Porn Industry Again at the Tech Forefront

LA Times ^ | April 19, 2006 | Dawn C. Chmielewski and Claire Hoffman

[Panerai]

Downloads for TV will be offered. Hollywood may be looking at its own digital future.

A top producer of hard-core porn will start selling downloadable movies that customers can burn to DVD and watch on their TVs, illustrating how Southern California's multibillion-dollar adult entertainment industry may again set the technological pace for Hollywood.

Letting people burn downloaded movies is considered key to the growth of online distribution. Despite the proliferation of fast Internet connections, most people still want to watch movies on television but lack an easy way to get them off the computer. Plus, hard drives can store only so many space-hogging movies.

Hollywood has resisted burnable discs that can be watched on televisions because they fear piracy. It also doesn't want to alienate retailers, which sell most of its DVDs. But if history is any guide, the online experiment by adult entertainment giant Vivid Entertainment Group will be watched closely by mainstream studio chiefs.

"The simple fact is porn is an early adopter of new media," said Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto. "If you're trying to get something established … you're going to privately and secretly hope and pray that the porn industry likes your medium."

Los Angeles-based Vivid will start selling burnable movies May 8 through online movie service CinemaNow. Marina del Rey-based CinemaNow last fall launched an adult service that it uses to experiment with features that might eventually become mainstream — such as pay-per-minute movie rentals and the ability to save favorite scenes.

[Jaysun]

.....features that might eventually become mainstream — such as pay-per-minute movie rentals and the ability to save favorite scenes.

I think one can safely say that pay-per-minute movie rentals will remain unique to porn.

[Caipirabob]

The internet is for porn...

[goldstategop]

You can burn a movie to a DVD and play it back later whenever you want. No more having to buy a prerecorded DVD from the store or wait for the official release. You can have on demand movies and TV shows whenever you want at the click of a mouse and the best thing is, they won't gobble up precious hard drive real estate.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[AntiGovernment]

I wonder how many people will leave behind their name and credit card number on a porn site.

[Panerai]

"I wonder how many people will leave behind their name and credit card number on a porn site." - For an indurstry which makes more than a billion dollars in sales, a big chunk of that already comes from internet sales.

[ShadowAce]

[Salo]

Considering how many porn companies are owned by "legit" corporations, you'd be pretty safe. I think I read somewhere that GM is the biggest pornographer in the world.

I wonder how many people will leave behind their name and credit card number on a porn site.

[antiRepublicrat]

I wonder how many people will leave behind their name and credit card number on a porn site.

Porn was at the forefront of e-commerce.

[Salo]

Oops. GM sold it's porn stuff to...Rupert Murdoch.

Interesting link.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

LOL! Too funny.

That was the first thing that came to mind. Beat me to it.