Monday, Aug 20, 2007    Text size: 

“Illegal distribution of copyrighted materials has became too much to bear and it’s time to do something about it,” said Airek, head of Internet operations at Shane’s World Studios. “Increasingly, DVD bootlegging, torrent, tube and password trading sites, among other avenues of distribution, are becoming plague-like and will soon overtake legitimate avenues of content distribution if something isn’t done now.”

While the meeting takes place in the San Fernando Valley in L.A., the epicenter of the adult industry in the U.S., content owners, distributors and producers from across the country are invited to participate.

“We feel strongly from a studio standpoint that this needs to be grass-roots oriented, not for profit and a piracy defense association built from within the industry,” Airek said. “No one looks out for your interests more than someone that is affected by the same issues. Having an anti-piracy association based and formed from within the content industry just makes sense.”

The formation of the roundtable meeting comes on the heels of the Free Speech Coalition’s announcement of an anti-piracy committee on Aug. 15.

Megan Stokes, vice president of sales at Shane’s World, said that the meeting isn’t to solicit donations but to get a dialogue started among the very group of people piracy hurts the most. Additionally, the group will discuss forming its own piracy association primarily composed of content producers.

“This industry is deteriorating from within by other adult businesses supporting these types of companies in the form of advertising and financing,” Stokes said. “The history of adult is we don’t come together. We hope to change that and make us a stronger and more effective community. We must address these issues seriously if we intend to protect our futures. We’ve had enough, and we’re going to try to put everyone together in a room and hash it out on Sept. 5. This is a call to action.”

Content producers wishing to attend the roundtable meeting are encouraged to contact Airek or Stokes by calling (818) 717-8851, or emailing airek@shanesworld.com and megan@shanesworld.com, respectively.