The Pornographers vs. The Pirates 275
conq writes "BusinessWeek has a piece on how pornography is again leading the way and showing Holywood how to fight back against piracy. From the article: 'Some producers of porn are starting to share revenues from online movies with the distributors of their DVDs, who might otherwise feel endangered by digital distribution online. Bolder yet, one large studio is allowing fans who buy movies online to burn them from their computers onto DVDs, with some protections included, of course.'"
Delivery by download not new (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course it's easier to share it with a few thousand closest friends on Internet when you don't have to rip it first. But is it really the ripping part that is hard? Isn't that the easiest part? Why is that so bold, as the summary says?
Re:It isn't needed. (Score:5, Interesting)
I think this will make all the profit margins for the adult industry go up, and the RIAA should look into not being such raging pricks but nice calm porn CEO's
Re:The real technique they're using... (Score:5, Interesting)
(I've been waiting a long time for the appropriate place to use that line!)
Re:Delivery by download not new (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course paid downloading isn't new and I wouldn't exactly say porn is leading the way (though I would agree porn had done a lot for the internet as well as VHS). I've been using iTunes for some time now, and I've never owned an iPod. It's such a convienance, with one gripe, only 30 secs of a song can be previewed. Anyways, I just spent $5 on iTunes a weekago. I had 5 singles I enjoyed listening too and I downloaded them, burned them to a CD, ripped them back into MP3, put them on my PSP to work out with (yeah, I use it more of a MP3 player than a video or game player. Saddly, that beautiful screen isn't used much, much to my dismay.)
That same purchase would have costed me between $60-$100 to buy the 5 CD's that each had one of those songs on them. Of course, I would have gotten much more music, but it wasn't the music I was willing to buy. It would be like going to a fast-food restaurant and being forced to only get the combo meal when all you wanted was a small fry.
I use to work at Wal-Mart and that is when I realized that I no longer wanted to buy CD's. Wal-Mart, the self proclaimed "low price leader", bought their CD's for like $3 and turned around and sold them for $15-20. I wasn't about to participate in that kind of money hording. I'll just keep listening to the radio and downloading the song I want.
Comment removed (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Coz They Cant Lobby (Score:2, Interesting)
If you're looking for a source, I can offer you the Al Franken show. That's where I heard this information. He was ralling against John McCain for taking contributions from the porn, but that seemed to be a bit of a, ha ha gain, stretch.
Re:World peace (Score:4, Interesting)
As for burning it onto a DVD, there are thousands of reasons. Including:
1. Getting tips from a pro - If you watch a world cup soccer match, it doesnt make you a world cup soccer player. But it can give you ideas on how to better yourself, and if you watch it over and over, you understand how it works, then you can just go practice it.
2. Some full length porn features are really long, especially the ones without stories. So it could take you a while to get through it, having convenience on DVD.
3. Save space on your computer.
4. Easier to put a DVD into a dvd player then it is to drag a laptop or a monitor over towards your bed to watch it with your girl/boy/trannyfriend.
5. Label it family photos and the kids will never touch it.
6. Easier to share with friends.
7. A particular porn star might just tickle your fancy, so you watch it for them, instead of the movie itself.
8. Being able to give a physical size to your collection, giving you bragging rights "Mine is bigger then yours!"
9. If your computer breaks down, and you need to take it to a techie, they wont find your stash after you have already burnt and deleted it.
10. Same reason anyone buys any movies on DVD or VHS for that matter, after 5 years you forgotten the nitty gritty parts and you can rewatch and learn.
BTW just because you don't share your porn with a kinky significant other (if you have one that is) doesn't mean other people don't. I would prefer my porn in DVD format.
Re:Bigger Business (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I learned my lesson. (Score:3, Interesting)
And more interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yet both groups manage to come up with advances.
Re:Protections? (Score:2, Interesting)
CAPITALISM AT IT'S BEST: Supply and Demand (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It isn't needed. (Score:2, Interesting)
The main difference I see is that porn is an addictive substance. Don't you remember the playground pushers motto, "The first one is always free"?
Many people would not buy porn their first time out. They have to "acquire the taste" first before they will go and spend cash on it. What better way to expose people to it than to make it free and obscenely easy to access?
Most consumers of porn are feshitists of some kind. They enjoy seeing activity "x" over seeing position "y", etc. This selectivity leads to the consumer model of porn. Cater to the individual tastes. Then, if you make it they will come. Sometimes on your face. But invariably they will come and buy it. Not all of them, but enough of them to pay the bills and make it worthwhile.
Even those who never pay for pornographic material help the ponographers consumer model by showing it to others. It spreads through people in an almost a viral way: some are immune, some have it but it is dormant, some are carriers, and some are just plain sick.
So to put it in analogy format: free pirated porn on the internet is to porn sales as FM radio is to album sales. The mechanisms of interest and addiction are different, but the result is similar. Show people something that they want and some of them will spend cash on it.
However, the price of "buying" a new customer for porn is a bit higher than music because the pornograpther is fighting religious conditioning, social stigma, even secular morality in an attempt to gain a new customer. This dosen't even consider the fact of restricted access and delivery methods. Fortunately for those pandering porn they have the biology of the body on their side. From endorphins and adrenaline to sensory neurons and autonomic responses we are hard-wired into sexual desire. All they have to do is pit the body against the inhibitions enough times through repeated exposure and they have a new client, probably for life.
Repeated exposure...Hmmm. Remind you of anything? How about how radio stations play the same song over and over.
Coincidence?