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The porn industry is in a bind

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Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#31

Post by sandworm101 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #28
sandworm101 wrote: post #25

Never trust articles about porn. I've never seen one that represented more than a myopic view. It's a very diverse industry. I hope that Kink implodes. That side of the industry started as an almost joke. Bush, pre-911 Bush, talked about going after violent porn. So a couple producers got together and said: "Well, lets give them a target." They had first amendment lawyers primed for battle. Then 9/11, and the feds ne…

Ouch. This job must really suck. Still, you probably have lots of interesting stories and insights to share; I'd love to hear some if you have a moment to tell.

It isn't my all-day job. I just know a thing or two about filesharing. So people see articles I've written for trade journals and occasionally bring me on board when filesharing is involved. The real question is often whether the sharing has created any potential liability for the company (p2p v cyberlockers etc).

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#32

Post by nicklaf »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #26
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, it appears that many people, both end users, power users and programmers alike, have made up their minds and want their computers to be appliances instead of tools. In fact, strict regimentation, curation and immutable defaults are in wide demand by consumers of all demographics. Having to manually tune something is considered ever more blasphemous these days. I think we will end up losing a lot in thi…

> And all of this happening while many beat their chests demanding that programming be made a compulsory subject in public schools. What a sickening irony. Indeed. Also note how the typical curriculum offered by proponents is geared towards teaching people to create things that will be ad-supported or will be providing ads. I wish to know if there's a way to fight back somehow. Maybe not to reverse the trend, but to…

and compilers is something you can go to jail for if they see you trying to run it without credentials.

I'm a little skeptical this will happen with software, but it is well underway in the case of hardware[1].

[1] https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Save_WiFi

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#33

Post by kragen »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #23
mindcrime wrote: post #16

Forget about the porn for a minute gang... this is, to me, the key insight in the story: VR and its cousin, “augmented reality,” are controlled by the big corporations. Facebook owns the Oculus Rift. Microsoft built the Hololens. Google does Google Glass. These will treat porn at least like Android treats porn—or maybe even like Glass treated porn when O’Connell unveiled his app. In other words, they won’t allow it t…

Right this moment I'm sitting in an office in the place that represents our hope, a capital of continued progress[0] - Shenzhen, China. Everything Facebook, Google and Microsoft designs gets built here (or nearby) anyway. China has a... quite healthy attitude towards copyright and trade secrets. That is, they don't give a flying fuck here. There was even a term for that, that eludes me at the moment, which described…

> "I share my specs today with you, you'll share your specs tomorrow with me"

This is how Silicon Valley worked, back when the silicon was actually made there. My impression is that Google's obsessive culture of secrecy (necessary because it grew up in an environment where loose lips really did sink ships) is the strongest influence in destroying that culture of information-sharing, although of course NDAs, interface copyright lawsuits, DRM, and software patents have also taken their toll.

California's century-old legal limitations on what rights employees can sign away to employers have also been very helpful.

So it's not surprising that technological development is happening today in a place where employers' ability to own their employees' minds is more limited — the innovation is done by the engineers, after all, not the investors, so shifting the power balance in favor of the investors will damage your region's competitiveness.

I'm interested to hear about the abuse and impoverishment.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#34

Post by prawn »

rickdale wrote: post #9

Back in the day, when porn was in the big online bubble state, sites would offer over $.50/click to their site. When I first started (ab)using that system, the sites immediately bumped it to $.25/click and then $.10/click, and now I think its like $.000034/click, or basically nothing. They would also give you additional money for actual sign ups, and had a bonus day on every month where you made a significant amount…

We might've had similar starts.

I bought my first computer with cheques from a porn affiliate program. Soon after I started, they required visitors click through an age-verification to confirm and pay out.

So I put together a protected zip file of M-rated images and set the password as the xth word of the yth paragraph on the page after the age verification.

That only worked for a couple of weeks, but it was enough.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#35

Post by kragen »

sandworm101 wrote: post #25

Never trust articles about porn. I've never seen one that represented more than a myopic view. It's a very diverse industry. I hope that Kink implodes. That side of the industry started as an almost joke. Bush, pre-911 Bush, talked about going after violent porn. So a couple producers got together and said: "Well, lets give them a target." They had first amendment lawyers primed for battle. Then 9/11, and the feds ne…

You should include in your standard contract a US$98k fee for each time someone refers to you as an "expert on child porn" in exchange for waiving defamation.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#36

Post by TeMPOraL »

rdancer wrote: post #12

The fine article talks about the losers of the trade war. The winners are OK. If you look where the money is, it's with MindGeek (formerly known as Manwin), a company that has through the years bought bought most of the tube/cam sites, owns Brazzers and other content producers. For sure, tired unattractive content won't make it. But then you have the true artists of fucking, like James Deen, Pierre Woodman, and those…

There was a comment posted here, that sadly got deleted. I think it raises an interesting topic. Let me reproduce it:

---

> illusion of intimacy or a relationship

Could that lead to sexrobots as a mass market in, say, five years? Or do you think it would go more into the VR direction? Could / should both be merged? Would that be useful? Perhaps AR would be better in that case.

