Adult entertainer and producer Jenna Haze is angry that the adult film industry isn’t fighting back against pirates who steal content to show it for free because it will eventually put it out of business. She plans a one-woman fight if necessary to protect their rights and is ready to lead the charge by herself.
The subject of piracy dominated the Adult Entertainment Expo and AVN Awards here this month, and in previous VegasDeLuxe.com coverage, it’s been a hotly debated issue. Jenna, who cut the ribbon for the opening ceremonies of AEE/AVN this year, believes that she has to take immediate action before it’s too late.
She told me: “I’m shooting a lot of movies for my company, especially now that I have my own company. I direct and I produce, as well as perform. So I released five movies last year. I’m planning on releasing more this year, six or seven. I got my first directing nomination at AVN. I also got the most nominations I’ve ever had, so it’s been a pretty exciting year.
“There’s been a lot of talk this year about performers’ safety. For the last couple of years, I’ve had everybody tested before I work with them. I’ve paid out of my own pocket for the brand new test. I also only work with five guys I know, so I keep my list relatively small. I know that they’re talking about making condoms mandatory. Whatever they feel is safest, of course I’m going to go along with.”
Jenna says now that she’s turned producer, she’s bankrolling her own projects and has invested more than $320,000 in eight productions to date.
“It’s a lot of money; it’s all my money. I don’t have investors,” she told me. “So every time I shoot a movie, it’s all the money that I make that I put into it, which is rare. I think only one other girl in the business is doing that.
“I’m making a profit, but being honest, it is nowhere near as much as I would have made four years ago. That’s because of the ‘tube’ sites. The piracy and the tube sites are killing the industry. We kind of called them tube sites after YouTube.
“But they take our work, steal it and show it for free. Most of what you see on the Internet with us is ripped off from us, and we get nothing for it. As an industry, we’re each individually trying to fight it. However, I want to know why we aren’t united in a fight against it.
“I think that if the whole industry banded together, we could shut them down. But it seems to me that every company becomes just concerned with themselves. A lot of adult companies are actually doing the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ thing and starting their own tube sites and making their money from advertising. Which I think is just crazy, totally crazy, because if you care about the industry, you do it as a whole industry together.
“I just don’t know why we don’t code the content so it only runs where we want it to run and nobody else can run it. I’ve asked them a zillion times why. The technology exists to make it so that we can’t be ripped off. I don’t know why they don’t do it. Mainstream movies do it all the time on the DVDs — you can’t burn them. But for some reason, the porn industry hasn’t done it.
“Now I’m personally looking into different ways of doing it. Making it so on my Web site, my content can’t be transferred or anything like that. I would love to lead the charge for the entire industry on this. I feel that strongly about it. I’m actually one of the only girls who is adamantly against tube sites. A lot of girls don’t really seem to care because I think they’re not owners of the companies. They just get paid. They don’t have their own money going into owning their own product like I do.
“Once I’d started my own company, I said, “No, you can’t take my stuff. I put a lot of hard work into that! It belongs to me, and you can’t have it for free.’ It’s my goal this year to clean this whole piracy thing up for once and for all for the entire industry. When you see me in Vegas next year, you’ll see I will have made a lot of progress. Maybe not all pirates will have gone by the wayside, but enough to start making a real difference.
“I have to do it. I’m not going to allow them to put us out of business.”
4 Responses
[New Post] Las Vegas Sun – Jenna Haze takes charge in fight against adult film industry piracy – via #twitoaster http://www.mikesouth.com/piracy/las-vega…
Good news. Go get’em Jenna. Best of luck.
More power to her, but me thinks Jenna is about to get an education.
@Toby I was about to say just about the same thing. I like her. Though I don’t follow many porn girls I’d have to name her my favorite. And I hope she can figger out some way to help. But “if the whole industry banded together” ain’t gonna happen.
But who knows, maybe there’s a great brain under that often sperm spattered face. 🙂 Save us all Jenna!!!!!