SF woman countersues porn producer: Says porn is not copyrightable.

[bubbski]

Luixia Wong says that even if she had downloaded porn from a torrent site, there was no copyright infringement because obscene materials cannot be copyrighted.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/03/43613.htm

[Willie Escalade]

There always seems to be multiple ways to interpret the law...

[MacShreach]

luixia wong says that even if she had downloaded porn from a torrent site, there was no copyright infringement because obscene materials cannot be copyrighted.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/03/43613.htm

roflmao

All eyes in the porn business will be watching this one LOL. I think the chances are though, that Hard Drive will back down, just because of the massive pressure they must be coming under not from the rest of the porn industry, which absolutely does not want a precedent set that porn cannot be legally protected under copyright.

[shac]

Whilst I think that one should support producers, and I can even speak with a vested interest on this matter, I'm with the Swiss on this one.

Don't allow the a totalitarian American government co-opted by corporate interests to erode the sovereign nation state.

[MacShreach]

Whilst I think that one should support producers, and I can even speak with a vested interest on this matter, I'm with the Swiss on this one.

Don't allow the a totalitarian American government co-opted by corporate interests to erode the sovereign nation state.

Hi. Could you bring us up to speed on that reference to the Swiss please--I must have missed this.

Seconded on your major point. The thing is, the porn 'industry' has no friends at Gummint level, not in public anyway, and porn producers are riding on the back (sorry) of the efforts made my the mainstream entertainment companies--who will lose no sleep if porn falls out of the net.

Copyright itself is in the Last Chance Saloon, despite all the smoke and mirrors, PR and political brouhaha. Copyright is a print-era concept, which will have to be replaced with something new, and the quicker the better. The major technology companies are now more powerful than the entertainment giants, and they want a free internet. I wonder how things would change, if say, Google bought one of the big players?

[shac]

Under Swiss legislation copyright does not prohibit one acquiring said material for personal use.

As technology changes the market should adapt with it. With the invention of the record it wasn't fair that musicians were put out of business but that's what happened. We're seeing a new paradigm shift and entrepreneurs should adapt with it.

[shac]

And when I look what's happening to Richard O'Dwyer in the UK I lack sympathy for the plight of the film studios, even though that's my industry.

The FBI is acting like a Hollywood goon squad.

[MacShreach]

Under Swiss legislation copyright does not prohibit one acquiring said material for personal use.

As technology changes the market should adapt with it. With the invention of the record it wasn't fair that musicians were put out of business but that's what happened. We're seeing a new paradigm shift and entrepreneurs should adapt with it.

Thanks for that info and seconded on you point. At every point that there has been a shift in the nature of the media there have been winners and losers (think of all the scribes that went out of business when printing presses arrived.) We have turned the corner and as you say, there has been a paradigm shift; the old order has to give way to the new. Unfortunately, rather then being creative, many entrepreneurs are being reactionary and defensive. It won't work; it never has in the past and it won't in the future. Producers of original work deserve to get paid, and a system to do that will be found (otherwise they'll stop, and there will be no content.) But all those A&R guys, record company moguls, movie-company fat cats and, dare I say it, porn industry 'businessmen', the middle-men and women who make their money selling other people's creativity, are going to have to get used to a change in their lifestyle.

They won't be missed.

[MacShreach]

I don't mean to suggest, BTW, that I think the movie industry will vanish; it won't. Cinema revenue will remain a major source of revenue and the companies will try to incorporate techniques that enhance the cinema experience, such as 3-D. Furthermore, millions of people watch movies on TV for absolutely free, and the TV companies pay a fee to the film company. The film industry has never balked at that or suggested it would have to stop. I think part of the problem now is that the film industry thought it could develop a completely new income stream from internet download sales, and this has backfired big time. They need to stop, before they have totally alienated every one of their potential customers, and negotiate a deal with the technology industry that provides a revenue for the industry while allowing legitimate, free access to the content.

Something similar can be said of the music business, though the old system of free radio leading to record sales is less easily translated, probably because the music industry insists on charging a per-song fee for downloads that is unrealistically high, in order to not completely undermine what is left of the physical retail network. On the other hand, live performers are doing better than they ever have, because people will pay for live music.

The porn business has a problem; the monthly subscription for downloadable access model has allowed truly huge amounts of content to be downloaded and it now permeates the worldwide web. They could stop making new porn today and it would still be oozing out of the seems. The efforts of the porn business to stop the flow reminds me of Canute, except of course that he was trying to prove that no man could stem the tide.

Nevertheless, the demand for porn is unrelenting and that means that money will still be made. Already you see performers working for cam sites that pay directly and act as intermediaries between individual perfomers and customers. OK so plenty of that ends up in the public domain but the unique selling point is the immediate interaction between performer and customer--it's live action.

So there are ways forward.

[shac]

I can envision cam sites becoming a huge market once the quality becomes decent.