Not All Porn Companies Suing File Sharers; Some Are Looking To Adapt And Compete

from the good-for-them dept

In the last year, we've seen a ton of porn producers go after file sharers with the typical mass p2p "pre-settlement" letter threat shakedown campaign. Thankfully, not all of them think that's the best strategy. Greg Sandoval, over at News.com has a good story about one porn producer, Pink Visual, that actually decided to engage with its community and see if it could adapt to the market, rather than fight its customers. The article includes a list of really good points by the company's spokesperson, Quentin Boyer:
  • You've had a lot of companies, both in mainstream and adult entertainment, who've been kind of stubborn on the question of access and convenience. They want people consuming their content the way the companies want it consumed. They want to monetize it the way they want to. About two years ago we began to see that as a losing battle.
  • In November, we actively began to engage user communities. Some people would identify them as pirate communities. Certainly, that's not the term we would use. For sure, there are content pirates among them too, but there are a lot of fans and a lot of potential customers. We started asking them 'What would make you more likely to purchase?' 'What do you want to see and what don't you want to see?'
  • A consumer who will come onto the Internet and buy adult content is someone who wants access and convenience. At the end of the day, lots of people provide the same kind of content. So, how do I differentiate myself as an adult-content producer? I give them better technology, better user experience, and better price point.
  • Part of our thinking is that you don't really benefit from bickering [or] by pointing fingers at the large user base that's out there. Setting aside for a second the question of whether some of them are ripping your content from a DVD and uploading it to the torrents, what do I have to gain by ostracizing this huge group of people, which is a mixed bag of people who might be willing to purchase and people who will never purchase?
  • I don't want to paint them all with the same brush. I think that's the mistake that some in mainstream entertainment have made, and I think that mistake's being replicated in the adult industry. I certainly understand the frustration that rights holders feel. We experience the same frustration. But at some point you have to be pragmatic and say, "OK piracy is a fact of life. It's been there for a long time. Now what?"
  • The important question is, can you make your appeal more effective? Can you make your marketing more effective and draw the people who are willing to purchase from you out from that population and get them to buy what you're selling?
Nice to see companies realize that suing is certainly not the only way to respond to a market that involves file sharing.
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Filed Under: adapting, engaging, file sharing, piracy, porn
Companies: pink visual


Reader Comments

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  1. icon
    sehlat (profile), 24 Feb 2011 @ 12:44pm

    Interesting Parallels to what Eric Flint Has Said For Years

    I find it interesting that other people are finally waking up to what author Eric Flint (1632 et. many al.) has said for years in his "Salvos Against Big Brother" columns
    in "Jim Baen's Universe" magazine. The articles had all of the above and more in them and they started in 2006.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:02pm

    They should change their name...

    To Rule #34 Entertainment....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:03pm

    Negotiating with terrorists has a long history of working out well.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:09pm

    Re:

    You know what else works out well? Oblique statements.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    :Lobo Santo (profile), 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:13pm

    Re:

    [citation needed]

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Ben (profile), 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:19pm

    Re: They should change their name...

    I wonder if Rule 34 has been applied to Techdirt

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    FormerAC (profile), 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:28pm

    Interesting ...

    Interesting ...

    I hadn't made the connection before, but you are right. The recorded music and movie industries are behaving like terrorists.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Justin Olbrantz (Quantam), 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:29pm

    Re: Re: They should change their name...

    I for one do not want to see Masnick on TAM action.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    Gwiz (profile), 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:31pm

    Re:

    Negotiating with terrorists has a long history of working out well.

    Lolwut?

    You are not comparing customers to terrorists are you??

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Feb 2011 @ 1:40pm

    Re: Re: Re: They should change their name...

    "I for one do not want to see Masnick on TAM action."

    Angry Dude does this weird move called the double fishhook. It's breathtaking....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    DCX2, 24 Feb 2011 @ 2:16pm

    Re:

    Bombing terrorists has a long history of working out well. It's worked for ten years in Afghanistan and I'm sure it will work for another ten years!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Feb 2011 @ 2:57pm

    All they are really doing is using porn to sell something else. It works out if they have a supply of cheap porn to work with. But as the porn industry suffers greatly, production of porn drops, and these guys run out of the supply of stuff to lure people in.

    Most of the big moves in porn are made by not selling porn.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Feb 2011 @ 5:15pm

    I once paid for a subscription to an adult site specifically because I had downloaded some of their stuff and wanted to see more by them.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    mirradric, 28 Feb 2011 @ 2:27am

    Re:

    Exactly... think of all those poor porn farmers... err.. I meant corn farmers...

    link to this | view in thread ]


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