Any predictions for 2009?

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

DRM failed. It is too cumbersome and too overbearing, and punishes the good customers and doesn't really defeat the bad ones (who will just get the content anyway).

The only way to lock the content up enough hurts the business more than anything - so you have to be proactive about chasing thieves. 2009 will be the year content producers wake up and realize that if they don't protect their content, it has no value - and at that point, the entire porn business no longer has a financial leg to stand on.

Locking down content will not stop Tubes getting it for free.
If we actually do achieve the impossible, Tubes will buy DVDs and encode from them. Stop thinking it's surfers ripping sites and putting up full scenes. It's the Tube sites. Most websites watermark videos, most DVD companies do not. Go check the major full length Tubes.

The best way of doing it is to limit the amount a member can download in a day and block auto downloaders and tell him why. Most members understand what Tubes and pirates are doing to the industry and the effect on their entertainment. Let's not demonise the members, these guys are the solution not the problem.

As for content having value. I chuckled over that one. I'm on the receiving end of the content buying chain and know exactly what value many sites put on content. Most content on most sites is not worth protecting.

So let's really dream, possibly under the influence of some blow, and imagine a world where most sites lock down their content so no one can steal it and DVDs are encoded so no one can rip them. I did say we were dreaming. So what would be the results of this dream?

Sites like Brazzers would give content to Tubes for free.

Whoops!!!!!

As for chasing thieves, that made me laugh. You have to prove their stealing in the first place. Then go to where they are to find them, then take them to court, then take the company that replaces them to court in the country they are in. Please if the record industry could not do it why do you think we can?