THE ROLE OF COMMUNITIES AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE APPROPRIATION OF DIGITAL CONTENT: THE CASE OF SEX POSITIVE PORNOGRAPHY

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Pornography as a creative industry

Part I presents the contemporary adult entertainment industry and online pornography in particular in the light of the Mark I/Mark II Schumpeterian framework for explaining innovation dynamics, as investigated first by Nelson and Winter (1982) and later, Malerba and Orsenigo (1995, 1996) amongst others.
This thesis assumes that the pornographic industry, can be modelled as two distinct entities. In the first part of the industry, the dominant segment is structured in a Schumpeter Mark II mode – an oligopoly with large companies (also called majors). The second part of the industry, also called the “alternative”, is composed of a creative fringe made of a “cottage” type industrial tissue, populated with productive individuals (also called “entrepreneurs”) and communities. In particular, alternative porn entrepreneurs and communities are centred around a certain opposition to the dominant market. They are distinctive not only in their intentionally aestheticised style but also in their production process. This characterises the fringe as a Schumpeter Mark I mode where innovation seeks to be radical, and low appropriation opportunities lead the way to entry on the market of creative entrepreneurs with low resources.
In other words, Part I expands on the difference between mainstream pornography – a Schumpeter Mark II sector (chapter 2) and alternative pornography – a Schumpeter Mark I sector (chapter 3).
Chapter 2 presents an overview of the pornographic sector as an object of research for scholars in economics and management of creative industries. It reviews an abundant literature in a variety of fields, including sociology, film studies, communication and media studies, law, and shows that pornography has seldom been studied in economics. This chapter also makes the case for addressing pornography as a CCI, and documents similarities and differences with other creative industries.
Section 2.1. and 2.2. demystify the image of pornography as a monolithic industry, built to profit from the weakest. Section 2.3. shows how the industry protects its contents from mass piracy and lack of consideration. It describes a specific regime of low IP enforcement where innovation and creation are still existent although opportunities for monetising content are rare, reducing incentives to invest in production. I argue that pornography constitutes a case of a low intellectual property appropriation regime, which can explain why business models tend to hinge on communities and user-generated production.

Defining the pornographic industry as a research subject

A history of the pornographic industry

Despite the obvious historical and artistic importance of the Venus of Willendorf, for instance, the nudity and unequivocal sexuality of the figurine kept it out of beginning art textbooks for nearly 60 years. (…) As the sexual revolution swept the nation in the late 1960s, easing attitudes towards the depiction of sexual imagery, (…) the figurine was adopted by many as a symbol of the Mother or Earth Goddess, a concentration of multiple prehistoric female deities carrying heavy overtones of fertility fetish and erotic charm. (…) Today, the Venus of Willendorf’s role is more commercial than spiritual. (…) The Venus can now be found, for instance, on jewelry of every description (brass, pewter, gold), on T-shirts, posters, postcards, and paper dolls, and even molded into glycerine soap. Even prehistoric sex, it appears sells.
The definition of “pornographer” is derived from the word’s Greek etymology. Broken down into “porno” and “graphê”, the term literally means “the person who writes on prostitutes”. This word was used to describe the “pornographer” as the doctor documenting the lifestyle and diseases of prostitutes, but documents on sexuality or contents representing sex existed long before that: examples include Palaeolithic statues such as the Venus of Willendorf. However, for the purposes of this research, I adopt a functional definition of pornography as a content representing at least one explicit sexual act. This means that the study of the history of pornography as written/material representation logically follows the history of media technology (Dubois, 2014b). The following part mostly draws on Chapter One of Frederik S. Lane’s 2000 book Obscene Profits, which details the interlinked progresses of pornographic production and audiovisual technology.
While the first known sexual depiction of the body dates back to the prehistoric age, pornographic scenes were found in Greek household decorations, and then Roman frescoes, murals and paintings. The famous frescoes depicting sexual scenes in Pompeii were found in brothels, but less explicit ones were also discovered in private residences.
In the Middle Ages, the emergence of an ascetic religion and the collapse of the Roman Empire ruled out sex as an aesthetic theme and as an object of commerce. Powerful Christian churches, who saw sex as a necessity for procreation only, controlled literary technology: they commissioned works themselves and monks were in charge of copying parchments and artistic content.
However, as demand for books grew in schools and universities, the monks became unable to meet the demand, and producing written material became a viable opportunity for business. As copying centres thrived, the production of written documents became increasingly automated, with Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press technology, invented in 1450. However, this output was controlled by the church and works perceived as obscene or political were banned.
As populations grew in the seventeenth century, it became difficult to exercise as strict a control. On top of that, the cost of printing presses decreased to an extent that made it possible to own private presses. There was more repression in the United States of America than in Europe because of the religious context. Yet, the 30/226 first adult novel, written around 1749 by the Englishman John Cleland, Fanny Hill, sold very well. It was remarkably profitable for its distributors, even in America.
Since then, the production of pornography has entailed various types of political monitoring and media technologies. Today, in most (democratic) countries, producing, disseminating and consuming pornography is legal among adults.

