Pornocracy. New doc about the fuckers who destroyed the porn biz as we knew it.
 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/11/why-porn-has-gotten-so-rough.html

Pornocracy, an eye-opening documentary about the state of porn playing at SXSW. The crux of the film, directed by the French porn veteran turned director Ovidie, is that free XXX tube sites have not only left the adult industry in tatters, but are a pox on society: a danger to sex workers, forcing them into extreme acts of degradation due to dwindling demand, and to our youth, allowing them unfettered access to hardcore pornography.

Great article and the documentary looks awesome! :thumbsup

Parents control their childrens a access to the internet.

If a kid runs onto the highway and gets hit its not the vehicle makers fault.

Sex workers choose to make money with their bodies and the last thing that impacts their reality is tube sites, that's a completely different customer base.

I do agree that tube sites have decimated our industry. Profiting from theft and putting others out of work because of it is evil.

Food for porn thought. Thanks.

The doc shows how all the big tube sites are run by the same fuckers.

This looks really interesting.

But fuck it. I am happy watching women suck off horses for free on luxuretv surrounded by exoclick ads. Funny when I see a LiveJasmin pop-up. I am watching a woman fuck a horse. Watching some Euro girl flash her ass isn't gonna do it for me anymore. I would like to see some cams with live animal fucking.

I will admit. I don't like how pornhub puts ads in public places and tries to go mainstream. I was really pissed when I saw the "pornhub wants to do porn in space" story on news. My nephew was in the room. I wanted to cross the US into Canada so I could get my hands on those fuckers. But that is the way of the world now. I forgive and want to be like them.

It also bother me when I see little kids making reaction videos on youtube to the Alyssa Rosales video. Pretty fucked up. But that is the world now.

This has been up since 2013

seems to me tubes are ripe to get focused on by the feds. obviously there is a country bumpkin in the DOJ now, somebodies gotta get flogged. they look like low hanging fruit since they are more accessible than pay-porn.

hurting tubes could restore order to the business & increase wages for the ladies.

:2 cents:

Yes we've lived it and know where the bodies are buried. You're in church telling us there's a devil. Those of us left know how to protect our content enough to survive, and a lot of other things I'm guessing you're not aware of yet, it's a big dark deep digital world out there :thumbsup

Somehow get lawmakers to require a paywall behind all nudity.
It will prevent a lot more kids from viewing porn than any porn filter and sales will be back to how they were in the 90s.

Good job to everyone just spewing out promo content and not sticking to good marketing.. :upsidedow

Tennessee launched a resolution to study the effects of pornography recently. I don't think anything will come of it. And I don't see how it can be stopped.

Well, Maybe something like operation choke point on the advertisers. But as long as the advertisers stay overseas, I don't see an issue.

Once the cost of B/W dropped. Porn Tubes and the decimation of the porn industry were inevitable. Because enough people support Tubes to scrape the barrel.

Hard to believe that only 10 short years ago, non nude could still sell.

Tubes was just one major factor which contributed to it, second one was google behavior by giving all search engine placements to tubes and kicking all old style sites.

The porn industry has been hijacked by tube sites. Plain and simple.

Google sends people to the sites they like the best. It was never their job to save our asses.

Tubes are dust without advertising revenue. Mainstream would not have advertised with them back in the day. Pornsites were happy to fund Tubes by buying Ad space and by submitting clips. A total boycott of buying Ad Space and boycotting any sites that did would have killed them off.

In the real world of business, it's every dog for himself until there are no bones left.

Online porn was always in favour of giving away the maximum amount of content to lower sales from the start. I told you many times that when the migration of offline porn consumers stopped, the increases you thought you were getting would stop and decline. And that you were always losing more sales the more you gave away. All you need to sell porn is a box cover or front page picture.

I was never listened to.

Who do you think is behind all this?

Hint: It's the feds.

The entire business model is laundering money for the government.

Threads like these always have someone saying this every time with wishful thinking and dreams of the past--usually it is just Paul. If the feds or any government division goes after the adult industry they will not discriminate. If you think they would just go after one faction that will turn back the clocks on everything you are delusional. It would hurt all of us from producers, to billers, to advertisers to affiliates.

This should never be something we are divided in.

Well, not 100% correct. I have always worked with tubes and for the most part have always been of the opinion that it was a business model that simply outflanked pay sites. Adapt or die. I am not talking about tubes that stole content and/or turned the other cheek to theft of content of course. Those sites are nothing but thieves. We have worked with you guys for a number of years and will continue to do so. :thumbsup

Where I disagree with you is that it very plausible that this administration goes after free porn not behind a pay wall. Even though they have always wanted to avoid using credit cards as age verification it is a solution that would get good PR and could be done in an extremely impactful manner targeting less than 10? 20? brands.

I am not saying that I support that. However I believe that tubes have much more exposure then other models and the consolidation of the sites under so few companies makes them an easier target. A target that would struggle to get much industry support unless it made some big compromises to buy that support.

I'd like to watch this doc

Anyone know where i can watch the full thing?

