As a third party that hasn't been part of this conversation, I just want to say you guys (specifically Comfort Eagle and Laughing Gas) are getting pretty mean in your posts. Comfort, I've seen your posts here for years, you're a good guy and I like you. Laughing, you've also been around for a while, you put up good material and I applaud that you're contributing to the community. Mavran isn't supporting piracy in his posts, and whether or not he is actually pirating or not seems irrelevant: he claims he isn't. You two are forcing a narrative, making assumptions, and projecting your anger towards pirates onto this guy, and I don't think he deserves it.
And that's fine, everyone has free speech here, but as someone from the sidelines until this post, I was hoping I could calm the atmosphere a bit. After all, a proper discussion can't really be had if insults are flying and fingers are being pointed, at least that's what I believe.
I bring this up every time I partake in one of these posts, but during a tirade against pirate's, Tommy of TA threatened to disclose the credit information of an individual he believed was posting his videos. He edited the posts away at some point, but there was a lot wrong with what he claimed he was going to do. For one, that credit information didn't necessarily belong to the person that purchased the videos. For two, and the bigger one, is that the guy could have been legitimate. I didn't see what Tom saw and so I can't make that call, but I don't think there would have been conclusive evidence, anyway. This is wrong, that he has the ability to do this is scary, and it should be a fair warning to anyone purchasing any good or service from anyone. I bring it up because it is a legitimate reason I will not make a purchase from some companies and institutions: I either do not trust the people behind it or I do not trust their infrastructure.
As for the remainder of my post, they are very likely things that have already been covered earlier in the post and if so I apologize. There was a point within the last discussion that mavran isn't offering any suggestions on how to deal with the piracy, and so I didn't want to chime in without adding to the discussion proper.
For one I think that it needs clearing up that, if it hasn't been already, a pirated video does not equal a lost sale. Just, there's no indication that any person watching a pirated video had any intention of buying it beforehand. I'm sure piracy causes damage to a company but it may not be as pronounced as it seems. I don't think the absolute end of piracy will have nearly as much of an effect as some believe it will.
Anyway, if you want to deal with piracy one has to look at why its happening. Usually, I think its a cost or convenience thing, either the costs are too high -- or a person just doesn't want to pay the cost -- or its more convenient to watch on one of the streaming sites than it is to make a purchase of some kind, for some reason.
Clips4Sale is certainly convenient as a store front, but I still find it a pain to navigate at times. Finding the store I want isn't always easy, and then browsing the clips is also a pain at times, though part of that is my fault (I have a few things that stop scripts from running, so I have to go through and disable them to properly use clips4sale). Either way, navigating a list that has several different copies of the same video, either cut up for different parts alongside a full version, or different sizes of a video, is a hassle. If I know what video I'm looking for, that's a different thing entirely, because the search is functional but its not the best. Beyond that, if you're looking to get a preview of a clip, you only get 10 seconds on clips4sale, so you're better off coming here, which is an additional bunch of steps involving finding the proper thread with the preview, then downloading it, then watching it.
My point is clips4sale isn't very fast or efficient, and that's not the fault of producers, but many producers primarily use clips4sale. A lot of you guys have your own personal sites, and that's great.
Anyway, where I was going with this is that a good way to stop piracy is to just deal with the benefits piracy provides over actual purchases. Making a purchase can be a hassle, and so improving upon that is arguably the best way to lower piracy. Of course, this won't stop the people that share the videos, it's more about the people who would be on the fence. If you need a proper example of this, look to Steam or iTunes. These stores are easy to use and very convenient, and these two factors have curbed piracy in their respective areas. Not entirely, but they have.
So what I've basically said is that clips4sale needs to get better which is beyond the control of any one producer, though I think if enough people complain, or at least offer constructive criticism, that site could improve. I specifically say clips4sale because having one hub for media is far easier for the consumer, and honestly, one of the biggest issues with our medium is that accessing the content isn't consumer friendly.
I think this thread shows that. It's a lot of anger, from what I've seen, as opposed to discussion and improvement. The discussion and improvement has happened in the past, and is in here too, but the thread is more ranting and wailing on people than trying to improve the overall purchasing experience.
My last comment is that a producer should consider putting together a class action of some sort against pornhub. I would be surprised if this isn't in the works already somewhere. I don't know a lot about copyright infringement laws, nor do I know a lot about how well policed pornhub is. I'm just not experienced with their site, I don't know if anyone can report a video or how the reporting process works, or any of that, but I imagine there is room for a lawsuit against them somewhere.
Again, sorry if any -- or all -- of my post has been brought up before.