An Adult Webmasters Thoughts
My name is Yariana. I am the producer of DesperateAmateurs.com. The following is an article I recently posted on our website to inform our members of problems facing the adult industry and my solutions to these problems.
Article: I recently asked for your comments and suggestions regarding my interest in switching to a shopping cart system. I have received numerous emails asking that I continue the membership site. To be honest, I was surprised to hear so many of you love this site so much and do not want me to eliminate the membership portion.
The reason I stated for wanting to make the change was because of the pressure of weekly updates. This of course, still stands true and I am still looking for solutions, but there are other more serious concerns. The most serious concern is the growing belief that all porn should be free. As a result of this "Sense of Entitlement" many have adopted the practice of downloading intellectual property from pay sites and uploading it in its entirety to tube sites and free porn sites to share with the world.
When tube sites and free sites first emerged on the internet, they were offered for those who wanted to share their personal sexual encounters with the world, for kicks so to speak. Along the way, some decided all porn should be free and began the practice of stealing content from legitimate producers and sharing it on these sites. This has indeed had a tremendous impact on the adult industry. It is ridiculous to think all porn should be free. Someone has to produce this stuff and it cost a lot of money to do so. If the free loaders continue this nonsense, it will put producers out of business then who will they have to steal all this porn from. And what is the point anyway? Most of these people are just sitting around bored to death, sipping on beer and eating chips and have nothing better to do. What is it benefiting them to do such a thing, other than to get a few kicks out of it?
Until recently, producers pursued legal remedies by going after the tube sites and free porn sites, with little success. There are many loopholes for these mega free sites that enable them to avoid prosecution for allowing the posting of intellectual property without legal copyright to that property. The tide is now turning. It is i*****l for anyone to distribute adult content without proof of 2257 documentation on the performers in the video and pictures. It is federal law that all distributors of adult content keep well documented records of the performers, including personal information, proof of age, and models release forms giving them the rights to distribute such materials.
If a person or entity distributes such materials in any form or by any channel, regardless of by sale or free distribution, they have placed themselves legally as a distributor of these materials and must hold the required 2257 compliance documentation for these performers.
It is important for everyone to understand this simple fact; anywhere a person goes and everything a person does on the internet can be traced via an IP address. Should an intellectual property right holder (Owner a said copyright/trademark) find their content has been distributed i*****lly, they have right to pursue litigation to subpoena the IP address of those offenders directly from the tube/free site owners. Once obtained through court order, these IP addresses may be matched to the IP addresses of those that downloaded the materials from the pay sites. Hence, a federal judgment may easily be brought against the offenders for i*****lly distributing adult content without 2257 compliance documentation.
It is also important to realize the serious nature of this federal offense. The records required by Section 2257 of Title 18 of the United States Code are extensive. The laws are very clear. The fines are very steep and the jail time is lengthy. This is no longer just an issue of copyright infringement. This is becoming more of an issue of "Who has the right to distribution, purchased or free, and who legally holds the federally required model documentation." The fact is, if a person obtains the content in any form and passes it around the web, they are in fact, a distributor and must comply with federal regulations. The law is so strict now, it even requires a husband and wife who post their content free on these sites, obtain and hold for federal investigators, copies of their own records. This is no game. This is a very serious offense and one with which I fully intend to pursue legal remedies if need be.
Why am I making such a huge deal out of this issue? Because I too have been largely affected by the legal cost of litigation just to protect my content. I am now forced with this major decision; shut the membership site down or fight. I am furious about this. It is putting me in a position of having to place limits and restrictions on all members, including our honest members who are not responsible for this nonsense. It is not fair to our loyal members who pay for their memberships so they may enjoy our videos, to suffer from the actions of a few dishonest people.
For those of you who do not engage in this highly i*****l activity and wish to see Desperate Amateurs prosper for your enjoyment, I am sure you will understand the problems I face. For those who either have, or are considering uploading our exclusive content to tube and/or free sites, I hereby urge you to consider the consequences. If you have free accounts on any of these sites and have uploaded our content, this is your opportunity to remove it promptly. We have employed staff and software programs to identify our content, and a legal team to pursue legal remedy should it be found on these sites.
In addition, password sharing is a huge problem. We have seen very large spikes in our bandwidth usage. These spikes are extremely expensive but they also slow down our servers to a mere crawl and this is not fair to honest paying members. The cost to this company is substantial and makes it increasingly difficult to continue our costly video shoots when our proceeds are going to rising legal expenses and bandwidth costs.
Last but not least, joining the site, downloading all the content, then doing chargeback's or requesting refunds with the excuse the videos couldn't be downloaded or accessed, will no longer be tolerated. Our new programs will identify those doing this and challenge their credit card companies and blacklist further memberships.
It is obvious this has become a problem for so many adult webmasters. Many membership sites are turning to "Streaming Only" solutions and eliminating members abilities to download and retain copies of the videos. Another solution adult webmasters are employing is "Download Limits." Many of these sites are limiting downloads to 500mb per day per member in order to reduce the mass downloading. I do not want to resort to these solutions. Members love the ability to download and retain copies of the videos. I would rather just use the shopping cart which will automatically limit massive downloads and password sharing. Fighting the i*****l uploading of our content would be a separate issue but this would offer some relief.