Institutional definition

In the legal literature, pornography is discussed as something to be controlled, banned or sanctioned. The conditions under which the production, diffusion and consumption of pornography are possible vary between countries. Legal age limit, contents and definitions of obscenity are for example different in France and in the United Kingdom. However, pornography is generally not clearly defined by the law.
In a failed attempt to characterise pornography with stable and reproducible criteria to evaluate a pornographic content or object, Judge Stewart notoriously declared “I know it when I see it”, thus admitting that individual and institutional definitions of pornography are unclear, subjective and sometimes partial (Caballero, 2010; Dubois, 2014b). However, it is important to note that although relative sexual freedom is granted to adults, sexuality is still regulated and pornography is likewise regulated in different areas (commerce and diffusion) to protect children in the name of public decency. In other words, pornography is defined by the regulation under which it falls.
In the USA, the golden age of pornography (Paasonen and Saarenmaa, 2007) was materialised by box office hits such as Deep Throat, which came out as disco burst on the scene, at a time when the hippie movement had led to a degree of sexual freedom. Europe also experienced a “golden age” around the same time, for example in Denmark (Jensen, 2010) and in France (Trachman, 2013). In France, pornography became legal in theatres in 1976. A law (known as “loi X”) authorised the production, distribution and diffusion of pornographic films, albeit under State control: these films must be registered and can be shown with much more restrictions than mainstream films, which puts a commercial burden on them.
Even if one assumes that pornography can be broadly defined as content that features depictions of explicit sex (i.e. unsimulated intercourse) aimed at arousing viewers (Caballero, 2010), the distinction between what is arousing, what is not and what is acceptable or not may remain unclear. The distinction between ‘legal’ or ‘ordinary’ porn and degrading ‘extreme’ porn varies between countries. So-called extreme pornography often includes ‘degrading’ practices, zoophilia, coprophilia, gangbangs, sexual violence, sadomasochism, urophilia, fisting, bondage, and other paraphilias.
What is clear, however, is that texts regulating pornography draw heavily on child protection laws. Paedophilia is banned everywhere in Europe and in the United States; EU law prohibits any real or simulated representations of minors engaging in sexual acts. However, new trends in mass media technology have made it more difficult to monitor content. The internet being by essence a neutral and libertarian space, control of online pornography and of its diffusion follow collaborative and self-regulatory logics (Caballero, 2010).
Other aspects of pornography as an organised activity are almost absent from regulation such as sex labour, sexual representation (Ogien, 2008), except perhaps when regulation intervenes to separate pornographic activities from others. Besides, the causes of free speech, copyright protection6 and net neutrality are defended by pornography lobbyists, pro-porn academics and also sometimes supported by human rights advocates (who defend sexual freedom, sexual and reproductive health for instance) (Lane, 2000).
At best, adult content is considered as entertainment, and at worst, as illegal, illegitimate, corrupting. In any case, it is not considered like other forms of audiovisual work.7 The pornographic industry is perceived as producing gratuitous
6 About this, Gras (2007) precises that for both administrative and criminal law, what applied for pornography is contrary to intellectual property law at least in French law article L. 112-1, as the judge will ponder on the merit or destination of the content.
7 On the lack of legitimacy of pornographers and actresses as film industry professionals, see Trachman, Mathieu (2011) « Le métier de pornographe : rhétorique, contrôle et savoirs d’un groupe professionnel discrédité », Sociologie du travail, vol. 53, n° 4, pp. 444-459 and Trachman, 2013.
content in the sense that it does not have artistic, educational or scientific value, because it gives an unmediated, non-interpreted representation of sexuality (Andrin, 2010).
In most Western countries, a legal framework consisting in a classification system and tax measures8 hinder the development of adult companies. Indeed, the production and consumption of porn are seen as partly or potentially harmful to society. Pornography is believed to have corrupting effects on the youth, and on sensitive audiences (prone to violence and ‘deviance’).
Even if the porn industry is targeted by a legal arsenal for controlling its diffusion, it seems that the sector keeps on mass-producing content. This makes it an interesting object to study: although it seems to be undesirable to society, at the same time it is very easily accessible. It is meant to be controlled, but virtually no public data on the pornographic industry has been gathered.

