The Volokh Conspiracy
[Eugene Volokh, May 16, 2006 at 1:09pm] Trackbacks
The Sex Business Takes the Technological Lead,

again.

PeteRR (mail):
God bless 'em. If they could make money by shooting porn on the Moon, we'd have a fully functioning Moon base by now.
5.16.2006 2:19pm
Ex-Fed (mail) (www):
I went to a great lecture some years ago about how porn had driven the videotape industry (and shot VHS past Beta despite Beta's arguable technological superiority), was driving the then-infant DVD industry, was driving the expansion of internet commerce, and would probably drive any other foreseeable entertainment technology.

If the Beta-was-better-but-was-sunk-because- VHS-was-more-porn-friendly meme is true, it would have interesting implications for our assumptions that the market generally chooses the best product.
5.16.2006 2:39pm
wm13:
I don't understand why one would want to burn a porn movie onto a DVD. I have only seen 6 or 8 porn movies, but that's a big enough sample that I can't imagine that there is a porn movie in existence that someone wants to watch twice.
5.16.2006 2:43pm
reneviht (mail) (www):

If the Beta-was-better-but-was-sunk-because- VHS-was-more-porn-friendly meme is true, it would have interesting implications for our assumptions that the market generally chooses the best product.


Some would argue that VHS being more porn-friendly makes it a better product.
5.16.2006 3:20pm
BobH (mail):
Historically, isn't it pretty much always the case that the most enthusiastic early adopters of new communications technology use it to disseminate pornography? I'm guessing that right after Gutenberg figured out that movable type thing and printed his bible, the next ten books printed contained smutty woodcuts (and sold better than the bible, too).
5.16.2006 3:22pm
Tom952 (mail):
One must admire how they stand up and move to lead the industry with thrust and vigor, yet demonstrate the ability to swallow hard and comply with inevitable market realities.
5.16.2006 3:25pm
Bruce Hayden (mail) (www):
I think that it is a great business plan. The problem with watching porn in a theater for many is that it is public. So, VHS became popular. You could go into a back room at your neighborhood video store for it. But that still meant being somewhat public about it. Now, you can do it in the privacy of your home. No one needs to find out that, deep down, you really are pervert.
5.16.2006 4:15pm
Thaddeus Pope (mail):
Soon enough there will be little need for this transfer in media (to DVD). The only remaining logical reason to have a separate TV and DVD player at all is the still-high cost of LCD projectors. When their price comes down, we can comfortably watch downloaded movies and tv shows (not just adult ones) WITHOUT having to transfer them to DVD.
5.16.2006 4:25pm
KeithK (mail):
In other news, the sun rose in the east this morning...
5.16.2006 5:49pm
Duffy Pratt (mail):
Bruce:

Online companies that you buy from keep databases on your purchases. The less scrupulous companies will offer all your data for sale. On a scale of 1-10 for scruples, where do you think your average pornographer stands?

Moreover, the NSA probably has a record somewhere of everything you have ever done online.

So I wouldn't assume that downloading porn on the internet is going to insure that others are ignorant of your perversions.
5.16.2006 6:00pm
Dick King:
Help me out here ... why is VHS more porn-friendly than Beta? This factoid has an urban legend feel to it.

One fact that I do remember is that VHS licensed to all manufacturers who wanted to make recorders, but Sony insisted on keeping Beta proprietary. Since their market share, though ample, was well under 50%, Beta got relegated to odd corners of video shops [mainstream I can verify, and probably porn as well].

Remember, this was in the days when studios got their share of rental fees by selling videos for $80 for a short time [intended to be bought by video shops] before they reduced the price for the consumer market. Technology wasn't in place to support the notion of selling the recordings for a very modest amount but getting a royalty from each rental, which is the norm now.

-dk
5.16.2006 7:03pm
Mark H.:
Dick King, The way I remember it, the Beta machines initially only recorded for an hour so you couldn't even record a movie on one tape, whereas VHS was 2 hours from the get go. By the time Sony got the time up VHS had taken the lead (and I'm sure that Sony not licensing the manufacture of their machine was a contributory factor).
5.16.2006 7:56pm
Stephen Macklin (mail) (www):
"and I'm sure that Sony not licensing the manufacture of their machine was a contributory factor"


Yes maintaining rigid control over a closed platform has been known to do wonders for a product's market share. Just ask Apple.
5.16.2006 8:45pm
Lorenzo (mail):
From woodcuts to the printing press, photography, motion pictures, the Brownie automatic (8mm), video tape, dvd and now instant downloading, porn has been the leading indicator of the Next Big Thing. With the track record it's got, why hasn't somebody on Wall Street set up a fund to invest where porn is going? Maybe there's someone among VC readers who can get the ball rolling, and count me in as an investor!
5.16.2006 11:37pm
Bob Smith (mail):

Yes maintaining rigid control over a closed platform has been known to do wonders for a product's market share. Just ask Apple.

How about a better example: Sun, NFS, and NeWS. Sun licensed NFS to everybody for free. NFS cornered the market in remote file sharing. Sun didn't license NeWS; though arguably superior to X11, NeWS never gained traction and eventually died a quiet and unheralded death.
5.16.2006 11:38pm
Lorenzo (mail):
Whoops. I forgot to list the internet. Just think of something salacious, add a dot-com to it, and it's probably in use. Nobody's figured out how to get rich on the internet yet, so my suggestion may be premature. Still, somebody ought to look into it, and remember us VC readers as potential investors.
5.16.2006 11:45pm
Cornellian (mail):
I don't understand why one would want to burn a porn movie onto a DVD. I have only seen 6 or 8 porn movies, but that's a big enough sample that I can't imagine that there is a porn movie in existence that someone wants to watch twice.

That's the beauty of a DVD as compared to a videotape. They'll never have to watch the whole movie again, they can just bookmark their 2 or 3 favorite scenes.
5.16.2006 11:45pm
logicnazi (mail) (www):
Uhh, why not just watch porn on your laptop? This has always worked fine for me and my significant others. Putting it on your TV just seems silly.
5.17.2006 2:14am

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