A question for content creators (films/videos/etc)

[Matty77]

Greetings again,

I have a question for those of you who create the content - whether it be the women who perform in the various videos, or those who work behind the scenes.

Piracy is one of those things that comes up from time to time amongst people - there's a huge amount of content on the various 'free' porn sites that probably isn't there with the content owner's permission. I admit that I've watched more than my fair share of videos on xvideos and pornhub that were probably not uploaded by the content creator.

However I also make my own content - not so much adult work - but video games. Piracy is also a problem there for people too.

In one of my recent video games - in the metrics I report back to myself of usage I include a marker as to whether or not the session being played is coming from a session run legitimately or not. I don't act on it, I merely report the figure back to myself.

Anyway - I was a little surprised to see that the numbers are upwards (and counting) of 13:1 in terms of pirates:legitimate customers.

On the one hand - it's nice to know people are enjoying my content, however....had they been paying customers I might actually be able to support myself from such work.

What do you feel about piracy in this industry (and other industries)?

Matt.

[Matty77]

Wow...after 36 hours of sales of my recent product the ratio of pirates to paying users is over 30 to 1. I wouldn't need to be on a govt pension if they'd actually bought the product.

So yeah....thought I'd post a comment.

[ErikB]

Wow...after 36 hours of sales of my recent product the ratio of pirates to paying users is over 30 to 1. I wouldn't need to be on a govt pension if they'd actually bought the product.

So yeah....thought I'd post a comment.

I don't know whether your game had DRM and they cracked it, or it is shareware and there are lots of people who just won't pay.

What about releasing a less-capable demonstration version of your next game? Then charge for the fully capable version. It seems you can tell when a session isn't paid for, so just deny service for illegitimate sessions of the full version. Or, maybe just release the demo version, and have a crowd-sourced campaign with a price tag that will get you what you want while working for your next game. If the goal is met, you can release the full version without restrictions.

Many adult sites release low-resolution or otherwise inferior copies of what they have, hoping to get people to pay for a subscription.

[Davest]

Wow...after 36 hours of sales of my recent product the ratio of pirates to paying users is over 30 to 1. I wouldn't need to be on a govt pension if they'd actually bought the product.

So yeah....thought I'd post a comment.

So, on the one hand, never in a million years would all the pirates have purchased your content. The vast majority are only playing it because they can get it for free. On the other hand, if even just one of those 30 would have purchased it, your sales would have doubled. Same for Hub and Tube sites and porn. I don't have any figures, but when the free porn sites first cropped up around 2007, the amount of money that left the industry was huge. Production companies went out of business. The scale of remaining productions was cut way back. How many actual movies (with plots) are made these days, versus 20 years ago? Remember when production companies would fly the cast and crew to exotic locations for shoots? No one can afford to do that any more. The money simply isn't there.

Some of the big name hub/tube sites do indeed only allow uploads from verified users these days. Those are notably the ones, like Porn Hub, that are owned by Mindgeek, who were forced within the past few years to crack down on a bunch of shady practices by government investigations and credit card companies. But any title that is released still can be found within 24 hours on numerous other sites. I remember listening to an Audible Original called the Butterfly Effect where they talked with Mike Quasar. He pointed out how fruitless it was to try and ask the free porn sites to take down his material because, with a day, it would be uploaded again several times over.

Check the graph of music industry revenue in the attached link. In 1998 or 1999 music Industry revenue (adjusted for inflation) was about $21.5 billion. After Napster was launched there was a sharp decline and by 2015 the industry was only worth about $7 billion per year. I wouldn't be surprised if free porn cost the porn industry at least two-thirds of its income as well. Given the American sense of shame around sex and pornography and the fact that physical copies were required before high speed downloads became ubiquitous, I would expect the revenue loss in porn due to hub and tube sites to be even greater, but that is just a personal opinion.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/music-industry-sales/

The advent of 'Fans' type sites has helped, especially by allowing performers to take control of their material, at the cost of having to each become full production companies themselves. Overall, the porn industry has changed greatly in the past twenty years.

[stickyvicky]

What a great thread! I just found this! What is the name of your game? Where can we legitimately download it?