There has been much industry debate and upheaval over *tube sites. Most tube sites have stolen videos that have been uploaded under a "user submitted" model where the uploader is supposedly the owner of the content.

From scanning any *tube site, you can clearly tell that this is not always the case.

This blog post is not about the rantings of the various *tube sites and content theft, but more so an observation sparked by a comment made by Paul Markham in a GFY thread over him allowing a *tube site to use his content and promote his paysite.

Paul Markham is a content producter who provides content to a *tube site. The clips found on these *tube sites are sometimes as long as 20 minutes, rather than the 3-5 min that other webmasters would like to see instead.

He looks to receive traffic from the *tube site to his paysite as the upsell, where the website provides the free content to the surfers.

He commented that if the conversions aren't there, then he can just sell/license the content to the *tube sites since paysites aren't licensing content as much from content producers these days.

What struck me is that as a content producer, whose market has clearly shrunk because of the 'do it yourself' type pornographers, that *tube sites are a welcomed evolution.

If a content producer can't make enough money licensing their content, they could provide it for free to the *tube site, to seed it with good/legal content, and the *tube site makes their money off of the various upsells or banner advertising, that can then pay for the content.

Almost like a rev-share or purchasing on net terms business model, but one that could help "legitimize" tube sites.

There have been TGP sites, one sleazy one in particular, that pays/licenses to have their own content on the site, rather than using images/photos/thumbnails uploaded by submitters.

*tube sites that license content from content producers are following that similar model.

*tube sites are getting an incredible amount of traffic. While traffic can be seen as king, its really now a commodity. Its more important to have the content to give something for the traffic to look at.

*tube sites are proving that content is king.

My slogan with Lee Noga back in the early 2000 period was "Innovate, not renovate". *tube sites are the new innovations and evolutions of content delivery and surfer marketing. They are struggling/juggling to find the business models that will make them legal and profitable, no different than any other adult website.

As far as the copyright / theft issues goes... *tube sites are not excempt nor above the law. Copyright holders are placing their lawsuit crosshair sites on the *tube sites and they have every right to do so.

Fight the boobtube!