Sony: We Won't Put Porn on Blu-Ray DVDs, But You Can
Filed under: Drama, Tech Stuff, Distribution, Newsstand, Home Entertainment
In any war, real or started because of misleading or faulty information, there are usually two sides. The war between competing High Def DVD formats is no exception. The battle between HD DVD and Blu-Ray has raged since before either format was officially launched. More recently, there's been controversy and speculation as to what format of High Def DVD -- HD DVD or Blu-Ray -- is going to dominate a certain market. That market, of course, is porn.As it did with the Beta vs VHS war of many years ago, porn's adoption of one High Def DVD format over another will most likely be a huge factor in whatever one eventually comes out on top. We've been covering this story here at Cinematical and as I recently wrote, it seemed as if High Def DVD was finally going to get the leg up it needed to dominate the porn market. The porn industry, it seemed, was poised to adopt HD DVD over Blu-Ray. The reason? Sony was purposely going to prevent adult content from being put onto Blu-Ray disks. But now, according to an article at EE Times, Sony is saying its not true and that they, in fact, are fine with porn producers releasing content on the Blu-Ray format.
"There's no prohibition against adult content," Lisa Gephardt, a spokeswoman for Sony Corp. of America, said in the article. "We don't tell people how they can use the licenses they get from the Blu-ray Disc Association." Of course, that's an interesting way of putting it. They won't tell people what to do with the license but, as the article points out, Sony still has a long-standing policy not to manufacture DVDs with adult content. "Sony disc manufacturing will not manufacture adult titles," Gephardt said. "We have never done it, and we have no plans to."
So, they don't like porn and won't manufacture disks with it but they won't stop you from doing it. Really, I would bet they secretly wish you wouldn't do it at all, but don't want to say that publicly out of fear for their market share. Quite a mixed message from Sony. No wonder HD DVD is starting to seem like the better choice to the porn industry.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-24-2007 @ 5:35PM
ronturon said...
Go ahead Sony, make the same mistake you did with the betamax and the UMD. Do learn from your mistakes and welcome the porn in.
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1-25-2007 @ 8:19AM
Michael said...
Ya know, I really don't care one way or another about Sony's decision about porn and Blu-Ray. Frankly it is their decision to make and I'm not buying any porn anyway. All I care about as a consumer is that the format war comes to an end as quickly as humanly possible so we can all get on with our lives.
In every instance, economics has always played a much larger role in whoever becomes the dominant format. HD-DVD has a huge head start on Blu-Ray and Sony's decision will just push them that much further ahead. Good for them! I am sooooo tired of companies NOT listening to their market research and deciding that they know what we as consumers want. Ignore us, force us to wait years before we know which format to buy, divide your resources and drive your prices up - that is one heck of a way to do business isn't it??? It almost guarantees the failure of BOTH formats because guess what: We aren't as stupid as you think we are!!! I still have boxes of my old Beta tapes stored away guys. Not doing that again!
I am now firmly in the HD-DVD camp if for no other reason than to stick a stake in Blu-Ray's heart so we can all start buying one format and one format alone.
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1-25-2007 @ 6:58PM
The Jeremy said...
I'd say the Playstation3 installed user base negates the HD DVD platform's alleged "huge head start". Wake me up when some other manufacturer besides Toshiba makes some players or NBC Universal re-confirms their exclusive commitment to the platform.
Oh wait, if I waited to be woken up for those announcements, I'd qualify for perpetual sleep status.
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1-25-2007 @ 9:12PM
Michael said...
Sorry Jeremy, I don't buy the PS3 argument for a minute. The abysmal failure of PSP/UMD movies is a testament to the fact that game players do not equal HD DVD customers. It was also proven from PS2 sales that only a very small segment of gamers use their consoles as their main DVD player.
The "huge head start" I was referring to was for the available software. HD-DVD is miles ahead on the number of titles available and has a more than sizeable pricing advantage when it comes to both hardware and software. Regardless of what the studios all say now, once the general public makes its decision known (whether Blu-Ray or HD-DVD) the opposing camps will all get on board faster than you can say "Betamax".
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