Paradigm shift: contextualisation in pornography research

In public debate, pornography is mainly treated as a social problem. It tends to be discussed in terms of child protection, women’s rights, commodification of pleasure and free speech. Until the late 1980s, research focused on the adverse psychiatric and medical effects, and criminal consequences of pornography (Donnerstein et al., 1987; Zillmann and Bryant, 1989, cited in Attwood, 2010). However, these studies failed to yield robust conclusions; the use of experimental methodologies was particularly inconclusive (Attwood, 2002). Pornographic content has been accused of being the cause of hypersexualisation, just like video games have been blamed for causing violent behaviour. Anti-porn literature depicts pornography as degrading content which promotes perverted behaviours such as paedophilia, rape and sexual assaults by normalising them. It also accuses it of representing women as sexual objects submitted to the male desire, leading to the “sexploitation” (Caballero, 2010) of women and children in the capitalistic market for obscene content.

Table of contents :

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. DIGITISATION AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF CREATIVE CONTENTS
1.2. CULTURAL PRODUCTION REGIME IN THE DIGITAL ERA
1.3. OUTLINE OF THE THESIS
PART I. PORNOGRAPHY AS A CREATIVE INDUSTRY
CHAPTER 2. THE PORNOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2
2.1. DEFINING THE PORNOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY AS A RESEARCH SUBJECT
2.1.1. A HISTORY OF THE PORNOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY
2.1.2. INSTITUTIONAL DEFINITION
2.1.3. PARADIGM SHIFT: CONTEXTUALISATION IN PORNOGRAPHY RESEARCH
2.1.4. “GOOD” PORNOGRAPHY VS “BAD” PORNOGRAPHY
2.1.5. A NECESSARY DISTANCE AND AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
2.2. THE ECONOMICS OF THE ADULT FILM INDUSTRY
2.2.1. PORNOGRAPHY, THE “OTHER HOLLYWOOD”
2.2.1.1. A TAXONOMY OF PORNOGRAPHIC COMPANIES
2.2.1.1.1. Historic players
2.2.1.1.2. Niche entrepreneurs
2.2.1.1.3. New major players
2.2.1.2. MAINSTREAM, ALTERNATIVE AND INDIE
2.2.2. DEMAND FOR PORNOGRAPHIES
2.2.2.1. Consumers of pornography in the literature
2.2.2.2. Elements of value of pornographic consumption
2.2.3. NETPORN: PARTICIPATION, INTERACTION AND ACCESS
2.2.3.1. Participation: porn 2.0. and user-generated content
2.2.3.2. Interactivity: using user data to develop new online products and services
2.2.3.3. Internet access to porn: the avalanche of fantasies
2.2.3.4. From amateurism to entrepreneurship
2.3. ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY, A WEAK IP REGIME
2.3.1. CHARACTERISING A WEAK IP ENFORCEMENT REGIME
2.3.2. LOW APPROPRIABILITY IN THE ONLINE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
2.3.3 THE SWITCH TOWARDS ALTERNATIVE BUSINESS MODELS
2.4. CONCLUSION TO CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3. PORNOGRAPHIC SUB-CULTURES, COMMUNITIES AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 3
3.1. COMMUNITIES AND PORN SUB-CULTURES
3.1.1. ALTERNATIVE PORNOGRAPHIES
3.1.1.1. Feminist porn
3.1.1.2. Alt-porn
3.1.1.3. LGBT+ and Queer pornography
3.1.1.4. BDSM pornography
3.2.1.5. Post pornography
3.1.1.6. Sex-positive pornography
3.1.2. DEFINING COMMUNITIES
3.1.3. COMMUNITIES AND COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY
3.1.3.1. Knowledge building
3.1.3.2. Community places and creative spaces
