Break The Sense of Entitlement

[Dzinerbear]

those are only two guys, but i've heard this from many others. i can't figure out why these guys feel they are entitled to free porn - it is neither in the constitution nor is it on your dialup package when you first go online.

Because way back when the Internet first started porn was free. It was available on newsgroups, you could trade it on IRC, and you could even find it on the odd website. And anyone who could afford a scanner could go through his stack of Blueboys and create more "free" porn.

And the way I remember it, AVS's started popping up and the sales tactic of the day was to circulate posts on newsgroups that the FBI was going to start charging people who didn't prevent children from accessing porn.

There was such a backlash back then to the whole notion that one had to pay for porn, it was as if we were suggesting Americans turn in their guns.

But this seems to be how we do things on the Internet. Everything starts off free to get people used to obtaining and using a product, and then, at some point it starts moving towards a pay model. When WS_FTP was free, I saw no need to offer to pay for it. When they implemented free trials for 30 days and you couldn't just uninstall, download, and free install, then I bought it. It became more inconvenient for me not to pay. Now, I could learn how to clean my registry so I can download 30-day trials for the rest of my life, or I could look for another free FTP program, but (a) I don't enjoy playing with my registry and (b) I like WS FTP and I'm used to it, I don't want to change.

I also think desslock has made some excellent points. Perhaps Corbin Fisher could get some of their more popular guys back to do live shows. Advertise the feature at the beginning of the clips that end up circulating. basschick also made some good points about trying to educate people about the costs of prodcuing porn.

I had one member e-mail me. He said he loved my site but he didn't understand why I upgraded MANcheckPlus galleries more than Regular ones. I told him the reason was the MC+ galleries were semi-exclusive content that I obtained direct from a photographer. They cost me more money to buy. He said he understood, he just didn't see the point of popping off $40 a month to have access to a lot of stuff he'd never use. On the other hand, I've got people who just want the access so it's there when they want to use it. It's two extremes.

Michael

[Jasun]

YOu know, just yesterday, I posted a thread on justusboys.com about the new Fratmen Podcast and one guy started to LOUDLY whine that we wer only making viewable in iTunes, and how Steve Jobs was this or that becuase he woulnd't make a version of iTunes for Linux.

When some people suggested that he spend the small amount for the Mac Emmulator so he could run it he said "That would require me to do something I don't do: Pay for Software".

He then tried to get me to make a special version of the podcast for him so he could see it.. even though he had no intention of ever joining the site.

People's feelings of entitlement run so deep that they have no qualms about asking the producers for free product. It's almost daily durring live shows when someone comes in and says "CAn someone please give me a free password so I can watch the show?" and when I tell them that everyone else pays for their membership and so should they, they always get rather religerant.

I guess my point really is that the culture of getting stuff for free has been made cool on the internet... people feel like thye're hackers because they have a free membership to AOL and know how to get files off of Fileshare.com.

It's going to take a lot more than anything we have in our arsenal right now to get that to change.

The Music Industry tried to appeal to young people's sense of.. I'm not sure.. with a site called www.keepmusiccoming.com which was pretty much a site that tried to say "If you don't stop downloading for free, there will be no more music". Stupid idea. Most people bombed the message boards and chat with insults and vicious attacks on the site, but then it turned into a place where teenagers shared info on how and where to find any album for free.

Maybe flooding the download sites with viruses or spoofed files would be a good idea.. maybe making 1,000 huge video files and calling them "Young Teen sucking cock" or "Studs and big juicy load" but then having then play nothing just to discourage downloaders would work in the short term.. who knows. The big problem that we have is that people can get away with it and it's fun... they're not going to stop doing it or even stop bragging about it.. hey sharing it makes them cool.

[desslock]

a few years ago, we had a few small porn sites, and we were seeing some chargebacks. i phoned every one of them, and basically one guy summed it up pretty well - he said "i don't feel like i should have to pay for porn".

we talked for a while about the fact that we had to pay to license our content (he had actually believed we didn't pay for it - and in 1998, there was no free content). he said he had always heard porn was free on the internet, and when he had to pay, he felt ripped off. he seemed to feel very different about paying for sex stuff than non-sex stuff.

Basschick - I think your experience here is with an attitude that is all too common. But keep in mind though that this technology is new. So it is reasonable to expect a time of transition. Imagine people who have never lived around a toll road suddenly given the option to use one to get to work. Initally a lot of people might feel indignent for having to pay money for getting to work. Many people may stubbornly take their older, slower routes rather then have to pay for the new road.

Five or ten years later the numbers of the stubborn people will dwindle, and most people will probably start using the toll road ... mostly because everyone will accept the fact that the tollroad is there, and they will eventually see its benefits.

Steve

[gaystoryman]

Five or ten years later the numbers of the stubborn people will dwindle, and most people will probably start using the toll road ... mostly because everyone will accept the fact that the tollroad is there, and they will eventually see its benefits.

or perhaps more will use the toll road because they closed the non toll road or simply ignored its upkeep?

People want whatever for as little cost as possible. It doesn't matter if its porn, or programs or whatever. We all generally 'shop' for whatever we want, and even those with oodles of cash can be bargain hunters. I don't think this is a sense of entitlement, but simply a sense of being cheap, frugal, thrifty, or greedy. It is also a bit of laziness too. Why go to the trouble involved in signing up when you can supposedly snatch the stuff for free from some trading site?

To avoid fraud, we tend ot make signing up a bit more difficult than walking into a store and buying the stuff. Songs & music are simply over priced and the p2p sharing is the result. Who is to blame? The idea that the consumer wants something cheaper or the music industry who profits at the expense of not just the consumer but the artist?

I don't look at 'free' as something people expect so much as it is something people prefer and desire. Is that entitlement or simply being economical?

[CoNo4Amdam]

I was curious as to peoples' thoughts on this subject:

how to go about breaking peoples' sense of entitlement when it comes to stuff online. That is, the feeling that there's no such thing as stealing porn, stealing content, stealing software, so forth.

It seems that with any intangible product (being music, videos, software, and stuff that you can't actually have sitting before you and touch) there's this sense that you're entitled to do all you can to get it for free. I see on discussion boards all the time people openly talking about how they'd never buy software or pay for a site membership because they can get it all for free (through p2p and hacked memberships/videos).

You never hear people sitting around talking about how they're all perfectly entitled to walk in to a store and grab whatever they want and walk out the door because they have no desire to pay for it. We universally recognize such types as thieves. But when it comes to non-physical products online, there's still a big culture of entitlement to such things.

A porn fan would probably immediately recognize that it was wrong and illegal to walk in to a brick and mortar porn store and steal a basket of DVDs. But take those DVDs, rip them, and post them online and that same person's ethics will change entirely, and they'll feel like they have every right to acquire the digital copies.

How would you suggest that culture be broken?

Hi I am new here but could not help but put in my two cents. I think this is about morality. People have become desensitized to what stealing is. Employees often feel it is not stealing to misrepresent time worked, or to take the stickies and paperclips home. People no longer feel it is stealing to engage in file sharing or copying of movies, music etc. How many people go back to a store and give back the excess change given by the sub par person at the cash register? Morality is not something to impose and should be our own personal endeavor first. Then do things to shift the moral tone of people around you and with whom you interact in business.