You're 100% spot on :thumbsup I remember when the inspections started in 2006 it was crazy but they did seem to focus on low hanging fruit like Diabolical etc.

Nowadays 95% of offending material is hosted overseas and it would be interesting to see if they only go after American hosts or make it an international effort.

Make no mistake porn is on their agenda, they've made that clear.

Can't they block tube sites? It seems if the US wanted to block them they could

Great vid!

I only saw the youtube clip as well ?:2 cents:

^ They're showing it at SXSW yesterday, today and Wednesday. I doubt the full version is publicly out yet, unless someone pirated it.. :upsidedow

I am sure you can buy it after SXSW. Maybe contact them https://www.facebook.com/JavaFilms

cannot find it, ended up watching a random girl getting fucked by a horse

Are you sure it was a girl?

It still does sell, the problem is the billers are out of the equation and girls are doing it on instagram and snapchat for private sessions. The industry really needs to work together and figure out a better way.

Nailed it.

If Tubes aren't dealt with there won't be much left. Their rise has already hurt producers, to billers, to advertisers to affiliates. You must know that from your turnovers.

As for being divided. You must be in a different word to the rest of us. Tubes were inevitable as Hosting and B/W costs plummetted.

Tubes are getting the traffic because they're better than paying for porn. Unless they're removed more sites will fail.

Porn has always been on governments agendas. This is a phrase straight out of the 1990s.

Grow a pair or go sell something else.

That is really interesting, thanks a lot for the post

I posted about this a couple months ago, I am glad it is getting some attention and I am proud to have been a part of it. Kudos to Ovidie for standing up in a way that most porners dont have the balls to do.

Just read an great article about this documentary that spells everything out crystal clear. Is never heard of Ovidie until this thread and this article lends me much respect for her now and her in depth knowledge of the industry are refreshing! Love to interact with her some day about where the adult industries future can be headed.

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Full Story Here:'Pornocracy' Impacts SXSW -- and the World | The Huffington Post

Pornocracy: The New Sex Multinationals premiered today at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference & Festival in Austin, TX. It?s a must see.

The documentary film was spearheaded by French feminist filmmaker, author, and former adult performer Ovidie. Via Pornocracy, Ovidie investigates changes in the international adult entertainment industry, focusing on how a group of programmers hijacked porn ? and consequently, also reshaped the general public?s relationship with erotic entertainment ? via piracy-based tube sites.

From the outset, Pornocracy makes one shocking point clear: early innovators knew tube sites would decimate the adult industry. And according to the founder of YouPorn, one of the first tube sites to hit the web, they went ahead and did it anyway ? all as a way to make big money from advertising using other people?s stolen content.

To me, as a member of the adult industry for over 25 years ? an industry that is routinely stigmatized by wider ?civilian? (as we say) society ? the idea that members of our community had even an inkling that tube technology would impact the adult industry as it has is absolutely galling. And Pornocracy has this declaration on record.

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According to press material, Pornocracy came about completely by chance. Ovidie discovered that, when typing her name into Google, videos featuring her were freely available on piracy-based tube sites, and it was (apparently) impossible to get them taken down. Some of the videos were from films she?d performed in toward the end of the ?90s ? films that had had only a few hundred hard copies made were now being seen by millions of people. What began as a small personal inquiry became an international investigation about a ?band of geeks? who created a mysterious multinational corporation ? first known as Mansef, then Manwin, and now MindGeek ? that has managed to stranglehold porn production and distribution worldwide. Also, just so you know, MindGeek acquired YouPorn in 2011. They also own PornHub.

The film first looks at ?the prey? ? porn performers and adult industry workers from around the world ? and then attempts to trace the evolution of MindGeek to present day. This is a near-impossible endeavor as Ovidie delves deeper and deeper into global business and internet law (also, lawlessness), all of which seem to have a shelter or loophole for piracy-based tube sites around every corner. And the social impact of this mysterious evolution is, in no uncertain terms, hugely significant.

Pornocracy explains piracy?s impact as multi-dimensional, rooted in the synergistic relationship existing between porn production and porn consumption. Its thesis is two-fold. In terms of porn consumers, as piracy-based tube sites have made adult content more and more accessible during the last decade, consumer appetites are whetted for increasingly hardcore content, thus increasingly hardcore content is made. Simultaneously, viewers are also conditioned to believe that porn is something they are entitled to access for free. This operates in conjunction with what?s happening inside the adult industry. As more and more content is stolen and it becomes increasingly difficult for producers to recoup costs associated with content production, companies close and/or consolidate. This makes work increasingly difficult to come by for performers, which increases workplace competition and drives performers? rates down.

As a producer and director who has worked in porn since the ?90s, I am painfully aware of the deleterious and destructive impact piracy has had on the adult industry. It seems, however, that most people who consume content via piracy-based tube sites have no idea what?s happening behind the scenes. Pornocracy will be an eye-opener to tube site viewers and people not within the industry.

