So... why is it okay to pirate porn?

[See Spot Run]

Curiously, there's a case being heard by the california courts right now over porn piracy where the defendant's argument is that you actually can't legally copyright porn, and therefore it's not a crme to pirate it.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, known as the Copyright Clause, empowers the U.S. Congress "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings."

Early Circuit law in California held that obscene works did not promote the progress of science and the useful arts, and thus cannot be protected by copyright.

Subsequent non-en banc decisions by the Ninth Circuit failed to follow this prior circuit decision in California.

Given the absence of any subsequent en-banc Ninth Circuit decisions, Supreme Court precedent, or changes in the Constitution that copyright is authorized for works which does not promote the progress of science and the useful arts, the subsequent Ninth Circuit decisions are void and do not constitute binding precedent.

Taken from: The Consumerist [http://consumerist.com/2012/02/lawsuit-you-cant-charge-me-with-downloading-porn-because-you-cant-copyright-obscenity.html]

Wh knows what the decision would be, but it's a little bit hilarious.

In order to rule that porn could be legally restricted for sale to minors, they had to class it as obscenity.

Classing it as obscenity indicates that it can't be legally copyrighted.

I'm interested to see how this case plays out.

 

[albinoterrorist]

It's okay, as with game, music or movie pirating, you're stealing away hard effort, blood, sweat and toil from those who produced it - you're robbing them of their livelihood, probably causing whole families to starve and die.

Conversely, porn stars cannot have families to starve, as they do not toil. They do not toil because they are not human.

As they are not human, do not toil and have no families, it's clearly a victimless crime, no?

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

It's "okay" to pirate porn (note the quotes) because very few people consider porn to be a hobby of theirs. Sure plenty of people look at it, and plenty of those people do something while watching it, but no one lists "porn" in their list of hobbies. It's something you watch for maybe 20 minutes or so, then move-on from. Compare that to music, movies, or video games, where plenty of people will spend hours a day enjoying them and WILL list them among their hobbies.

So basically it's a matter of movies, music, and video games being something that the person is actually concerned about, where the only people who worry about the porn industry losing money is the porn industry. I'm not saying that makes it right (hence the quotes in my opening statement), but that's why.

 

[spartan231490]

It's not considered ok, it's wrong, just like pirating anything else. Just because most everyone does something, that doesn't make it ok.

 

[Reaper195]

Because the heads of porn companies aren't as greedy cunts as Hollywood. It's not okay though. Downloading a copy of Dexxxter is as bad as downloading a copy of The Dark Knight. Except that The Dark Knight made more money.

 

[renegade7]

No one wants to take a 16 year old into court and accuse them of stealing porno...

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Well, I don't pirate porn sooo...I can't imagine this is directed at me. In my opinion, all piracy is wrong and it generally makes my life more miserable because of all the bullshit I have to deal with because of it. Mostly from game publishers but still.

 

[fenrizz]

Because no one wants to go into a store that sells porn and actually buy it.

No one wants to get seen going into or coming out of such a place, and most people would feel at least slightly embarrassed about making such a purchase.

Besides, most "proper" youtube like porn sites actually have content providers upload small clips (varying from 1 to 45 minutes in length) themselves and there is a metric shitload of amateur porn there as well.

I, for one, don't even watch hollywood style porn anymore and I haven't for years.
In fact I find it slightly disgusting.
I'd rather watch some good amateur/home made stuff.

And no, the porn industries lame ass attempt at faux amateur porn is not even remotely interesting.

EDIT:
I was going to provide some examples, but I fear it is against forum rules.

 

[Wintermoot]

the porn industry doesn't throw you in prison for 50 years.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

My opinion is not supported by the Escapist, therefore I can't give you my answer. Hooray for censorship!

 

[vrbtny]

It.... isn't okay to pirate porn. It's just become such a wide-spread activity that nobody cares anymore.

'cept the people who are being pirated off.... yeah, they care.

 

[kasperbbs]

Theres plenty of free sites with material which may or may not be stolen from some dvd, i just don't know and wouldn't care if i did. As for actually downloading pirated 'movies', i looked that shit up once and omg it was disgusting compared to the online stuff, perhaps uploaders on that site like plastic surgery victims over 50, or perhaps most of the 'professional stuff is like that, i don't know.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

I don't know how many people actually pirate porn. As Alterego-X brought up, "titties are post-scarcity". While movies often have massive budgets, casts and sets that clearly identify them and can be used as the basis for copyright lawsuits, anyone can make a porn video or go on the internet and find literally tens of thousands of amateur videos which are mostly indistinguishable from high-budget ones (after all, there are only so many ways to do the deed).

But more importantly, porn companies are cutting edge . They know they can't beat the pirates of the world, so they come at the problem from a new way. They upload clips of a certain length to websites that give them a cut of the ad revenue. Should the person decide to buy the full video, everything is great; if not, the company still gets some money.

Porn is always at the front of new media (like printing, VHS, CDs, etc.) because it is something that nearly everyone will want to get at some point, but that the government does not really want to protect. In a few years, I expect that regular media companies will follow suit (Comedy Network, among others, already does) .

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Because they.....erm....er....damn. You got me. I guess no more free porn for me....

Or you could just stream it rather than download, which is what I assumed most people do as that's not the kind of thing they want to leave a trail of. Seriously, I don't understand people who ilegally download music either, when you can try before you buy basically any song/album in existence on Youtube alone.

OT: Umm, all of the other reasons people have listed...I'm feeling lazy.

 

[FatalFox]

pornography, the little I watch of it, I watch it for free, mainly because I can find it really easily on the net within multiple genres (and within seconds)
It doesn't take physical or hard-drive space (since all my content is deleted the second I close my internet explorer)and highly produced generic porn (i.e. the kind you usually pay for in stores and on paid websites) I don't even find arousing or entertaining half the time, I'd rather find some amateur porn or whatever other sexual video I feel like watching.

Honestly I don't really give a damn. I know it seems narrow minded of me and I know many people make a living of it, but I honestly don't see it as a medium worth my money or time, and if it does, it's usually not a paid service.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

1. Why would you download porn?
2. This topic totally should have been about pirate-themed porn.
3. No seriously, why the hell would you download porn?

 

[ph0b0s123]

Even though it should be the same there is a difference. Maybe it is something like this.

Games companies: 'If people keep pirating our product it will threaten whether we can making it in the future.'

Gamers: 'Wow that's really bad, I love games and care about their future. I feel really bad about pirating. I should not do that else maybe there will be no good or high budget games.'

Vs

Porn companies: 'If people keep pirating our product it will threaten whether we can making it in the future.'

Porn watcher: 'Don't care. If you go out of business, there will always be someone who wants to put pornographic media of themselves up on the Internet.'

Also the porn industry are no angels.
http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10312840-internet-piracy-suit-asks-can-you-even-copyright-porn?pc=25&sp=25
If you read the above about the practice of sending threatening letters to people when they know a lot will be innocent. Lawyers in the UK tried the same thing a have been sanctioned by the courts and their professional body. That this is allowed in the US is disappointing.

Lastly that people care less about the porn industry is not helped by the government and the legislature. Remember games won their right to be protected by free speech. Porn lost their case on this. So Porn is not protected under free speech / considered art by the courts. What sort of message do you think that sends.

 

[backinthepresentfuture]

because it's porn, it's like protected by dong and doggie magic or something.