A sharp decline in DVD sales has brought some of the porn industry’s biggest stars together in an anti-piracy PSA showing them in a rather unfamiliar light: With their clothes on.
Piracy is a pretty common topic of discussion around these parts, but those conversations are usually limited to its impact on videogames. There’s another multi-billion-dollar industry that’s suffering the effects of illegal copying, however: Pornography, which has seen a sharp decline in DVD sales driven by counterfeiting and so-called “tube” porn sites on the internet. Reliable numbers aren’t available because most porn companies are privately held but the Adult Entertainment Trade Association, part of the Free Speech Coalition, claims DVD sales are down by at least a third.
In response, the industry has produced an All-Star Anti-Piracy PSA video featuring performers like Kaylani Lei, Sinnamon Love, Alektra Blue, Will Ryder, Cousin Stevie, Charlie Laine and of course, the one and only Ron Jeremy. But don’t expect to see them peeling down and getting nasty: Instead, they talk about the impact that illegal copying has on the industry and the many people who work in it.
“What we’re trying to communicate in these new videos is that this is not just hurting the big companies like Larry Flynt, but the people who work in production, the performers, the sideline businesses like makeup artists,” Joanne Cachapero, the coalition’s membership coordinator, told Wired. “Piracy is really a problem for our industry in terms of dropping revenues. This is what we’re trying to communicate to the consumer.”
The porn business lags far behind the recording and mainstream movie industries in terms of anti-piracy efforts but Cachapero said many producers have recently begun using new “fingerprinting” technology to track online copyright infringement and may bring lawsuits against offenders. In the meantime, this PSA and another more light-hearted clip starring a solo Charlie Lane give us all something to think about the next time we’re “consuming.”
