girlfriend as an adult and picked up a DVD. It cost me nearly $60 after taxes. It had very little in the way of bells and whistles. It was roughly an hour and a 1/2 of spank material, and most every DVD in the store was that price or higher. No way I would have spent that much cash just to jerk off if I was single.

Your final point is quite hard to argue with. Perhaps if I were more financially established, I would pay for one of those sites so that I'm "contributing." Then again, I also would stop shopping at Wal-Mart for good and I'd be donating to charities. Right now I don't have much of a choice. I will add, however, that since my last computer crash I'm unwilling to go to streaming sights for fear of malware, and the free torrent site I used to go to (and it's sister sight) inexplicably disappeared last February, so of late I've been limited to what I haven't yet deleted from my hard drive.

 

[funguy2121]

Damn, am I verbose today! Sorry for all the blabbing!

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Wow. I don't think I can comment in this thread.

I mean, this is Mod Bait on so many levels.

OP - yes, I agree that you are on to something. I would comment further, but fear of mods prevents me.

The mods really don't care about your sexual interests. One can confess to liking lolicon (of the drawn variety) with no chance of mod wrath.

What? Eeww, no, I hate lolicon. Ick. I prefer large (reasonably so, not the huge pillow ones) breasts personally. Just like IRL.

I meant the piracy. No way to get mod attention faster than to support or admit to piracy.

Which... yeah. Takes me back to that whole can't comment thing. *whistles innocently*

Edit: Oh, wait, there is something. Amateur porn - made by open minded adults, for open minded adults. Great stuff.
Although it occurs to me that my comment is pretty out of context. Ah well.

 

[Gindil]

Wasn't there adverts about different porn stars saying piracy was hurting the industry or something like that a few months back?

That's the most hilarious comedy to come out of the porn industry ever.

Lessee the problems...

1) Porn stars preaching morality
2) Porn stars getting paid to have sex
3) Porn star (women) have alternatives to video
4) No mention of how they get paid, just "downloading videos are bad"...

I could go on but... That was too funny.

 

[Jonluw]

I think one of the reasons people don't care might be that we already have as much porn as we'll ever need. It's not like it's necessary to produce new porn flicks all the time. If the porn industry was to go down, we would still have all the porn we'd ever need floating around the internet. It's not like we'd be missing any new compelling stories.

It's only really necessary to create new porn when we've invented a new piece of technology for displaying it, or a new position to show people

Of course we need new porn. So much of it is crap, you really have to search to find the good stuff. It would be nice if the industry focused more on quality than volume though.

The problem of most porn being crap won't be solved by producing more porn.

But we've all got 3D systems now! It all needs to be digitally remastered and the industry should borrow some of James Cameron's 3D Avatar cameras to film new stuff! We need to see things poking out at us... so to speak.

It's only really necessary to create new porn when we've invented a new piece of technology for displaying it

Also, speaking of story, do you think there is actually a writer for that stuff somewhere in the world? I'd love that job!

Naaah... I think the director just makes it up on the spot or something...

 

[ScorpSt]

Porn is protected by the First Amendment (in the US anyway). Unfortunately, that's about all the protections they get because of the stigma attached to them. This has placed the porn industry (yes, it is an industry, just like people say "entertainment industry") in the position of having to make piracy work for them.

Many porn companies/sites will place samples of their videos on piracy sites but jealously guard their full products. This places the pirates in the position of having to either purchase the full product (be that a movie or website subscription) if they want everything or be satisfied with what they manage to get without paying.

I have also heard rumors that some companies deliberately share products that are infected with viruses. This is technically illegal, but who's going to say they had to wipe their computer because they got a virus from illegal internet porn. It'd be like getting caught spending stolen counterfeit money.

 

[OrokuSaki]

In all fairness, porn was declining before piracy even became involved. Since the advent of webcams amateur porn has been on a rise, so even if people WEREN'T ashamed of buying porn (which they are) the amount of porn that would be available for free far outnumbers professionally done pieces.

You know, even though they have an industry, porn does seem like a very broad term. There's no..... qualification to be called porn. For instance, a movie has to be something that's done at least semi-professionally and be at least an hour long. Everything else is a "video", but porn can be two half-naked people humping for 20 seconds and as long as there's a naked girl, it's porn. Technically they don't even need to be having sex, turn on HBO at night and there'll be naked women and NO SEX WHATSOEVER and it's still porn. There need to be some rules.

