pirates

[Jocke]

As long as there have been digital content there have been pirating, but I wonder if it has become worse and if it has a severe effect on studio profitability? I think most of us would prefer to pay for content and have a secure steady flow of quality porn rather than having studios dying.
I know very little about IT but wonder if it would be more difficult to copy if there wasn't a download function? I want to download mainly to secure my purchases in case LP would go belly up, but I prefer streaming. I guess you could run the scene and then copy the stream but is that convenient for a pirate?

[Anselm_Weinberg]

I know very little about IT but wonder if it would be more difficult to copy if there wasn't a download function? I want to download mainly to secure my purchases in case LP would go belly up, but I prefer streaming. I guess you could run the scene and then copy the stream but is that convenient for a pirate?

This is exactly how you generate more piracy, even people who would otherwise have paid for something will often prefer the convenience of having an immediate copy without restrictions and all that messing around as is often the case today with extensive DRM/no access to either a digital file or physical copy etc. let alone not being able to access something without an Internet connection.

The true hardcore pirates will always find a way and making it more difficult and restrictive for the average paying user doesn't help.

If anything, having the download function available is one of the main reasons I keep buying scenes on this site and I'd most definitely cease doing so if it were to be removed. Obviously I wouldn't turn to piracy but would just be happy with all the old scenes I already own which would themselves take years to watch all the way through.

Now I may not speak for a majority and more and more people are in fact satisfied with streaming only, but it would still be a futile exercise without any added benefit to remove it and thereby alienate at least a considerable plurality of users.

[Jocke]

I don't claim to have a solution. My first question is, is increased pirating the reason for failing studios? I can't imagine that people are watching less porn?

[davebowman]

I know very little about IT but wonder if it would be more difficult to copy if there wasn't a download function? I want to download mainly to secure my purchases in case LP would go belly up, but I prefer streaming.

Really? This site is currently plagued by ongoing issues of purchased scenes suddenly vanishing and disappearing from the accounts of purchasers, and your solution is to remove any download option?

[jjwhite1985]

I don't claim to have a solution. My first question is, is increased pirating the reason for failing studios? I can't imagine that people are watching less porn?

No - pirating doesn't help things, but it's always existed for as long as internet porn has been a thing. Difficulty maintaining margins, caused by a changing porn market, is the main reason for many studios throwing in the towel. Not just at LP, but across Europe and the US too.