How The Porn Industry Banks (Part 1)

This is the first of a three-part series, starting with how the camming division of porn banks on the laziness and vulnerability of their very bread and butter; camgirls.

An unwillingness to learn the skills necessary to build her own business puts many a camgirl at a disadvantage, forced to rely on the vultures of the industry for traffic and promotion. Furthermore, those with a poor work ethic become even more vulnerable to the so-called promoters whose claim to do it all for the camgirls falls short of paying them their share, as per contractual agreement.

In their offers to promote the camgirl (or so they’ll have you believe), access to sensitive information such as usernames and passwords to social media accounts is required. Is it so hard for a camgirl to tweet for herself? Why does she need a promoter to do that for her and what does he stand to gain, that makes it worth his time and effort to perform a task that in any other industry, would be the sole responsibility of the salesperson?

The promoter also often insists on content (voluntary sample videos provided by the camgirl). By some strange and unexplained coincidence, those same videos end up in a junkyard full of others just like them, on sites charging a pay per view rate or a site-wide membership fee. The camgirl sees none of that money. Not a cent. This is where the sites thrive and profit, though they’ll deny any involvement, suggesting that evil affiliates or customers are the culprits. Right. Of course. The sites themselves with the most access to that content would never ….? I’ve actually caught them at it, several times.

The entire industry is custom designed for the lazy. The sites and promoters have no problem doing it all for the camgirl. Ever wonder from where such generosity emerges? While the camgirl smiles and does her thing, a program running in the background records it all. Someone later edits it, boxes it up into a huge mpeg file and copies it over several times for distribution to likeminded scum in the industry. Again, the camgirl sees no money from this. Where’s her 35 or 50%, as per contractual obligation? First, we must prove who is behind this before any action can be taken against them. Remember, the sites blame affiliates and customers. I suppose these evildoers just happen to know they must hide the company names under privacy protect services. So savvy they are, for people who have real jobs and are only doing this as a sidekick. Little do the camgirls know just how transparent the sites really are. If they took the time to investigate.

Ownership of any of these sites selling content is completely hidden or listed under the name of someone who doesn’t really exist as a person. It is a slick trick they like to use to throw people off the trail. The greatest challenge is in finding the person, the exact person they list as owning it, if you’re savvy enough to follow all the trails. Names and addresses listed actually exist but will never lead back to them.

Here’s an interesting find. The camgirl’s agreements and contracts clearly state, in no uncertain terms, that the site or company own all intellectual property which basically means everything the camgirl produces on the site. The camgirl not reading this in its entirety is what they count on and the gamble always pays off. Again, the laziness of others is what they bank on. It’s practically a sure thing.

As for content, well the scumbags can use it as they please, with what they consider an irrevocable, world-wide license. The wording can be found as such: “irrevocable, world-wide, transferable, non-exclusive license” and “owns all display names and licenses them to you”. One might wonder about the legality of that one, since it is the girl that creates her handle and her face that represents it, under independent contractor status. Regardless, depending on the contract, the money from the sale of content, on or off the platform, is owed to the camgirl under the same commission structure agreed upon in the contract or stated in their terms at the time in question. Short of hiring a detective, the only thing left to do is sue to find out who is truly behind the mask and get the money owed. Have you ever wondered why so many little porn sites appear to be popping up everywhere, no apparent involvement with the big sites? The big sites don’t drive traffic to themselves. Why would they? They know traffic stats show little activity and that’s what they want. They don’t want the girls knowing their shows are sold on the other sites, with plenty of traffic and money going around for both live and recorded videos.

On the topic of independent contractor status (which is what the camgirl is, by law), here’s some food for thought: Have you ever wondered in what world does an independent contractor enter into an agreement with a company and have to sign away all rights to their own intellectual property?

What about the fact that commissions can be lowered from 50 to 35 percent if you admit to or are found lending your services to other companies? Wait a minute. Independent contractors are supposed to work for multiple companies at the same time. It’s what they do. Defines the title independent contractor. This is another instance where employee status should apply because independent contractors we are not, in some ways, but in others, we are. Camgirls are paid like contractors yet treated like employees. If you are penalized for working on other sites, then you are not an independent contractor. Here is an excellent example, from a law firm’s website: http://www.strasburger.com/independent-contractor-sign-noncompete-never-ever/?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=View-Original

The commissions earned by average camgirls often equate to only a fraction of that of a minimum-wager’s, for the same amount of hours worked. Such chinsy amounts but a great volume of them. If the sites had us as employees, they’ve have to shell out some money to pay the camgirls at least minimum wage.

What I’d like to know is in their filings with the IRS, how do these porn sites explain that they do business out of the U.S. yet pay the girls from a bank in Cyprus, under a different name than that of the main website or where the girls signed up to? One of the sites I signed up to had in its contract the name of the site, except with an “s” at the end and was paying its independent contractors out of a bank in Cyprus.

Some of the main sites have branches in countries worldwide. If operating out of the U.S., I suppose worldwide banking might be necessary to pay employees, associates, affiliates and independent contractors but the money is always coming out of little tax havens but why companies all over the world?  That’s convenient.

The laziness of camgirls has continued to serve the porn industry well. It’s not surprising though. In this ‘do nothing’ world we live in, predators will always have the advantage. In 2010, when I tried to file a class action lawsuit against a particular porn site for fraud, I was met with the fearfulness of some camgirls (of backlash), the indecisiveness of others (any little excuse to bail out after their initial decision to join in) and overall laziness of the majority.

Laziness. How the camming industry thrives.