I recently spoke to journalist Marie Maurice about online porn and its impact on contemporary culture. Marie used commentary in two pieces recently published on l’Hebdo (French for “The Weekly”).

You can read “YouPorn: l’impuissance des grands studios” — translated from French as “YouPorn: impotence of the big studios” (8/11/16) — in its original form here.

Below are some translated excerpts related to my commentary directly.

“All content found on these sites is stolen,” said Chauntelle Tibbals. The copyright law dating back more than ten years is powerless to condemn the owners of these platforms. To save their productions, big houses have only one way: to pay fortunes to companies specialized in tracking. With powerful algorithms, they bombard porn tubes with requests withdrawal stolen videos.

Fairly certain I said something that conveyed “most of” or “the vast majority of” content… Translation is complex! And this is a true fact — the only recourse copyright owners have is to pay for DMCA-backed takedowns.

In another instance of a translation getting the overall sentiment correct while losing a touch of nuance:

While pornography has long been at the forefront of technological innovation — think of the Mintier — the major groups have completely missed the digital revolution. “Things have changed so quickly that manufacturers do not know how to react,” said Chauntelle Tibbals. “They have closed their eyes.” It is only in recent years that those who can afford to invest to counter the wave of “all free,” improving their offering. Dorcel, for example, puts out quality content, offering high definition videos, custom aftermarket services, and virtual reality experiences, with glasses 360 degrees and 3D.

When we were talking about this topic specifically — not reacting to piracy when it was first starting and a *fear* of developing online technology — we were talking about about responses about ten years back. This non-response set the stage for the piracy tidal wave we see today, a tidal wave that companies like Dorcel are attempting to negotiate by reacting new content and products that are essentially un-piratable.

Piracy is almost an old hat today, but we continue to talk about it because so few consumers seem to understand (or care about) the situation… What do you think?

Read about Marie’s other piece re online porn “Marché du sexe: dans l’univers du porno en ligne” (8/11/16), also in l’Hebdo, right here.

(pictured: image via l’Hebdo here)

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Get Exposure: A Sociologist Explores Sex, Society, and Adult Entertainment on Amazon and CT.com