It’s not really like the music industry problem. There aren’t a plethora of “amateur bands” out making music and posting it, and consumers aren’t flocking to crappy amateur music instead of well-produced professional albums.
The music industy’s problem is that people are stealing their intellectual property and setting up sites to give it away.
The PORN industry’s problem is that porn doesn’t have to be professional, and in fact many people seem to enjoy it more when it seems real, rather than faked. Once the porn industry saw how much money they could make selling DVDs of amateurs having sex, they should have realised they were “screwed”.
After all, at that point they were simply distributers of a product that can easily be distributed directly through the web at virtually no cost.
So if people are willing to not get paid, they can produce and distribute porn for free, at no cost to themselves.
The Porn industry’s only hope seems to be to pass laws severely restricting easy access to on-line porn. They need laws that heavily regulate who can appear in a video, like proof of age, proof of protection, regular medical exams. They need a minimum wage law for appearing in movies, they need web sites to be forced to restrict access to people who prove they are 18, and to restrict videos to those who have spent big bucks to prove the actors are all legal and willing.
In other words, all the stuff the Porn industry has been fighting for years, was the only thing that would save them.
One might even say they are "hoist by their own 'petard'"... /grin
Yep. Just like Indian Gaming paying off congresscritters to ban online gaming.
Fairly common in industries where any schmoe can deliver a similar product, to want government to step in to regulate it. I remember Maine crab fishing lobbies attempting to regulate and restrict private enterprises out of existence.
There is an interesting spice of irony that the porn industry's best chance to protect itself is to support changes that would do the most to protect children, both from exploitation and from consuming adult entertainment.
I don’t want to disagree with your general point, but why would you say that there aren’t a plethora of “amateur bands” out there? That’s exactly what the situation is. With full access to the CD replication business and no overlords to support or cater to, there are thousands of independent artists making good money in the music business. Go to CDbaby.com or diskmakers to get a feel for how big, and how lucrative this business is.
The decline of the music industry is at the Titan-end of the food chain, not for little-guy performers who are prospering and reveling in their access to nationwide audiences.