For now, I have decided to install the shopping cart and to continue the membership site because so many people are asking me not to shut it down. If these problems continue, much or our revenue will resolve to legal costs and we will transfer the site to the shopping cart only. For those concerned about this possibility, please know I am a tiger and do not go down easily. I will fight till I die, but I don't think it will come to that. If I am forced to prosecute, it will be posted in BOLD all over this site and the internet. Other adult webmasters will then follow suit.
Effective immediately, I am implementing website security to identify the above mentioned problems and releasing the information to my legal representatives. If anyone needs to remove i*****lly uploaded content from tube/free sites, now is the time to do it! This new security system will also identify shared passwords so please do not do this.
This week I am restructuring the current website to test out new navigational menus. This week I am also installing the new shopping cart for those who wish to purchase individual videos or a group of specific videos.
Once the new navigation is complete I will be creating an entirely new graphical interface to give the site a much needed face lift. All older videos are being re-edited and rendered in a more powerful editing program so they will look and play better. All clips are being removed and only the full versions, including short interviews will be posted. We will be uploading more failed shoots and BTS for your entertainment; however they will not be posted as updates, just additional footage. When all is complete, we will be transferring to screaming fast servers recommended by the best in the industry.
As for the weekly update issue, I have determined that driving myself crazy over it is senseless. If I have several failed shoots because my real amateur girls flake, there is absolutely nothing that worrying about it will solve. I will just upload the updates when I get them and if I get two or three in one week I will throw them up.
September 4, 2010 will be our 1 year membership site anniversary. It has been an exhilarating and a very trying year. We have grown in size, strength, and popularity over this past year and I am proud of this. We have strived to build great relationships with our beloved members and I will do whatever it takes to protect this website. Thank you to all who have been supportive and wish to see us continue distributing our exclusive original content. We will do all in our power to continue pursuing our vision.
Much love, Yariana
http://www.desperateamateurs.com
Article: I recently asked for your comments and suggestions regarding my interest in switching to a shopping cart system. I have received numerous emails asking that I continue the membership site. To be honest, I was surprised to hear so many of you love this site so much and do not want me to eliminate the membership portion.
The reason I stated for wanting to make the change was because of the pressure of weekly updates. This of course, still stands true and I am still looking for solutions, but there are other more serious concerns. The most serious concern is the growing belief that all porn should be free. As a result of this "Sense of Entitlement" many have adopted the practice of downloading intellectual property from pay sites and uploading it in its entirety to tube sites and free porn sites to share with the world.
When tube sites and free sites first emerged on the internet, they were offered for those who wanted to share their personal sexual encounters with the world, for kicks so to speak. Along the way, some decided all porn should be free and began the practice of stealing content from legitimate producers and sharing it on these sites. This has indeed had a tremendous impact on the adult industry. It is ridiculous to think all porn should be free. Someone has to produce this stuff and it cost a lot of money to do so. If the free loaders continue this nonsense, it will put producers out of business then who will they have to steal all this porn from. And what is the point anyway? Most of these people are just sitting around bored to death, sipping on beer and eating chips and have nothing better to do. What is it benefiting them to do such a thing, other than to get a few kicks out of it?
Until recently, producers pursued legal remedies by going after the tube sites and free porn sites, with little success. There are many loopholes for these mega free sites that enable them to avoid prosecution for allowing the posting of intellectual property without legal copyright to that property. The tide is now turning. It is i*****l for anyone to distribute adult content without proof of 2257 documentation on the performers in the video and pictures. It is federal law that all distributors of adult content keep well documented records of the performers, including personal information, proof of age, and models release forms giving them the rights to distribute such materials.
If a person or entity distributes such materials in any form or by any channel, regardless of by sale or free distribution, they have placed themselves legally as a distributor of these materials and must hold the required 2257 compliance documentation for these performers.
It is important for everyone to understand this simple fact; anywhere a person goes and everything a person does on the internet can be traced via an IP address. Should an intellectual property right holder (Owner a said copyright/trademark) find their content has been distributed i*****lly, they have right to pursue litigation to subpoena the IP address of those offenders directly from the tube/free site owners. Once obtained through court order, these IP addresses may be matched to the IP addresses of those that downloaded the materials from the pay sites. Hence, a federal judgment may easily be brought against the offenders for i*****lly distributing adult content without 2257 compliance documentation.
It is also important to realize the serious nature of this federal offense. The records required by Section 2257 of Title 18 of the United States Code are extensive. The laws are very clear. The fines are very steep and the jail time is lengthy. This is no longer just an issue of copyright infringement. This is becoming more of an issue of "Who has the right to distribution, purchased or free, and who legally holds the federally required model documentation." The fact is, if a person obtains the content in any form and passes it around the web, they are in fact, a distributor and must comply with federal regulations. The law is so strict now, it even requires a husband and wife who post their content free on these sites, obtain and hold for federal investigators, copies of their own records. This is no game. This is a very serious offense and one with which I fully intend to pursue legal remedies if need be.
