All adult content creation is labor and should be compensated
“Tube sites that tout ‘free porn’ are actually based in stolen, pirated content,” Chauntelle Tibbals, author of Exposure: A Sociologist Explores Sex, Society, and Adult Entertainment and a curator of ethical.porn, tells Playboy. The resulting problem is transparent: Producers aren’t getting paid for their content, which impacts their bottom line, which then impacts the performers, laborers and so on. It’s a torrential chain reaction that influences the entire industry in a deleterious way.
The fact that we even refer to pirated content as “free porn” in the first place speaks to a much deeper issue: Adult content is something we see as having no value and not worth paying for. “Regardless of one’s erotic tastes, the fact remains that all professional adult content creation is labor—and to deny the people performing said labor the right to compensation and authentication via the acknowledgement of their labor is exploitative and dehumanizing,” Tibbals explains.
As a result of dwindling profits courtesy of stolen content, some producers have had to make a deal with the devil in order to make ends meet and share revenue, pursuing affiliate relationships with piracy-based tube sites (like Pornhub, Redtube, YouPorn and the like), which host the lion’s share of porn traffic on the internet. In a way, it’s like having a series run on a popular station like HBO. In this instance, for a production company to make money, users must go to a tube site and click through an advertising link or banner. Then, producers and the tube site will receive a cut of sales, which is typically split half and half.
A newer form of this program is known as “View Share.” In this structure, the studio uploads longer scenes (even full movies), and the tube site tracks views and pays the studio a very small amount of revenue based on what they are making in advertising or premium membership revenue. The current problem with this system is that pretty much none of the tubes have robust or transparent reporting stats.
“Most studios have been severely damaged by the tubes and free porn in general, but as 90 percent of all adult traffic is going to free porn sites, it forces our hand to participate in Content Partner and View Share programs to recoup a small amount of our losses,” Colin Rowntree, CEO of Wasteland.com (NSFW) and fellow curator of ethical.porn, explains. “The studios have the original content that the tubes need, which makes us odd symbiotic, parasitic bedfellows.”
When people pay for porn (whether via a subscription, purchasing a clip directly from a performer, or when buying content from an authorized retailer like AdultDVDEmpire.com), the process is easy enough. The money goes back to the content owner. This compensation then impacts the content owner’s/producer’s bottom line, which helps recoup production costs and maybe even turn a profit.
“All professional adult content creation is labor—and to deny the people performing said labor the right to compensation and authentication via the acknowledgement of their labor is exploitative.”
This, Tibbals says, enables producers to create more content in a safe, professional, community-sanctioned environment. Not to mention, it means more performers and workers in every part of the production and distribution process get to earn a living. “It’s not about liking all porn, or any porn for that matter. It’s about not exploiting other humans by dismissing the value of the work they do if one chooses to consume it. There is no such thing as a ‘free porn site.’”
Ethical porn is adult content that is consensual and transparent, is created in an environment that emphasizes safety and respect, and does not contribute to wider social inequalities via troublesome post-production marketing. But there’s more to it. Rowntree adds that another critical aspect of ethical porn production is that performers derive fair financial benefit for their work. “This can take the form of traditional pay-per-scene (or day) at a pre-negotiated rate,” he shares. “Another popular structure is ‘content sharing’ in which the performer does not get payment for their work, but rather gets the final edited copies of their scenes, which they are free to sell on their clip stores, pay sites, VoD channels and other outlets, keeping all revenue.”
In terms of websites that are completely free and entirely ethical (something of an oxymoron in this industry), Angie Rowntree, founder of Sssh.com (NFSW) and curator of ethical.porn offers the following options:
Pornforwomen: Pornforwomen is a website that features trailers (around two minutes, on average) from ethical, feminist porn creators. Most of the sites showcased work with real couples having real sex with authentic orgasms. A rarity in the industry, for sure.
Essentially, any website hosting porn trailers and not stolen content can be considered ethical. Most porn producers offer free trailers on their sites as well.
Literotica: Have you read erotic literature? Don’t knock it until you try it. Literotica features original, quality sex stories from amateur authors dipping their toes in these sultry waters. The website even holds writing contests for its contributors, and all characters involved are over the age of consent. For a similar option, visit Hysterical Literature.
If you’re looking for paid ethical porn, head over here.
Cam sites are a burgeoning trend in the adult industry, and the rules don’t change— not paying for a performer’s time via tips is considered unethical. Rowntree laments not tipping is especially bad on free cam sites such as flirt4free.com and myfreecams.com where performers rely on tips for their revenue rather than traditional one-on-one paid private shows. “It’s no different than going to a strip club, enjoying the dancers, and not giving them a tip,” he explains.
The moral of the story is: There’s no such thing as free ethical porn. If you’re watching porn without paying, the content is either stolen or is hosted by a website that has directly or indirectly bullied a production company into pursuing an affiliate program where they reap a fraction of the earnings they deserve. Next time you watch “free” porn, at the very least make sure it’s ethical—whether it’s been uploaded by the performer themselves as a promotional tool, a trailer to a full feature you might purchase, or amateur erotica. If you want porn production to remain prolific and accessible, it doesn’t hurt to do your part to support it.