Removing copyright and intellectual property rights to pornographic material wouldn't eliminate the financial rewards. Being the first major business online and by its nature an extremely copyable medium, porn is probably the most infringed upon material out there in the first place. But it also has an extremely short shelf life.
Most of its money is made when it's new and it has very low production costs, especially with modern video and internet technology. Additionally, the internet has allowed producers/stars to get very close to their fan base and the porn industry has embraced this to a much larger degree than say Hollywood, although to be fair to Hollywood this is only because porn fame doesn't extend beyond the fan base. What it does do, though, is engender a great deal of fan loyalty. Loyal fans buy your video right when it comes and specifically decide to do so from you so that you are supported to stay in the business and make more stuff they'll want to buy. Those fans understand that if you don't get money, you won't be around to make more stuff they want to see. Porn has conventions where you can meet your favorite star. When was the last time the RIAA did that?
Low production costs and high loyalty mean your business faces little threat from copiers. They can get ahold of stuff and reproduce but it's already stale. You don't need it anymore and you've already made all you need from it. All an established producer/star has to do is make a video and it will likely be financial rewarding to them before pirates even get ahold of it. There is no theatrical release that pirates can use to copy and beat the original producers "to the street" with a video.
I think what this shows at the end of the day is that regular law abiding citizens who don't harm other citizens and have happy lives with their children, husbands and wives demand what has been categorized as "pornographic" material and government can do little to turn back the flow of that market unless it wants to abrogate the rights of its people.
escalators never fail; they just become stairs
Interesting points. While some money would still be made that way, public domain porn would put a sizable dent in profits, in the hotel pay-per-view market in particular.
"Porn has conventions where you can meet your favorite star"
I always imagine the conversations with the fans being like the "Remember when you were in that move...that was awesome" Chris Farley sketches.
I always imagine the conversations with the fans being like the "Remember when you were in that move...that was awesome" Chris Farley sketches.
The stars don't actually talk to you.
While some money would still be made that way, public domain porn would put a sizable dent in profits, in the hotel pay-per-view market in particular.
How? No, I mean seriously. How? So long as your a captive audience in the hotel, it doesn't matter where the content comes from. The hotel is still gonna charge you out the ass. There's free water in the spicket and a one liter bottle down the street for 79 cents but a 16 ounce bottle still costs $5 in the hotel room.
escalators never fail; they just become stairs
" I mean seriously. How?"
The hotel will make money running recycled PD porn, but pornographers won't.
The hotel will make money running recycled PD porn, but pornographers won't.
That model would hardly be economically sustainable because of the short shelf life of pornographic material. You have to have new stuff for it to sell.
escalators never fail; they just become stairs
