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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Prash Agarwal

Tue, Jul 27th 1999 8:31pm





Porn on the cutting edge

from the porn-drives-new-tech-as-usual dept

This story is the perfect compliment to the TiVo story, where I wonder when the Web will catch up with services like TiVo. Well a Canadian company plans to launch its own Internet dedicated to porn. The idea is that with their own net they can create a vastly better viewing experience. Just as with VCRs, CD-ROM, and DVD, the porn industry is on the bleeding edge.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Porn does NOT drive new tech!

    identicon
    Jon Acheson, Jul 28th, 1999 @ 10:54am

    What, like Tim Berners-Lee developed the Web to pass porn around at CERN? Like the Internet was developed by the military in order to distribute porn to lonely GIs? Like Hugh Hefner is in the telecom industry?

    I question it.

    What IS true is that porn has a really high profit margin and is always in demand, and therefore is ideal for someone looking for content to sell over a new medium. Also, expectations are low.

    But it comes in AFTER the technology is established: the porn industry is an early adopter, not a developer.

    Jon Acheson

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: Porn does NOT drive new tech!

    identicon
    prash, Jul 28th, 1999 @ 1:52pm

    OK, maybe my word choice was bad. But if the porn industry is an early adopter, then they drive market accpetance of a technology. I didn't mean to imply they develop the tech.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: Porn does NOT drive new tech!

    identicon
    Jon Acheson, Jul 28th, 1999 @ 3:30pm

    On rereading the original, I can see that I overreacted. I shouldn't have jumped on this quite so hard. Sorry!

    Yes, I'd agree that they tend to- what should I say? "Legitimize" the new tech? Seems a strange word to use in connection with pornography... :)

    The porn producers, like anyone using the tech and generating a revenue stream, tend to help build momentum for a medium by proving that people are using it.

    The bad side is, porn also tends to stigmatize the medium and in the long term, hinder acceptance. For instance, Japanese animation is suffering from stigmatization in the US because some of the most successful early adapters in the channel made their money selling porn and ultraviolence. Video stores also had this kind of sleazy reputation for a time, which is one reason why Blockbuster was so successful: their squeaky-clean stores removed the cheeze factor from renting videos.

    Jon

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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