Kaan Yagit, the study’s director, told XBIZ a nationally representative sample of 2,600 Americans was used to garner the results. This means the samples’ demographics were proportional to those of the U.S. (For example, if 12 percent of Americans are Hispanic, so were 12 percent of Solutions’ samples.)
Keith Webb, vice president of gay content studio Titan Media, said the results of the study were “scary” and hopes they will open the eyes of those in the adult industry who are not yet fighting Internet piracy.
Following the example of Australian adult industry trade group AICO, Titan developed its own in-house legal department devoted to anti-piracy. Webb said that in 2006, Titan’s legal department sent out one million cease-and-desist letters with an 85 percent compliance rate. Webb encourages other studios to do the same.
“No one studio is going to be able to stop it,” Webb said. “Pulling together will make it happen.”
Webb said not all adult studios realize the effect illegal file sharing has on their businesses; the DVD revenue gap that online video-on-demand sales should be filling is still present and Webb believes it’s because of piracy.
Devoting a percentage of online and DVD sales to a legal fund, Webb said, is a way for studio’s to finance an in-house anti-piracy department, and after time there will be enough money made in legal settlements to make it a self-funding program.
Webb said Digital Playground is the only other adult studio he knows to have a similar legal department.
Co-owner Samantha Lewis and publicist Adella O’Neal of Digital Playground were unavailable for comment by press time.
This is Solutions Research Group’s first study released in a series called Digital Life America, in which American behavior and attitude toward all things digital are analyzed. Studies focused on TV, wireless and broadband use are part of the six-study series, with the final one to be released in May, Yagit said.
