Free Internet Porn Isn’t Unfair Competition To Pay Sites: Appeals Court

[The Straight Story]

Free Internet Porn Isn’t Unfair Competition To Pay Sites: Appeals Court

One day in March of 2009, the proprietors of Redtube.com were minding their own business, streaming free pornographic videos to the public, when they received notice of a lawsuit against them in the mail.

“The ubiquitous distribution of free adult videos through redtube.com has had a massive negative impact on the business model of adult website proprietors,” charged the complaint against Redtube owner Bright Imperial Limited of Hong Kong. “Now that consumers have the ability to watch high quality adult videos for free on redtube.com, fewer are making the choice to pay other adult website proprietors for the same content.”

Thus, Redtube.com has caused “many millions of dollars of damages to proprietors of adult entertainment websites,” including those of the plaintiff in this instance, one Kevin Cammarata of Los Angeles, California. This, he charged, was a violation of California’s Unfair Practices Act.

Whatever you think about Internet porn, if you have any sympathy for online commerce you will be glad to know that this lawsuit failed. A California Appeals court has dismissed the case as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit — an action designed to censor free speech.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/02/free-internet-porn-isnt-unfair-competition-to-pay-sites-appeals-court/

[bigwillq]

1. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bounce:
:thumbsup:

:rofl:

[stevedeshazer]

2. I would have rec'd sooner, but I was over at redtube.com

:)

[originalpckelly]

4. Do they do the gay thing?

I'll have to see...merely for educational purposes...merely for educational purposes.

[bigwillq]

5. I think they do have gay content (nt)

[originalpckelly]

6. It's not as good as gaytube or xtube...

or so I've heard...or seen. :P

[bigwillq]

8. LOL!

yeah, so I've heard.....

:rofl:

[stevedeshazer]

11. Of course.

Knowledge is key. We must have knowledge.

:rofl:

[originalpckelly]

13. That's why I've personally reviewed many of these "educational" materials...

Very, very educational.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Businesses that can't compete in the marketplace...

often try to use the government and courts to eliminate the competition for them.

[slutticus]

7. Ridiculous

How is redtube's model any different than Google's? It's all about the advertising revenue. No one would even visit the other sites if it wasn't for the links from these sites.


Pfft.

[flvegan]

9. This needs to go to the top of the Greatest!

[Dr. Strange]

17. Your mom was on top of the greatest last night.

:patriot:

[The Straight Story]

21. PWNAGE, it tastes like - tofu

:rofl:

[flvegan]

32. Torn up with jealousy again?

Look, when she can have the greatest, why would she settle for Shoot 'n Snooze DuhStrange?

I miss MrCoffee.

[LostInAnomie]

37. +1

[Shagbark Hickory]

10. I bet this was an interesting case. If the majority of the vids were submitted by "amateurs"...

It's clearly a different business model, one the pay-for pornographers might want to adopt.

IF someone uplaods a home movie, it's not like redtube paid for it.
A little different than a video company paying people to get it on.

Seems like a lot of those vids are home movies OR they are uploaded by PAY-FOR porn sites that just want to put a teaser out there to lure you to their pay-for site.

A little like the canned food industry suing the food bank for giving out all that free food that people donate.

[joshcryer]

52. Ding ding, not only that a lot of the content is from either defunct sites or intentionally...

...uploaded short clips that advertise the source.

A defunct company or site is unable or unwilling to send an infringement notice so the videos stay up.

You won't have, eg, something from a renown site on there for long.

[Shagbark Hickory]

56. And how would you know that?

}(

[Matariki]

12. That almost seems like a marketing stunt.

Particularly the line reading: “Now that consumers have the ability to watch high quality adult videos for free on redtube.com..."

[Brilliantrocket]

34. LOL too true.

[NuclearDem]

14. Mixed about porn...

But I guess this is good?

[originalpckelly]

16. That, sir, is a very odd fetish.

I don't think I've ever heard of someone being into mixers, but hey, if that's your bag, have at it. It's probably out there somewhere.

[NuclearDem]

18. Oh you

:P :rofl:

I just gave up on porn a couple months ago...for a couple reasons.

[originalpckelly]

20. Oh you poor dear.

:P

[FreakinDJ]

15. The Mirror in our bedroom is Free

thats all the porn we need

[The Doctor.]

47. It high-quality production, from what I've seen.

Keep up the good work!

:hi:

[Toon Me Out]

19. We'll be back to respond...

...after conducting our own research.
:patriot:

[rucky]

22. It's in the Constitution

hasn't anybody read that thing?

[originalpckelly]

23. Indeed it is, Amendment 1.52:

The right of the people to yank it, crank it, or spank it shall not be abridged, and their right to material to enhance said yanking, cranking, or spanking shall also not be abridged, but ESPECIALLY free porn on the internet.

(Those Founding Fathers were visionaries, if you ask me.)

[NuclearDem]

25. We'll now take roll call!

Benjamin Franklin? Here!

John Adams? Here!

John Footpenis?

It's Hancock now!

Why?

Mind your own business, that's why!

[originalpckelly]

26. Oh my.

:P

[immoderate]

24. Redtube looks like the British Youporn.

At least the quick glance I took.

