Porn Viewing: Do you know what you're talking about?

[Recursion]

36. Piracy is an even bigger problem for them than for music studios

Some of the larger porn producers have quietly supported anti-piracy laws, but they have to be careful because nobody wants to announce "and I just got $2 million from a sleazy porn mogul!"

And the piracy issue also confuses the wider structural issue: just like bands can release professional-sounding albums using only a macbook and the Internet (meaning nobody really needs record labels anymore), pro-am porn producers can shoot videos in their bedrooms and upload them to one of the various "tubes" (named IIRC after YouTube, not the idiot Senator's comments) and build their popularity that way -- and just like musicians give away MP3s to get people to come to concerts, where they make money, a lot of the pro-am stars use the videos as a way to advertise their "escort" services. And just like with music, a lot of people aren't in it for the money at all and just enjoy it.

And unfortunately, the only reliable way web porn companies have found to make money directly is by spreading malware to viewers' computers -- another reason to avoid porn...