Everyone,
This is going to be another of those posts where I give my opinion on some things. Let me be very clear : These are (as always) simply my thoughts; they’re not meant to try and change anyone’s mind, nor to chastise, call out, or begrudge anyone else’s. We’re all entitled to death, taxes, and the opportunity to piss people off on the internet, right?
Good.
“Pay for your porn”, or, if you’re a Twitter-er-er, #payforyourporn, is a pretty common saying lately among producers, performers, and fans. If you’re not up-to-date on the concept, it’s where folks who make money off adult material (and those who care about them) try to convince the general public not to watch stuff they haven’t paid for. Internet piracy, doncha know.
None of us likes internet piracy – we’re not supposed to, as producers, like it when folks take our stuff without paying. Just like if someone steals peppermint candies from the guy who owns the corner market, that guy’s not thrilled. You can’t blame him. He did, after all, pay for the space, manpower, and goods needed to provide people the opportunity the convenience of buying from him the things they want/need. As a business owner, he’d be a little dumb to encourage shoplifting. He’s also not just dealing in peppermints; he’s providing a valuable service to his community, thereby (hopefully) fostering a sense of goodwill amongst his customers via good customer service, selection, and value.
I think it’s very admirable that folks involved in the adult industry have taken an active interest in unauthorized sharing of their products. I also think that the #payforyourporn ‘movement’ is an enormous waste of both physical and psychic energy on the part of every single person who takes the time to try and convince the general public that they should not take advantage of something so easily and obviously-acceptably accessible (free stuff).
No, I’m not saying it’s okay to steal/distribute other people’s stuff. Naturally, I’m as irritated as the next person when I see that someone’s come into my store, stolen a bunch of peppermints, and has set up on the next corner giving them away for free to passersby. (We’ll talk more some other time about all the ways that the guy who stole the peppermints can actually make lots of money giving them away for ‘free’…but that’s another conversation.) What I AM saying is this: if we producers, performers, and friends spent half as much time protecting our content as we do railing against those who stumble across it on a million-billion different websites every day, we’d probably all be in a much better mood. Proactivity, rather than preaching.
Example : One Monday morning, the guy who owns the corner market suddenly decides that, since a few people have been snitching his peppermints, he’s going to hold all his customers (and potential customers) personally responsible for those thefts. He’s going to start giving stink eye to everyone who makes his front doorbell ring; he’s going to start charging more for other items to make up for the loss of the peppermint income; and, finally, he’s going to post a big giant sign on the front of his shop that reads, “I know you’re all a bunch of dirty, no good thieves, and I’m watching you.”
No.
Well, maybe. But I’d walk right past that store to the one with the sign that says “Welcome”, wouldn’t you?
It’s not the consumer’s problem that folks are stealing our stuff, and it’s not the consumer’s job to police it, either. Walmart doesn’t ask you to take part in their Loss Prevention, do they? No. They say, “Come on in and fill up your basket with some made-in-china-cheap-crap, and come back soon!”, which is exactly what their shoppers want to hear. They do not, ever, want to be made to feel guilty for the fact that they accepted a free peppermint from the guy on the corner on the way to Walmart that day – it’s not their fault that someone’s giving away free candy.
And they shouldn’t be chastised for accepting it.
Another example: Not long ago, after getting my usual BuzzFeedVideo Try Guys YouTube.com fix, I was driving aimlessly around the site when I came upon a video that was titled, “50 First Dates Full Movie”. Well, I love 50 First Dates, and hadn’t seen it in years. It was right there, on YouTube for free, so I watched it. It was GREAT. And guess what? I didn’t feel even remotely guilty for having watched. I didn’t steal the movie, didn’t post it online, and didn’t do some nefarious deep web search for ‘pirate adam sandler drew barrymore torrent download’…it was on youtube, and I watched it. I did not send the creators of 50 First Dates a check for 3.99, nor did I email YouTube to tell them that the movie was there.
