“Who’ll make his mark?
The captain cried,
To the devil drink a toast!
We’ll glut the hold
With cups of gold
And we’ll feed the sea with ghosts.
I see your hunger for a fortune
Could be better served
Beneath my flag.
If you’ve the stomach
For a broadside,
Come aboard my pretty boys!
I will take you and make you
Everything you’ve ever dreamed!”
- Pirates by Emerson Lake and Palmer

When I proposed the idea for this article to my boss, he replied with a resounding NO. I don’t blame him. Stealing is bad. I know it’s bad. My boss knows it’s bad. You know it’s bad.

I’ve been covering Internet porn for almost five years. I got into the business in 1998 so I’ve been observing this industry for close to a decade. I’ve read a Titmowse’s share of stories, postings and rants on the subject of theft. This webmaster stole my gallery design! That webmaster pilfered my content! The webmaster over there ripped off my site text! Those webmasters are stealing passwords!

"Yes, your content or site design is worth money but it costs you even more money to stop someone from stealing it."

It sucks. Thieves abound on the World Wide Web as well as in News Groups and on file-sharing networks. There are message boards and websites entirely devoted to posting and sharing stolen content. I’ve seen more than one content producer tell of finding their images up for auction at Ebay. With every new technology and business model comes a fresh crop of pirates out to steal the booty. These freebooters hack servers and exploit security holes. They are not cool guys with bandannas and sailing ships and hearts of gold.

The worst part of digital piracy is that most of the robbers live in countries far away from their victims. While companies like Playboy or Vivid might have the finances to fight theft across International boundaries, many adult webmasters can barely afford a proper lawyer. Yes, your content or site design is worth money but it costs you even more money to stop someone from stealing it. How much of your hard-earned cash are you willing to spend in order to make that jerk in another country pay for hotlinking pics on your server? What if you succeed in stopping him only to discover three more webmasters doing the very same thing?

As I said, my boss was against the idea for this article until I told him the intent of my message. I was inspired by a news story I read in the LA Times. The piece by Charles Piller is titled:

How Piracy Opens Doors for Windows

The article explains how Microsoft owes a part of its dominance of the software trade to bootlegging in developing markets. Mr. Piller illustrates that a new copy of Windows software is too expensive for the average person living in a poor country. The result is a proliferation of merchants selling bootleg copies at a fraction of the cost of the original Windows. The piracy appears damaging to Microsoft but after deeper analysis, the article reveals there is an upside to Intellectual property theft: Branding and product loyalty.

Read a little further and you’ll find this gem of a 1998 quote from Bill Gates himself:

"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though," Gates told an audience at the University of Washington. "And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

Hmmm, a business/marketing model based on outside distribution of free samples. That sounds familiar. Mr. Piller and Mr. Gates cite a similarity to the promotional techniques of drug dealers. It reminds me of Internet porn.

As a webmaster, there are steps you can take to protect what belongs to you. You can buy DRM (Digital Right Management) software. You can spend hours-scouring Usenet and message boards for dirty damned thieves. You can hire someone else to scour for you. You can block hotlinkers with .htaccess. You can redirect surfers from theft-happy regions. You can install server-side security. You can keep a lawyer on retainer just for the purpose of sending cease-and-desist letters to filthy freaking filchers. Best of all, you can turn theft into profit by turning piracy into promotion.

Is there a site or message board hotlinking some of your images? Have you noticed a preponderance of referrers from one IP address, keep downloading the same video clip? Slap a watermark of your URL on those images. Embed your URL into the file-name of your video clip so the freeloading surfer will see it every time it plays on their Media software. Switch a stolen video clip with one that ends in a mini commercial for your website or sponsor.

You can threaten thieving pirates. You can wage battle against them with tools, services and software. You can sick the sharks on them if you have the funds. Just keep in mind that you are the Captain of your ship and you can turn your boat in any direction. You can speed off in retreat or charge ahead into bloody conflict. You can even turn pirates into profiteers that work for you!

Who’ll drink a toast with me?
To the devil and the deep blue sea.
Gold drives a man to dream!