Why am I making such a huge deal out of this issue? Because I too have been largely affected by the legal cost of litigation just to protect my content. I am now forced with this major decision; shut the membership site down or fight. I am furious about this. It is putting me in a position of having to place limits and restrictions on all members, including our honest members who are not responsible for this nonsense. It is not fair to our loyal members who pay for their memberships so they may enjoy our videos, to suffer from the actions of a few dishonest people.
For those of you who do not engage in this highly i*****l activity and wish to see Desperate Amateurs prosper for your enjoyment, I am sure you will understand the problems I face. For those who either have, or are considering uploading our exclusive content to tube and/or free sites, I hereby urge you to consider the consequences. If you have free accounts on any of these sites and have uploaded our content, this is your opportunity to remove it promptly. We have employed staff and software programs to identify our content, and a legal team to pursue legal remedy should it be found on these sites.
In addition, password sharing is a huge problem. We have seen very large spikes in our bandwidth usage. These spikes are extremely expensive but they also slow down our servers to a mere crawl and this is not fair to honest paying members. The cost to this company is substantial and makes it increasingly difficult to continue our costly video shoots when our proceeds are going to rising legal expenses and bandwidth costs.
Last but not least, joining the site, downloading all the content, then doing chargeback's or requesting refunds with the excuse the videos couldn't be downloaded or accessed, will no longer be tolerated. Our new programs will identify those doing this and challenge their credit card companies and blacklist further memberships.
It is obvious this has become a problem for so many adult webmasters. Many membership sites are turning to "Streaming Only" solutions and eliminating members abilities to download and retain copies of the videos. Another solution adult webmasters are employing is "Download Limits." Many of these sites are limiting downloads to 500mb per day per member in order to reduce the mass downloading. I do not want to resort to these solutions. Members love the ability to download and retain copies of the videos. I would rather just use the shopping cart which will automatically limit massive downloads and password sharing. Fighting the i*****l uploading of our content would be a separate issue but this would offer some relief.
For now, I have decided to install the shopping cart and to continue the membership site because so many people are asking me not to shut it down. If these problems continue, much or our revenue will resolve to legal costs and we will transfer the site to the shopping cart only. For those concerned about this possibility, please know I am a tiger and do not go down easily. I will fight till I die, but I don't think it will come to that. If I am forced to prosecute, it will be posted in BOLD all over this site and the internet. Other adult webmasters will then follow suit.
Effective immediately, I am implementing website security to identify the above mentioned problems and releasing the information to my legal representatives. If anyone needs to remove i*****lly uploaded content from tube/free sites, now is the time to do it! This new security system will also identify shared passwords so please do not do this.
This week I am restructuring the current website to test out new navigational menus. This week I am also installing the new shopping cart for those who wish to purchase individual videos or a group of specific videos.
Once the new navigation is complete I will be creating an entirely new graphical interface to give the site a much needed face lift. All older videos are being re-edited and rendered in a more powerful editing program so they will look and play better. All clips are being removed and only the full versions, including short interviews will be posted. We will be uploading more failed shoots and BTS for your entertainment; however they will not be posted as updates, just additional footage. When all is complete, we will be transferring to screaming fast servers recommended by the best in the industry.
As for the weekly update issue, I have determined that driving myself crazy over it is senseless. If I have several failed shoots because my real amateur girls flake, there is absolutely nothing that worrying about it will solve. I will just upload the updates when I get them and if I get two or three in one week I will throw them up.
September 4, 2010 will be our 1 year membership site anniversary. It has been an exhilarating and a very trying year. We have grown in size, strength, and popularity over this past year and I am proud of this. We have strived to build great relationships with our beloved members and I will do whatever it takes to protect this website. Thank you to all who have been supportive and wish to see us continue distributing our exclusive original content. We will do all in our power to continue pursuing our vision.
Much love, Yariana
http://www.desperateamateurs.com
منذ 13 سنوات
Yah, the prospects of any semblance of the law, let alone punishment become moot... about as moot a "paying for porn" (unless you consider the emotional price extracted by a wife of girlfriend for viewing porn without their knowledge) might be in this day and age.
There are people who pay for it, and for the license to show it, and I'm glad for that... but unless you find a way to monetize it behind cookies, file sharing sites, or trying to insist that your contenet not be used by those with adblockers, where the "f" are you going to go?
New economy, new media, new rules... less revenue, sure, but let's all work with that.
Not as if you were paying a fair remuneration to begin with...
We believe in paying to help the people making the content--hell, we're all real human beings, afterall. We've been members of pay sites which allowed us to download whole videos and respected their terms to not share. It's a crying shame (but a realistic one) that you have to endure fuck-ups (pardon the French) who steal and propagate.
Best solution, as I think you've figured out based on vids, is to only upload teasers to xhamster-type sites. But what to do on main site?
Only allow streaming. That's what the big gals do (like Netflix).
Just putting in our 2 cents' worth.
M&JB