The Wolf’s Den: Why Porn Deserves Your Piggy Banks

When piracy became a game changer in the early aughts, the industries most affected swung into action. Record labels eventually created their own (paid) version of Napster called Spotify, and the film industry underwent a massive marketing campaign—including a much-reviled PSA—pleading with moviegoers to not pirate their work. 

A J.Lo-era Ben Affleck asking moviegoers not to steal from him didn’t stop piracy in its tracks, of course—but the industry was concerned enough that it at least attempted a tone-deaf counterargument. What eventually worked was a team effort, one that finds corporations utilizing AI to make sure copyrighted material isn’t suddenly available to stream for free on sites like YouTube.

The porn industry also began collaborating with pirates, but we’ve never really made an effort to tell people why watching one of our releases on XVideos is bad.

“What porn consumers need to know is that by frequenting tube sites, they’re part of a problem that will result in the eventual destruction of our industry.”

But just as in Hollywood, the money spent on porn allows the industry to continue to flourish. Those ads were laughable in many ways, but what response have we had? Why have we never put a human face (or body) on this issue? 

I understand that ease usually triumphs (otherwise how could Jeff Bezos have made so many billions of dollars in the pandemic just so he could blow it all on a 10-minute rocket flight), but what porn consumers need to know is that by frequenting tube sites, they’re part of a problem that will result in the eventual destruction of our industry. And that’s not just studio porn—when people illegally upload fan platform content, that’s taking money even more directly from the models who alone are the creators. 

Luckily for us, our content kicks ass. As a result, people find and are willing enough to subscribe to our content that we make enough money to survive. And we’ve definitely seen some traction recently regarding piracy. Porn Hub’s announcement that it would remove all unverified channels was a huge blow to piracy (of course, the other tubes still exist, but baby steps!). That’s a good thing, but we could do more. 

Then again, who’s willing to speak out against piracy when Men.com and Sean Cody are owned by the same parent company that owns Porn Hub? Standing up isn’t an option for them, and for most people, the bottom line usually trumps the moral thing to do. 

But then I think about the hundreds of thousands of our videos being downloaded and watched every single day without us getting paid, without the models getting paid. If the people who watch our videos completely free gave us even $1 for each view, we would be able to do so much more as a company to make and improve our production and content. But we’re limited because stealing is still happening, and the success that we have is capped at the number of people who are willing to buy porn.

As I’m writing this, I’m more and more entranced by the idea of getting our Carnal Boys talking about what affect streaming porn for free has on them. Everyone thinks porn producers are wealthy, but we’re definitely not. How can we be, when people shell out top dollar for organic trade coffee but balk at paying for the thing that arguably gives them more pleasure? (And no, I’m not talking about an Apple+ subscription to watch Ted Lasso.) 

“When PornHub has more users than Netflix, we can’t afford to not be in the search results there.”

I’ve built a company on looking at gaps in the industry and asking, “Why not us?” So why shouldn’t Carnal Media start the ball rolling on informing our fans of the human cost of tube sites? Because we never stood up against them before, the industry is currently cornered into collaborating with them. When PornHub has more users than Netflix, we can’t afford to not be in the search results there—especially because if we don’t include our official content, others will just upload it for us, and frequently they will remove our watermark. 

I’m not talking about getting off to things that you find on Tumblr or Twitter that are there 10 or 30 seconds long. Though even then, I am devastated every time I see that our watermarks have been cropped out or removed. But what I’m much more concerned about are full-length porn videos. If you’re watching those, you should take a step back and ask yourself, “Am I part of what’s going to make it possible for people in the adult industry to make a living?” 

And on that note, have you ever seen the Indonesian version of the anti-piracy commercial? Little known fact: I grew up in Jakarta, so I have a lot of Indonesian friends. One sent me this great video, so you guys can watch and appreciate it. 

And once again, thank you to everyone out there who pays for the porn that we make. You make the porn we’re going to make possible.

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