Consuming stolen content, however, is a multifaceted two-way street. Consequently, I wish that the film had addressed the social aspects of piracy ? namely that, though tube sites definitely put the candy in front of the consumer, social forces also play a huge role in the cycle of piracy. Among other things, sexual shame, stigma, and a culture of entitlement that has rendered many types of creative media ?not worth paying for? in the eyes of consumers are all key players in the porn industry?s ultimate shambles.

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We all have the tendency to reflect on previous parts of our lives through rose-colored glasses, but I hesitate to romanticise pre-piracy porn too much.

Ovidie herself was a performer from 1999 to 2005 and a director from 2000 to 2010, creating a niche collection of artistic erotic films. And though all individual experiences and perspectives are significant, ?erotic artistry? is not exactly how I would characterize the general glut of content that was created during porn?s second Golden Era ? the late ?90s to about 2006.

This was a time when the Internet was in full swing, and porn was in intense demand. In those days, like today, performers were also under pressure to work in increasingly hardcore scenes ? but not because the work was slim. Instead, the pressure to work in increasingly extreme scenes was because there was so much content available. Consequently, the stakes were high to stand out and content strove to push limits within an intense, competitive environment. Double vaginal, double anal, DVDA, airtight ? these were not uncommon depictions in mainstream porn produced during the early 2000s. Today, though the reasons why are not the same, we see performers intensifying their work in a similar fashion.

Context is important here. I am most directly experienced with the U.S. industry, and I raise this point to also highlight differences within global porn. Though the industry may look the same to the casual viewer, there are actually dramatic differences in porn produced around the globe. These content variabilities, which are not unlike cultural variabilities in any other social artifact (think food, clothing, polite behavior, etc), are important to consider. The makers of Pornocracy may recall a more progressive and positive porn past because the porn past they experienced was more progressive and positive ? but that was not what I saw.

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No matter the hows or whys, no matter a whimsical past or a graphic future, piracy is a hugely significant problem in 2017, both within the industry and throughout wider society.

According to Nate Glass, owner of Takedown Piracy, a service that (among other things) issues DMCA notifications to pirates, which are copyright holders? only legal recourse when their content is being illegally broadcast online, ?We?ve taken down 950,000 [infringing videos] in the past two years alone, and I currently have a backlog of nearly 300,000 videos that our system has already identified as our clients? content ? I just have to verify that [these videos] are not affiliates or sponsors or that there is any fair use issues with them.?

Glass added, ?On top of all this, our system identifies an additional 5,000 videos every day for our clients that I have to check.?

But in spite of these efforts, piracy isn?t going anywhere. In fact, it?s intensifying via automation. According to Glass, the larger trend they?re seeing is that human uploaders are no longer going to the big ?legacy? tube sites ? PornHub and YouPorn, for example ? and uploading as much high-quality content as they used to. ?In order to meet the consumer demand for that type of premium content, a whole new crop of ?tubes? have popped up without any pretense of users. These are just sites where the admins upload content themselves and then hide everything in offshore companies,? he explained.

If we learn nothing else from Pornocracy, the key takeaway is simple. Our actions, no matter how small, have collective consequences. From the most inadvertent to the most cunning, piracy-based tube sites have reshaped everything from sex work to sex education. And our inability to talk about sex in a frank and forthright manner has fed these sites, fanning the flames of the situation we are in today. Pornocracy takes significant steps to bring that conversation to light. Like I said, it?s a must see.

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Do your part to support the ethical adult entertainment industry. Visit companies? and performers? official websites, get your movies on legitimate adult retail sites, and ? above all else ? pay for your porn. Would you work for free?.

Now tell us how you really feel? :winkwink:

Can't wait to see this.
Surprised there aren't more Manwin defenders in this thread. :helpme

Countries can block sites, and they try. In these countries, sites ranging from porn to facebook are effectively blocked for the great majority of apathtic and non-technical 'normal' web users.

So it is techinically do-able to globally reduce access to pirate sites, web proxies, vpns, and tubes.

But do we want that?

Maybe Hegelian dialectics are in play.

This only says half the story. Blaming the owners of Tubes whether legal or shady (can't call them illegal because no one was convicted) is missing the point. Enough people in porn were and still are willing to advertise on sites with lots of free porn. Loads of sites were willing to put legal porn onto tubes sites.

All it would have taken is a complete boycott, constant pressure with 2257 on tube site owners, hosting and when the Tube site owners were running sites a complete boycott of promoting those sites. And Tubes are dead in the water.

We know that's a pipe dream, but please let's own our failings.

I don't think convictions are required for us to say it's illegal. It's just that prosecutors either got bought off or just see it as "gang warfare" and "let them destroy each other".

Still is one of the best sellers :2 cents:

Good to hear and let's see the proof.

The point of the doc, and the reality, is that today's porn has to be rougher and more degrading to sell because tubes have made generic porn available FREE to anyone with a phone or computer.

Can you prove that the sites are uploading the stolen content or not complying with the laws of their lands?

Prosecutors have nothing to do with it, it's a private prosecution thing.

I'm not a lawyer or a prosecutor Paul, so no.
But this infighting is exactly what THEY want.
And EXPECT, given the proven idiocy of human nature.

Well said.