Thoughts on that?

---

The response I tried to submit when parent got deleted:

I think this is the angle that will try and resist automation for a while. The first world is getting somewhat devoid of genuine relationship experiences, and people seek to fill the hole somehow. Or from a more cynical point of view - we're building a superstimulus, where we can provide stronger emotional satisfaction through porn that you could get in a real relationship.

Personally I think VR/AR will make a killing much sooner than sexrobots, even assuming that the latter will become popular at all in the coming decades. One of the biggest constraints on... enhancing your sexual experience, if you're young and lonely, is what if your parents/family/friends/current partner discover your sex toys. Hiding sex dolls from them is a significant OPSEC issue. VR/AR will be as easy to hide as video porn today is - the device you're using is a general purpose, you could always say you bought it for World of Warcraft 2 or something. The porn component is just data, which is trivial to hide from less technical friends and family.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#37

Post by sandworm101 »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #30
sandworm101 wrote: post #25

Never trust articles about porn. I've never seen one that represented more than a myopic view. It's a very diverse industry. I hope that Kink implodes. That side of the industry started as an almost joke. Bush, pre-911 Bush, talked about going after violent porn. So a couple producers got together and said: "Well, lets give them a target." They had first amendment lawyers primed for battle. Then 9/11, and the feds ne…

Kink is actually relatively tame as far as "violent porn" goes. Insex set the standard in hardcore S/M during its day and was actually forced to close over scrutiny from its perceived obscenity. Many modern S/M sites owe their style and aesthetic to Insex's grisliness. Speaking of which, a documentary I'd recommend viewing on the topic is Graphic Sexual Horror . Be sure to watch it during the day. Of course, I'm not…

No doubt insex had a profound effect on culture. Frankly, I would say it is almost comparable to Playboy. The Hostile and Saw film franchises are direct outcomes of insex.

What Kink has done is to take insex and add lawyers. They dropped some of the more legally-dangerous aspects (plots/scripts) and added comical "interviews" with all involved. But heaven help the attorneys who might have to defend Kink against obscenity charges. They are in totally unknown waters.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#38

Post by backprojection »

mindcrime wrote: post #16

Forget about the porn for a minute gang... this is, to me, the key insight in the story: VR and its cousin, “augmented reality,” are controlled by the big corporations. Facebook owns the Oculus Rift. Microsoft built the Hololens. Google does Google Glass. These will treat porn at least like Android treats porn—or maybe even like Glass treated porn when O’Connell unveiled his app. In other words, they won’t allow it t…

I generally agree with your sentiment. I think there's an important distinction to add. By and large, people don't fully expect their mobile devices to be general purpose computing machines in the same way that their PCs are. What I expect from my phone, primarily, is convenience and usability.

Of course, at least on android devices, it's not at all uncommon to install custom variants of the OS (CyanogenMod, etc.), so it does happen.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#39

Post by kragen »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #17

Okay, so, silly question time: why can't we just have a Paetron for porn actors and actresses? Cut out all of the middle men, pay them directly?

I'm pretty sure there are camgirls who take payment directly, not even including GirlsGoneBitcoin. But the ones I know personally were working more or less as employees of a middleman.

Re: The porn industry is in a bind

#40

Post by TeMPOraL »

nicklaf wrote: post #32
TeMPOraL wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And all of this happening while many beat their chests demanding that programming be made a compulsory subject in public schools. What a sickening irony. Indeed. Also note how the typical curriculum offered by proponents is geared towards teaching people to create things that will be ad-supported or will be providing ads. I wish to know if there's a way to fight back somehow. Maybe not to reverse the trend, but to…

and compilers is something you can go to jail for if they see you trying to run it without credentials. I'm a little skeptical this will happen with software, but it is well underway in the case of hardware[1]. [1] https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Save_WiFi

Software is incredibly dangerous. All the malware that spreads exists because a) you have a general-purpose computer to run it on, and b) they have a general-purpose language to write it in. By restricting a) and b) we're ensuring your safety, as well as the safety of our critical infrastructure, baking, etc.

The arguments aren't actually that bad (of course we know that currently the strongest side supporting them is media companies trying to kill general-purpose computing to make unbreakable DRMs, but in principle they sort of have a point...) - it's the cost that is too high.

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