USA Today's Jon Swartz [1] reported March 1 that the porn industry is suffering financially. Swartz detailed all of the reasons that the porn industry is experiencing financial woes, as though it was just another suffering business.
Swartz lamented that, “The adult-entertainment industry is in a tailspin, shattering the notion that it is one of the few recession-proof industries. The slump is especially stinging because technology – which helped adult-entertainment enterprises reap riches through innovations such as video streaming, webcameras and online payments – is contributing to the misery.” The poor porn industry.
Swartz partially blamed the porn industry's financial crisis on “so called tube sites.” These sites allow for free viewing of porn, although it is usually pirated. But Swartz added that YouTube “has done its best to bar explicit content.” Perhaps he hasn't read CMI's 'Blue Tube' [2] report, which uncovered that soft core porn on Youtube is easily accessible. The study even found that simply typing the word “porn” into Youtube resulted in over 330,000 hits.
Of course, the economy is to blame too. Steven Hirsch, founder of Vived Entertainment was quoted as saying, “We're dealing with the perfect storm: declining DVD sales, rampant piracy, free content and a weak economy….This is the worst I've seen in this industry in 25 years.”
Luckily for Hirsch and others in the $13 billon porn industry, there is hope. Swartz described how a lawsuit was recently filed by Ventura Content against Mansef, an organization the runs some tube sites, seeking $6.5 million worth of damages. Hirsch's organization also surfs the web, looking for illegal sites. When they are found, the offending company is asked to take them down. Although that doesn't always work.
Swartz writes, “But the pirated content often is resurrected on someone else's site after being taken down.” While that may be too bad for the porn industry, it's also part of the proliferation of porn on the Internet – something Swartz completely ignored.
This is not, however, the first time the media has pitied the porn industry. In August, The Los Angeles Times [3] also described the porn industry's financial crisis and told the sad stories of porn stars who are no longer making as much money as they previously were.
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