tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8385392963347857134.post3413481430178092096..comments2023-10-23T09:51:37.441-05:00Comments on Blog of Pro-Porn Activism: The Porn File-Sharing Debate Goes Viral: Vicky Vette Declares Total War On RapidShare (And Other "Theives")Renegade Evolutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17905949172886730262noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8385392963347857134.post-32468983305635438742010-03-08T19:41:06.497-06:002010-03-08T19:41:06.497-06:00"online porn producers are being about as har..."online porn producers are being about as hard"<br /><br />Oops - no pun intended. Online porn producers are being *hit* about as hard.iacbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08267608319896053702noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8385392963347857134.post-5155696836675481112010-03-08T19:39:36.740-06:002010-03-08T19:39:36.740-06:00The thing with Rapidshare and the like is that, in...The thing with Rapidshare and the like is that, in themselves, they have a legitimate purpose. Most email don't allow you to send a file larger than about 500 Megs, which means even sending something like a large PowerPoint can be difficult. To send something larger, you need to put it on a file sharing site and send somebody the link. <br /><br />While having this ability has the side effect of allowing piracy of large files, where sites like Rapidshare cross the line is that they encourage piracy. Basically, they have a membership system based on pay-to-download (at full speed) rather than pay-to-upload, and more notably, encourage uploading of pirated content by crediting uploaders with membership time if they upload files that are in turn frequently downloaded. This has the effect of encouraging the escalation of pirating behavior from being a downloader of pirated content to an uploader as well.<br /><br />The explosion of file sharing has had one arguably salutary effect, and one I think content providers need to catch up on. File sharing and video sites has made it possible for media of all kinds to be shared very quickly and across international boundaries. I was able to see the BBC program "Hardcore Profits" and respond to it here because the program made it onto the file sharing sites within 24 hours of its broadcast.<br /><br />Quite often, when I want to get a porn or other DVD that isn't available at a local brick-and-mortar store, I have to order it and wait a week to get it. Now if I simply didn't give a shit, I'd probably often be able to find a pirated version and have it in 15 minutes, in the same resolution. Some companies are figuring out that selling downloadable versions (in the same resolution as the DVD) is the way to go, and, in fact, that's the way I picked up my last several Viv Thomas titles. And, of course, there are many companies (Little Mutt and Sapphic Erotica come to mind) that forgo DVDs entirely and sell high-end video content via website membership.<br /><br />That still doesn't solve the problem of having stolen content available for free (online porn producers are being about as hard as the ones that stick to the DVD title model), but it does point to the problem that in terms of simply fostering accessibility of content, in many cases, the pirates are actually *ahead* of the legitimate sources.<br /><br />As for the question of technical fixes, is some kind of digital rights management a possibility? I know this failed miserably for the music industry, but that was a case where the consumer had a legitimate interest in having the downloaded song or album available for playback on several different systems. For porn and other movie content, limiting copies to small number might be more reasonable.iacbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08267608319896053702noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8385392963347857134.post-18868961491282274132010-03-08T03:20:30.131-06:002010-03-08T03:20:30.131-06:00I'm with her 100% on this. Piracy, whatever th...I'm with her 100% on this. Piracy, whatever the pirates prefer to call it, is the single most devastating element in the perfect storm currently ravaging our industry. The weak economy, the collapse of the overproduction bubble, the increasingly hostile political atmosphere and the industry's own failure to adapt to Internet technology as its primary revenue stream have all contributed, but nothing beats having your merchandise stolen and given away to all your customers for free.<br /><br />In a very short time, if this is not addressed, we will go from having a glut of new porn to having little or no new porn at all. We cannot and will not make it for free.<br /><br />In the end, there are no real technical fixes for this problem (do to the analog hole that really isn't a technical problem), copyright laws haven't been effectively enforced for mainstream content on the Internet, much less for porn, and it's a whack-a-mole game to go after either individual individual uploaders or individual downloaders.<br /><br />For the past couple of years, I've been arguing forcefully for a combined strategy of building a new marketing platform akin to itunes for porn while vigorously pursuing a campaign of consumer education. I don't think most downloaders think of themselves as thieves, or want to see people like Vicky put out of business as a result of their actions, but they have to be made to see that their actions are in fact theft and will in fact have that effect. There will always be those who don't care, but I think particularly where fans of individual performers are concerned, the power of moral suasion is not to be dismissed. <br /><br />So I'm glad she's going public with this and I hope others will do the same.Ernest Greenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14371385468484866133noreply@blogger.com