--imm

[originalpckelly]

27. I hope it wasn't THAT quick.

:P

[immoderate]

33. Oh yes! Less than a second. WHAM! "That's Youporn!"

Trained eye. B-:

--imm

[Dappleganger]

28. Well God Bless America!

[liberal N proud]

29. Isn't most free porn armature and posted without payment?

[pokerfan]

38. armature? Kinky....

if you're into that sort of thing (electric play). Kinky. But I like my sex the way I play basketball, one on one with as little dribbling as possible.

[liberal N proud]

55. You never know, some people are into some pretty strange stuff

Yea!

:rofl:

[joshcryer]

50. They a loophole in copyright, if they don't "know" someone is infringing, then they're not at fault.

So what happens is people post clips they got from somewhere else, and those clips are removed when the content creators complain about infringement. So no it's not all amateur. However, a lot of clips have watermarks and in effect it is free advertising for the porn companies. So it's a win win all around for them.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

30. If something is determined to be a SLAPP suit, there are often penalies against the filer

[Lucian]

31. Who would pay for porn?

Seriously. I've only paid for porn once, and that was stupid. There is so much free porn out there that if you can't get off on it, there's something terribly wrong. You can find every category and every fetish imaginable for free.

BTW, I love redtube. I SLAAP myself to it every day. :rofl:

[pokerfan]

40. You must be young

In my day, you had to find it in the woods. Sure, there was Dad's stash of National Geographicss in the basement but I seriously began to wonder if it was warping my fragile young mind, like I finally get a real-life girl alone and would want her to wear neck rings or something.

[Warren DeMontague]

54. No shit. In High School, I sometimes had to masturbate to the Sears Bra Ads in the Sunday Paper.

You youngsters don't know how good you've got it.

[Confusious]

42. Once in 1995: penthouse

No internet connection.

[Juche]

35. redtube sucks

Their porn collection is one of the worst of streaming youtube like porn sites. There are better sites.

On another notes, the sites aren't 'free', they are ad supported. That is like cable tv suing network TV for providing 'free' television stations to the public.

[boppers]

36. Aggregators are better.

cliphunter, for example.... gets a bunch of different free collections and combines them.

[slampoet]

39. Lovers have always had more rights than hookers under common law.

[madinmaryland]

41. Classic!

:rofl:

[jakeXT]

43. They are selling stolen goods

I don't get how this can work.


The reason? Nobody pays for porn anymore. Over the past five years, adult studios have seen their revenues plummet as more of their viewers turn to pirated porn uploaded onto “porn tube sites,” the X-rated cousins of YouTube. With only a few clicks, anybody with an internet connection can stream bootlegged content that used to cost them $25 and a trip to the adult video store.

X-rated tube sites were first launched about five years ago with the idea that it could be a place for exhibitionist couples to post homemade sex tapes. Soon, the sites began overflowing with illegally-uploaded videos from professional studios. Propped up by pirated content, porn tube sites now make up four of the world’s top 100 most visited websites. Blame the college students, say porn producers. While baby boomers were happy to plunk down $40 or $50 for a blue movie now and then, the next generation of internet-savvy porn users is used to getting such things for free

Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/01/22/nobody-pays-for-porn-anymore-a-tale-of-a-sad-sack-expo/#ixzz1Cy3jGmt9

[The Doctor.]

45. So, what... you need a few bucks for rent now?

Seriously, you're right, of course. It can be intellectual property and copyright issues at stake here. Problem is, we've been headed this way for a while.

I haven't dug deep enough, but was this case about copyrighted material?

[boppers]

49. The RIAA mentions in the article have merit.

In a digital world, the act of making copies (aka "publishing") has little to no value anymore.

This makes "publishers" cranky, be they music executives, movie houses, or any number of professions that were invented to make money off of the link between artist and consumer... usually, by controlling the access.

Sure, you can call it "stolen goods", but plain and simple, nothing is being actually stolen... it's being duplicated. It's not like somebody is breaking into a house, and taking your television, instead, they're breaking into a house, taking nothing, and making a duplicate house.

[joshcryer]

51. Um, there's a loophole in copyright law, if a company provides a service that can infringe copyright

...the onus is on the copyright holders to send an infringement notice.

RedTube and indeed all of the porn sites fully comply with such requests. In reality these sites are actually free advertizing for other sites, because they come plastered with logos.

[joshcryer]

53. Note that websites like Rapidshare, Hotfile, and Megaupload exploit this feature of copyright.

To obscene profits since the majority of their file sharers are pirates.

The best part about it? They can just cancel a pirates account in due course, keeping their subscription funds all to themselves. Fun times.

[BoWanZi]

44. Free porn? Cool!

[The Doctor.]

46. Wait... you mean I could have been making money with what I do online?!?

Damn.

:dunce:

[Quixote1818]

48. A no brainier and penis enlarger companies are selling more of their product than ever!

If the court had decided the other way around then free radio, tv and all the other free websites like DU could be sued. What a waste of time taking that to court. There is PLENTY of money that can be made through advertising and as I said above, PLENTY of people are ordering penis enlargers through the free porn websites. Capitalism at its finest!

[Froward69]

57. I just read the articles...

[Vidar]

58. K&R.