Content Producers to Gather for Anti-Piracy Discussion

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - San Fernando Valley adult-content producers will join for a roundtable discussion about their fight against piracy at 7 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel.

The gathering, hosted by Shane's World Studios, will include adult-content owners, distributors and producers from all over the country. They'll discuss the issues that have concerned them most: piracy, bootlegging and illegal downloading. The discussion also will include lawyers, anti-piracy advocates, and intellectual-property and copyright specialists.

"As content creators, we all sit around and complain about the effects of piracy," said Megan Stokes, vice president of sales for Shane's World Studios. "This industry is deteriorating from within by other adult businesses supporting these types of companies in the form of advertising and financing.

"The history of adult is [that] we don't come together. We hope to change that and make us a stronger and more effective community. We must address these issues seriously if we intend to protect our futures. We've had enough, and we're going to try to put everyone together in a room and hash it out."

Airek, Shane's World Studios' head of Internet operations, agreed.

"Illegal distribution of copyrighted materials [has become] too much to bear, and it's time to do something about it," he said. "Increasingly, DVD bootlegging, torrent, tube and password-trading sites, among other avenues of distribution, are becoming plague-like and will soon overtake legitimate avenues of content distribution if something isn't done now."

Studio representatives and content producers wishing to attend are asked to call Megan Stokes or Airek at (818) 717-8851 or send e-mail to [email protected].