Bailouts gone wild! Larry Flint wants $5 billion for the porn biz.

[bushmeister0]

Larry Flint is asking Congress for a $5 billion bailout. He claims porn DVD sales have nose-dived, down 22% since 2007.

He says, "With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America."

Contactmusic.com reports:

"Meanwhile, Girls Gone Wild creator Francis is planning to travel to Washington D.C. to make his point heard, because he's adamant the porn industry is a key part of the U.S. economy - just like the financial and motor institutions. He tells TMZ.com, 'Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses; we feel we deserve the same consideration."

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/porn%20moguls%20ask%20congress%20for%20help_1091061

Wow, have either of these guys ever heard of the internet? I seem to recall that when W. sent out all those stimulous checks, porn sites boomed in memberships.

Huffintonpost:

"According to Kirk Mishkin, Head Research Consultant for AIMRCo, 'Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20-30% growth in membership rates since mid-May when the checks were first sent out, and typically the summer is a slow period for this market.'"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/02/nation-buys-porn-with-sti_n_110457.html

With the internets, who needs DVDs? Geez!

What is country needs is free Viagra for all! (Espeically for every GOP member of Congress!)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8066769&mesg_id=8066779

[spanone]

2. when every other industry is long gone, larry's will still be standing

[bushmeister0]

3. You mean he'll still be erect?

[blogslut]

4. The Internet porn industry is indeed, seeing a downturn in sales

I can only image it's far worse for the video/magazine types - seeing as they have more exorbitant costs. Then again, the magazine/video kids refused to play ball with the Internet and are now suffering the consequences. They wouldn't sell us their content so we made our own. They didn't listen to us when we told them to invest in membership-based websites and when they finally did, nobody cared.

It's time for Larry to shut down the tangible and get with the digital. Granted, Hustler began to 'get it' long before Playboy but he 'got it' too late - just like Hefner & Co.

But as I stated above, Internet porn is seeing a downturn in sales. I don't give a damn what those AIMRCo people say.

[bushmeister0]

5. Well, to be fair, that was back in the summer.

Things have changed since, obvioulsy.

This, however goes to prove the repukes are right. If you give the lower classes handouts, they'll just waste it. Better to give it to folks on Wall Street, where they really know how to use money! (HA!)

Anyway, here in Philly there is a venerable independent book store in Center City that's just gone out of business. People are sad to see the place go, but honestly, all the guy's business was porn. He used to do a land office business. I know, I worked there. All I rang up was porn mags. The books were there just for show. (Well, except for the "urban" literature, which is a big seller, too.)

But I'm sure it's the dropping sales of porn mags that killed him.

[blogslut]

9. I won't be surprised

...when places like Netflix start offering PPV hardcore. They'll probably hide it behind some sub-division, but they'll do it. And others will follow suit. I've long predicted that larger corporations will eventually shut us little guys out altogether. I just hope I can still find work when that happens.

[bushmeister0]

10. Big hotel chains are already in on it.

From a Frontline piece a while back on the industry.

"Marriott, Westin, and Hilton

These major hotel chains all offer in-room X-rated movies delivered to the hotel by one of two major distribution companies, LodgeNet or On Command. Some analysts say these in-room sex movies generate more money for the hotel chains than revenue from the hotels' mini-bars.

'The 5 percent or 10 percent of revenue that the hotel chain gets, that's pure profit to them because they have no cost,' says Dennis McAlpine, an entertainment industry analyst. 'They didn't put in the wiring system, they didn't supply the programming.'"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/business/mainstream.html

What could be more American and capitalistic?

The US has the best porn and the best marijuana, talk about a tax windfall! We could get rid of the deficit lickity-spit if these moral types would just move to Saudi Arabia, or some other country more to their liking.

[Xithras]

6. YouPorn and its clones launched in 2007. Coincidence?

There's always been tons of porn on the Internet, but it's become insanely easy to find over the past couple of years. You've also got many people ripping full length movies and posting them to YouPorn, PornoTube, and other free online video sites, so paying for them has almost become a waste of time.

Besides, technology itself is overtaking much of the porn industry. Most of the video sites now have live channels with real porn models (and some housewives looking to enhance their income) sitting in front of high quality cameras. Why spend $15 on a porn DVD to watch other people boink when you can spend $5 and actually communicate with a real person in real time and have them do exactly what you want? Porn is becoming more interactive and homegrown, and the big players with their old profit models and print material are simply being pushed out of the market.

A good porn site will give you access to thousands of shoots and tens of thousands of images, with new ones added every day or two, for less than $20 a year. For about the same cost, Playboy will send you one magazine a month containing no more than two or three shoots. That worked when they were the only game in town, but the economic model no longer makes sense.

[bushmeister0]

7. I read Playboy for the articles only!

[Generator]

8. Larry Flynt is always good for a laugh