[Paul Markham]

The effect of Torrent and Tube sites is going to be the biggest thing for the Internet, adult and mainstream, simply because the law was not written to cover them. Here's a few points.

How much is uploaded by surfers and how much is stolen?
In the mainstream I think a lot of music would be uploaded. Movies can be very big and unless you're on a very powerful upload connection it would be a hassle. The amount of porn going up from surfers will be, IMO, limited. Most porn consumers are not going to sit there and upload movies for hours on end.

So would a site needing the content go out and grab it? Straight theft and it needs to be proved who uploaded it. How does the law stand on it?

What would be the effect of us stealing traffic from Tube and Torrent sites?
Would they mind or complain if we stole their traffic? Of course they would because they live off traffic, this could be an area to attack them.

How much of the content on the sites is uploaded from porn sponsors?
How many sites or affiliates are uploading content to get traffic. It would be interesting to see how many of the sites on the pirate sites join a campaign to close them down.

If it was possible to close down every pirate site would the sales of $30 memberships increase significantly?
IMO no. The users who want to spend $30 will and a pirate site is not an option. The sales might go to PPV selling a movie at a time. They might go to sites selling porn at a very low price. But the surfers will not go to $30 sites in any great numbers. Definitely not in enough numbers to justify the cost of closing these sites.

The days of selling a product at an inflated price to support a "traffic" system are drawing to a close. You can lead a surfer to a $30 site, but you can't force him to buy if he knows what he needs is available for $5 or even less. We don't "own" traffic, you only show him a product, we need him to want to buy it to make money.