So….did I steal this movie? Did I participate in internet piracy? Should the makers of the movie come to my house and shake me down for a few bucks, just to keep things on the up and up?
Whatever. It’s YouTube. They know it’s there – if anyone knows, the big production companies do, exactly where their content is being shared. And more importantly, they KNOW that some folks steal; they also know that lots of folks, when confronted with an easy, free, in-your-face option, will likely sit back with a cold beer and watch Joe Dirt on Putlocker rather than paying to download it from Amazon or something. And it’s their responsibility to make sure that there are as few places for the (relatively innocent) general public to come in contact with this pirated material as possible.
Now let’s talk about how this applies directly to spanking videos – we’ll use mine as an example. Unlike ‘regular’ porn, which is shared on thousands upon thousands of websites from Algeria to Zimbabwe every second of every day, there are relatively few spanking content sharers. They are still there, and they are busy boys and girls, but there aren’t millions of them, and they’re usually pretty easy to find, as we spankos congregate in many fewer places than the typical porn enthusiast.
The concept that my business could be irrevocably damaged by internet piracy of my video content is somewhat ridiculous. If occasional (or even regular, repeated) theft caused businesses to fail, as a singular cause, no company would be able to sustain business for any amount of time whatsoever. Remember the peppermints? EVERY business owner deals with theft, and every one should have ways of keeping it to a minimum. If Walmart didn’t hire security guards, they’d sort of deserve it, wouldn’t they? (Go ahead, admit it. We expect people to protect their own property – we’d look askance at a neighbor who complained about being burglarized if they left their front door wide open, wouldn’t we?) Likewise, if I didn’t police and protect my own content, then I’d expect that folks wouldn’t feel too sorry for me if it got jacked.
Even the big porno companies are obviously still doing a booming business in spite of enormously high piracy figures. Why? Because there are over 8 billion people on the planet, most of them have internet connections, and most of them like porn. Even when theft is considered, that’s still one helluva healthy market, my friends.
Yes, piracy is an issue with which we producers must deal. But it’s not your problem, it’s not yours to police, and it’s certainly not your fault. Do me a favor:
Let me #policemyporn – you just enjoy it.
– Dana
No acceptable excuses work but possibly some people who are screwing you and other producers who are generous enough to offer occasional FREE videos don’t know their own limitations/boundaries. It could be skewed “entitlement”actions…OR they’re simply major assholes without any guilt or conscience and deserve whatever legal punishment which fits the crime.
Kelly, I prefer to kill folks with kindness (most of the time, anyway) rather than worry about whether they’re staying up at night. It all comes out in the wash, as they say.
Great topic!!
So Dana, as I am not as adept in the computer technology world as others; how does one know that they have come upon some ‘pirated’ material on the World Wide Web? Like…sometimes I come across your videos on Spanking Tube (mind you I pay to see those same videos on your on site), but I still wonder if you posted those or if someone stole the video material and posted it. How does one know? I recently saw one of Michael’s on there too. But, I already paid to see that one also. I guess I don’t understand how people can steal stuff and re-post it. Maybe being somewhat computer illiterate isn’t a bad thing at times.
I do have the urge, to say a lot of the times I see stuff out there that I suspect might be pirated; (Oh, if you only new Dana Kane…she would so spank your butt redder then red for that and her husband, too.)
This is my opinion: From a business supporter of Dana Kane and Michael Donovan; they are both super smart and savvy people. You ‘pirates’ have been warned!
Anonymous,
I never post stuff on Youtube, and am always happy when folks let me know that they’re being shared elsewhere. Send me the link, and I’ll send you a ‘thank you kindly’.
There are so many tube sites out there, I have bought a fair share but also downloaded a fair share. I often wonder how sites stay alive. I used to have guys selling dvd’s at the bars I was running of movies still in the theater.
Like you said there is less spanking porn than mainstream and there are times when I have seen one for free and gone and bought others. Who knows, you Walmart analogy is right on. There is an acceptable amount of “shrink” factored into the business. Not sure how you would calculate this on a website.