Anyways, yes piracy effects porn, but mostly people don't talk about it because people are ashamed of their "filthy" habit/addiction. That and they're two completely different protesting audiences; piracy generally being protested by industries/artists and their fans, and porn by mothers who don't want their children to see "such horrible exploitation of women and humans as a whole." and they don't often overlap. (Mind you, not saying they NEVER overlap, just saying that you rarely see a mom protesting the piracy of the latest GTA game)

 

[Dys]

The potential loss of porn producers is far, far greater than that of video game, music or film producers, yet they ***** about it the least, in fact, not only do they not ***** about it, they also don't commit to only producing 'safe' products with minimal investment the same way as the other industries do (seriously, you wouldn't believe how much technology gets adopted because of the porn industry).

Ultimately, it's because porn producers are forced to live in the real world. There is no government support which makes it hard to litigate things, there are not really internationally famous porn stars complaining about piracy and, above all of that, it's a fiercely competitive industry so there's no room for DRM and the other poor decisons other companies make. They are forced to act in an economically sensible way, and complaining about or wasting time trying to recover sunk costs is not economically viable.

 

[Bobbity]

Yet we rarely (if ever) hear about how the rampant pirating of porn could be/is damaging that industry. Every once in a blue moon I may hear about a porn studio taking legal action against illegal downloaders, but there doesn't seem to be nearly the same polarizing debate about if it's right or not like with games, music, or movies.

Probably because serious analysts can't talk about the state of the porn industry without giggling
To try and be serious though, this never occurred to me. Again, because it's just not something people generally discuss...

 

[Soviet Steve]

I doubt the porn industry will die out, regardless of how it is treated. It isn't like you require a large budget to produce them.

 

[Lionsfan]

A lot of porn sites have started submitting parts of their videos to those sites (so some must be friendly with them, I guess), and give a link in the video to the full thing you have to pay for. For some reason, they always submit clips that it's long enough for the average male to fap to.

I know this through...uh...extensive research in the field.

Well I have no idea what you're talking about...ok bullshitting aside I know what you're talking about. But I'm talking about the people who run the porn studios, like the guys who make the DVD's. They probably don't like the free websites. With the pay-websites I guess they're just trying to get their product out there and hope someone is interested enough to buy a subscription to their site. And I'm guessing it's the personal aspect of the paysite, the whole I'm seeing something that most people aren't etc etc. An even further layer of dirtyness (if that's possible)

Because fuck people who work in porn(like they haven't had enough of that M I RITE LOL). They deserve neither sympathy nor respect and are nothing more than glorified prostitutes and pimps. I'm not trying to take any higher moral ground here, but humanity will be a lot better off without stupid people gobbling chodes on camera.

How would humanity be better off without the adult industry? Just curious as to what added benefits we would get from it disappearing

 

[Misho-]

The thought of sailing up to a porn studio on a pirate ship and pillaging it for its porn makes me giggle.

lawl

U mean like this?

This made me laugh, thank you.

Also yeah I think people fight the piracy on all the levels, but for porn... Well, first of all, people don't usually admit looking at porn or even having knowledge of it in conversations other that their signifcant others and/or friends.

And also because in a way, Porn is Sex. And as long as Sex is something we humans crave and do, there will be a market for porn. Your parents might not buy a Wii to spice up their marriage, but sure as hell in these modern times they will rent a spicy raunchy movie of etiher Softcore (basically where you don't see the genitalia) or Hardcore sex(where you see everything) (Oversimplistic yeah I know).

So piracy won't affect that market as much. They (them pirates) will affect it. But not as much.

Besides any frat boy with a camera, a beer keg, and some chick friends thinks of himself something of a freelance director/producer who uploads his stuff in sites for free. I mean, you just need a good cellphone camera and away you go. It's not like the video game industry where you actually rip off a whole team work effort of months or years. But that's just my view.

 

[Plurralbles]

I though thte porn industry was hte main driver for anti piracy laws back in the day. I thought the music industry just took thier DRM schemes... I could be wrong but hey, the porn industry makes quite a few innovations nobody gives them credit for.