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Dan, help me understand.

You said, "Nothing can be illegally downloaded unless it is first uploaded." Don't the pirates get DVDs and copy the content into formats that can be shared on the internet? Or is there a near foolproof way to prevent that?



That they do...my proposed system would work with 'hard copy' items like DVD (and I would suppose Blu-Ray too), but my measure is designed for a business model wherein the producer is the sole retailer...they may produce DVDs, but they will be the only ones selling that DVD. Ergo, no third-party stores carrying the product. You have to know exactly who has purchased/downloaded what...because when someone buys from a brick and mortar store, Evil Angel has no idea who has their product, neither does Warner Bros., ergo tracking them becomes almost an impossibility. One upload gets downloaded multiple times, re-uploaded, etc, etc. Once it is out there, it is impossible to keep track of, hence the onus is on identifying and plugging the leaks...permanently.

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Your example discusses a $7.50 scene. I don't know of many scenes I'd pay $7.50 for, certainly not for downloaded quality.



Yet that is exactly what you are doing when you stay on for a second month...of course, the $7.50 figure presupposes a single weekly update...some sites add a lot more, some a lot less.

As for not paying $7.50 for a scene, what if it was something you really wanted to watch? I normally throw out a hypothetical (and thoroughly implausible) 'white whale' scenario such as an Aria Giovanni or Erica Campbell boy/girl scene. Talent that can bring a fan following could probably get $20-30 for a scene (lots of people join websites for just one scene/girl because there is no other way to get the scene otherwise, so people will pay these sums if forced).

However, such popularity is a double-edged sword. If the producer offers an inflated fee, piracy may stop him getting his money back. If he offers the model profit participation, piracy may dent profits to such an extent that it wasn't really worthwhile doing it in the first place. These little pirate arseholes want to be the first one to drop the new scenes on their adoring public, and with popular girls the demand from the leechers will be high...just look at Sunny Leone's b/g debut, which I believe was available to fileshare less than 48 hours after it streeted (possibly less than that...I wasn't really looking for it).

What I'd like to see is a system whereby the more popular girls make money commensurate to their status rather than just a flat fee. If Sasha Grey sells 100 times more than Leah Luv, she should get 100 times the money too. Not only is it fairer, but I believe it will only serve to improve the quality of talent coming in as well. However, if you can't nip piracy in the bud, royalties and the like become a moot point...it may turn out that Leah Luv sells 100 times more than Sasha Grey because she is less popular and thus less pirated. Strange but true.

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If there is a way to implement protection of DVD content, could producers delay internet release until DVD sales of a title have been realized, then release on the internet pay site? Kinda like a mainstream movie going from theatre to rental to pay-per-view to cable?



With my system, I see it being the other way around, with DVD being the tertiary stage/end of the content's product lifecycle. Let's say I'm putting out a movie with six scenes...I put three up as pay-per-clip, then release the DVD (or a full movie download) with all six scenes (if, say, a feature), then, after a predetermined period (12 months, maybe?), I put up the other three scenes for individual download. DVD is more of a grey area in that whilst there are legal remedies for people who would redistribute digital content, I don't know if there is any law, or if a binding contract could be drawn up wherein resale of a DVD was prohibited. Personally, I'm far more likely to buy a physical product than join a website or watch PPV/VOD if the same content is involved, purely because if I don't like the movie or magazine, I can sell it on and recoup my money. You can't do that with electronic media...and, to make a comic book analogy, nobody is going to give you thousands of dollars for a pdf of 'Amazing Fantasy #15'.

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They said radio would ruin baseball, but it made more fans come out to the ballpark. I don't know what that has to do with this, but there must be a way to make this work.



Porn has never been more popular or mainstream than it is right now, but rampant piracy is preventing the studios and talent from being able to properly monetize this popularity.
My reading of the situation is that bigger, 'couples-friendly' outfits that specialise mainly in features or 'high end' stuff will be alright, but it's the interchangeable gonzo outfits that are going to be taking the pounding. Feature buyers tend to want the whole package, raincoaters just want one scene. As I am continually pointing out to tritone (to little avail), there is a reason for the dichotomy in what gets made and what he wants to see get made, and that's purely because the smarter producers are tailoring and aiming thir products at a paying audience. There is a vast 'silent majority' of porn buyers that don't post on ADT, hence the discrepancy in who/what the fanbois think is hot and what actually shifts the most units. In the real world, stuff like 'Island Fever' trumps 'Fuck My Gaping Shithole 'Til It Bleeds' every time. Hotel PPV, softcore versions for cable, stuff sold via the Adam & Eve catalog (remember: you can't get dildos, lube and lingerie via BitTorrent)...revenue streams that very few gonzo producers can tap in to.

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I really like having fresh content I can play on DVD, and I like to go to a site and download a shitload of scenes in a month, so I am having it both ways now. But, really, most sites I join are only worth about what I pay.



Most internet sites will inherently lack the quality of some of the more professional photographers and videographers out there...just look at Holly Randall's mini-rant about how fucking inane the websites she joined were. The advent of digital cameras and the dawn of the web have served to both lower the bar for entry and level the field...any fucking idiot with a 3-ccd camcorder and Final Cut can be a pornographer these days, it seems. Again, this has further served to devalue the content.

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The pinnacle of porn for me is getting a new Gag Factor DVD in the mailbox, and I don't think that will change.



...as I said in a previous thread, props to you! I don't know whether you order direct from JM or not, but they make the most money that way, so it's the best way to support their gag-related endeavours. I have a bunch of non-porn stuff that I have ordered from the creators (books, CDs, DVDs) and I find you get a really personal service, and sometimes a cheaper price to boot!

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I think another factor is that no one else gives a damn if I have a bookcase full of porno DVDs. For some, the computer files are a lot easier to keep discretely. Dunno the answer there.



True, but those files have got to go somewhere, and at the rate that file sizes are increasing due to the introduction of HD, you know need more discs to burn those scenes onto, or more portable hard drives. A lot of people like to just remove the sleeve and disc from a DVD case and file it away somewhere...me, I've got stuff like Slaughter Disc (indie horror with Caroline Pierce doing hardcore scenes), Dark Angels (currently sat in between From Dusk Till Dawn and Anchor Bay's Box of Blood collection, and not looking at all out of place), and tons of Misty Mundae stuff mixed in with my mainstream DVD collection for all to see...if I owned stuff like Succubus, Black Worm, or some high end Euro features like Pink'O's The Order or The Specialist, they'd be in there too. Unless the movie is called something like 'Cum Craving Co-Ed Cock Guzzlers', then I don't see the problem...'Gag Factor' is probably not the sort of thing you can leave lying around, but then I sincerely doubt Jeff would want it any other way!