Ed Lee seemed to be fanatical about saying he would go after you but there is a lot of his stuff all over the net.
My last comment is a little off the topic, but I find it funny to see some “producers” bitch about theft, when the are still actively promoting material as new from a model they did a shoot with years ago. My Domme is an ex model and is routinely used for promoting the sales of product even though she retired from the scene over two years ago. They claim to be friends but they are still making money and she is not.
Interesting post
Rocco, Thanks for your perspective. I should note, though, that it’s considered common entertainment practice (Seinfeld reruns, anyone?) to advertise and rotate older material. Otherwise shows would have to go on into infinity, and the actors would never ever get a vacation.
I’m really drunk as I’m tryping this. I can’t speak for what’s posted on YOU TUBE but I want to clarify you DO post “teasers”, into clips, etc on SPANKING TUBE, right? Because our product r=testing scenes and many others from your website are accessible there.
Drunk Alexis,
Yep, I post the stuff on spankingtube.com, but not many places beside that. Definitely not YouTube. oxxo
As one who has been involved with the music industry for 50 years, I’ve certainly seen my share of outright piracy going back to selling cassette tape copies of record albums out of the trunk of a car at flea markets to peer-to-peer networks where you can find just about any piece of music you want (as well as software that’s used in creating that music) for the picking.
And those who appear to be legitimzing the business for charging a buck for a song download of fifteen bucks a month for all the music listening on line that you want are practically stealing, too. Occasionally the’ll make an almost fair deal with a major label to carry their catalog, but mostly they offer very menial payment to the artists who provide them with their stock-in-trade.
There’s starting to be some turnaround, though, thanks to some organizations that are backing the content creators. They know they’ll never stop outright thieves, those who don’t realize that (and what) they’re stealing, and those who just think it’s their right to take what they can from “the man.” However, they’re doing a lot of publicty, lobbying to Congress, and initiating (and winning) lawsuits. There was a recent court ruling in Canada to get Google to remove links to proven music piracy web sites from their search engines, world-wide. Nobody’s figured out (yet) how to shut down the sites yet, but they’ve made it more difficult to find them. But it’s like “Whack-A-Mole.”
Do you suppose that some day Dom Con will have workshops on “Protecting Your Itellectual Property Rights” in addition to “Breathing Exercise To Get The Most Into Your Corset?” And get some organization started to get action? Maybe some day. Porn is becoming more mainstream.
But back to your question of “is it really stealing?” – Watching a movie on line without paying for doing so isn’t quite the same as taking a peppermint out of a jar in the candy store and not paying for it. When you take the mint, the shop owner loses something he paid for and cannot sell it to another customer. When you watch a video on line, you’re using something that probably wasn’t paid for, and it’s still there. The loss is an “opportunity cost” – the rightful owner of the movie, who does expect to sell it to viewers, is losing the opportunity to sell a viewing opportunity to you because you’ve already seen it for free.
After watching the movie on their computer as a 3 by 4 inch fuzzy image and hearing the sound track on small speakers may decide to purchase the DVD (hopefully not from a pirate) so they can watch it again in their home theater. Similarly, someone who hears a song as a low fidelity audio stream may decide to buy a high quality download or the CD. So it’s not hard to justify distributing free copies as advertising . . . but not for someone with no connection to your business (other than to distribute an unpaid-for copy of your product) who has not even asked your premission, or offered to advertise your product for a fee.
It’s a thankless job for an individual to try to shut down all your “thieves.” But if there was an organization, maybe some day things will get better. In the mean time, just be glad that you still have paying customers.
Mike,
Thank you for taking the time to give your perspective. I don’t believe that there’s any way to stop folks from stealing/sharing, but I also think it’s wrong to blame the consumer. We’re the businesspeople, and it should be our jobs to do the best we can with what recourse we have. At the end of the day, I just want folks to enjoy the content.