Last week Lightspeed & Grooby filed suit against hundreds of bittorrent users who allegedly downloaded their porns.

It really saddens me to see this happening for a myriad of reasons.

First, let’s look at how well this worked for the RIAA.  The RIAA  spent $58 million suing file sharers over the span of 3 years and got just over 2% back.  Has file sharing slowed down?  Not a bit.

Do you think that the threat of being sued will stop someone from downloading porn? And more importantly, do you think that the threat of being sued will make someone decide to pay instead?  Very unlikely, especially considering that free porn is not scarce.  The sheer volume of it provides plenty of alternatives for anyone short on money and scared to hit up pirate bay.

More importantly are privacy issues.

The three companies now join a handful of other adult companies that have pledged to stomp out piracy. Adult studios Titan Media, Corbin Fisher and Michael Lucas Productions each have recently filed suits targeting swarms of John Doe bit torrent users.

In all of the legal cases, the companies have asked for motions to discover the identities of the defendants through their Internet service providers.

The biggest reason that porn exploded onto the internet is because people could view whatever they wanted in the privacy of their own home.  No need to go to a local porn shop and hope no one sees you or feel awkward if the clerk looks at you funny when you place whatever kinky titles you chose on the counter.  By finding out identities of people they may be able to shakedown a lot of people by offering a settlement.  “We won’t tell the world with a lawsuit that you downloaded Truckstop Trannies 4 if you pay up $1000 now.”  But, that kind of behavior will only serve to make consumers dislike the industry even more.

Piracy

I just discovered these anti piracy PSA’s done by the Free Speech Coalition & several adult industry performers and producers.  Joanna Angel even makes an appearance.

I have generally supported the free speech coalition’s attempt to lobby the government on free speech issues to make sure that consenting adults can produce and/or consume porn without fear of prosecution.  However, this latest stunt is just a waste of resources.

Hey industry, remember when the RIAA and the MPAA did these kind of ads and no one cared?  Yeah, you are doing the same thing.

It’s true, there are a lot of good, hard working people in this industry who are just trying to make a living and do what they enjoy.  I am one of them.  But as a whole, this industry has been pretty damn shitty to the consumer.  The people you are asking to support you now, have been mislead, overcharged and ripped off time and time again.

How about charging a reasonable price for your content?  How about providing good customer service?  How about making sure the affiliates who represent you are being ethical and not misleading people or sending them off to a big circle jerk?  As a whole, the industry stopped giving people a reason to pay and they are not going to feel sorry for anyone.  Not for whiny porn stars with families in a PSA and not even the many honest people out there like myself and others who do provide good service and content.

The only way anyone is going to make it in this industry now is to give people a reason to buy.  Really put some thought into how you are going to connect with the customers and make them feel happy about supporting you. Lots of people are already doing it and successfully, it’s just a matter of who is going to jump on board and who is going to get left behind.

Piracy