3.2. PORN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
3.2.1. DEFINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
3.2.2. CAN A PORNOGRAPHER BE AN ENTREPRENEUR?
3.2.3.1 The illegitimacy of pornography as a professional occupation
3.2.3.2. The alt-entreporneur: a creator with a mission
3.3.3. A COMMUNITY COORDINATOR AND AMBASSADOR
3.4. CONCLUSION TO CHAPTER 3
PART II. THE ROLE OF COMMUNITIES AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE APPROPRIATION OF DIGITAL CONTENT: THE CASE OF SEX POSITIVE PORNOGRAPHY
CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH DESIGN AND DATA
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 4
4.1. EVIDENCE BUILDING FROM CASE STUDIES
4.1.1. SAMPLING OF CASES
4.1.2. EXPLORATORY PHASE
4.1.3. FOCUS ON COMMUNITIES IN SEX-POSITIVE PORNOGRAPHY
4.2. FIELDWORK AND OBSERVATION: LA FÊTE DU SLIP FESTIVAL
4.3. QUESTIONNAIRES AND INTERVIEWS
4.4. SECONDARY SOURCES
4.5. INTERPRETING INTERVIEWS
4.6. CONCLUSION TO CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5. RESULTS. INFORMAL APPROPRIATION IN WEAK INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REGIMES: THE CASE OF SEX POSITIVE PORNOGRAPHY
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 5
5.1. COMMUNITIES IN THE PRODUCTION OF CONTENT IN SEX-POSITIVE PORNOGRAPHY
5.1.1. INCENTIVES FOR MAKING PORNOGRAPHIC CONTENT
5.1.2. PRODUCTION AND APPROPRIATION IN SEX-POSITIVE PORNOGRAPHY
5.1.2.1. Producing content
5.1.2.2. Validating content
5.1.2.3. Sharing content
5.1.2.4. Monetising content
5.1.3. THE ROLE OF THE SEX-POSITIVE COMMUNITY IN BUILDING KNOWLEDGE
5.1.3.1. The role of the community in building visibility
5.1.3.2. A space for social activities to support the community
5.1.3.3. A space of co-creation and innovation
5.2. ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SEX-POSITIVE PORNOGRAPHY
5.2.1. A DEFINITION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SEX-POSITIVE PORNOGRAPHY
5.2.1.1. A SEX-POSITIVE EXPERT
5.2.1.2 BUSINESS MODELS: ORIGINALITY AND AUTHENTICITY AS THE CORNERSTONES OF BRANDING FOR NEW PORNOGRAPHIES
5.2.2. LEGITIMATION OF ALT PORNOGRAPHY AS A CREATIVE ACTIVITY AND A BUSINESS
5.2.2.1. WORK ETHICS
5.2.2.1.1. Self-exploitation and resilience
5.2.2.1.2. “Learning in public”
5.2.2.1.3. Legitimisation of the professional occupation
5.2.2.2. ENTREPORNEURS AND INFORMAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY BASED BUSINESS MODELS
5.2.2.2.1. Copyright entrepreneurs vs. small business owners
5.2.2.2.2. Differentiation without trademark: ethical branding and authorship
5.2.3. APPROPRIATION IN SEX-POSITIVE ENTREPORNEURSHIP
5.2.3.1 IDENTITY, OWNERSHIP AND ACHIEVEMENT
5.2.3.2. COMMUNITIES AS A RESOURCE FOR THE ENTREPORNEUR
5.2.3.3. ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY AS A PRECURSOR OF ROUTINES FOR AN EMERGENT ORGANISATION
5.3. CONCLUSION TO CHAPTER 5: COMMUNITIES AND ENTREPRENEURS IN ALT PORNOGRAPHY
CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION TO THE THESIS
CHAPTER 7. ABOUT THE NOTION OF GRATUITÉ – L’ÉVIDENCE DE LA GRATUITÉ DE LA PORNOGRAPHIE EN LIGNE
7.1. ILLÉGITIMITÉ DE LA PORNOGRAPHIE COMME GENRE CINÉMATOGRAPHIQUE 173
7.2. LE COÛT DE LA PORNOGRAPHIE
7.3. FAUX AMATEURISME
7.4. LA POST-PORNOGRAPHIE: LA STRUCTURATION D’UNE PRODUCTION DE NICHE
7.5. ÉCHANGES SYMBOLIQUES DANS LA POST-PORNOGRAPHIE
7.6. PROFESSIONNALISATION ET MONÉTISATION DE LA NICHE
7.7. CONCLUSION DU CHAPITRE 7
CHAPTER 8. FRENCH SUMMARY – RÉSUMÉ DE LA THÈSE

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