I was early to an appointment today, then, I found the time to drop some lines about my week-end. As I wrote before, I’ve edited another video on saturday. After what I played poker all the evening before to check my emails around midnight. Then, I got the confirmation about something I had guess few hours before receiving two security alerts. My website captiveculture was under attack and several login have been reposted in some forums dedicated to share illegal access.
I got a similar attack in December 2005 and I changed several things that make the hacker’s job a litte more difficult. But, you know it, there is no perfect system and that was just a question of time before hackers find some login combinations again. They use software able to test thousands and thousands possibilities in one minute… they only need to be patient.
I think nothing bad about these attacks. My problem is outhere. Indeed, we all work to earn some money, we all have a job and we all buy something one day. Whatever you buy : one bag, one mp3 player, one laptop, one car… who would be happy to see someone stealing the result of his work ? Piracy always existed and especially in our recent culture (music, software, movies) but I notice things changed within last two years.
I explain, when someone uses an illegal access, he gets your work but that’s all… when someone gets an illegal access and give/share this access on a public forum, he gives your work to several people… and when complete sets of pictures are reposted in these forums, they give your work to more and more people. They don’t only benefit from your work for free but they also ruin your work. I already spoke with hackers or people used to share illegal access in the past. They all think we are big companies like Universal or Microsoft and hacking us is not important. That’s totally wrong.
The truth is almost all bondage/fetish websites are runned by small companies or individuals : imagine all my websites are my own work, I do everything by myself, working alone 6 days a week in my house basement ! I only get some extra help for shooting, I have no employees and I work hard to satisfy my members and my visitors. Like I said, all bondage/fetish websites don’t generate a lot of moeny and each dollar is important to pay all our fees (photo stuff, models, clothes, hosting and billing companies and don’t forget taxes).
Hackers or readers, they all think these illegal repost have no consequences… I don’t think so ! When someone can get your recent productions for free, he won’t support your work subscribing to your website. Moreover, reposting pictures is slightly disrespectful for the models who appreciate to know where they appear. We could speak a lot about the consequences. I know and I understand everybody has personal reasons to not join a membership website. I remember when I lost my job 10 years ago, my first action was to cancel my membership to Jim Weather’s website because I had a lack of money. I just stopped watching his website and I waited to get some money to join later. I was too respectful about his work to use illegal access or something similar.
I’ve met and read a lot of people speaking about how internet changed, telling me that’s not easy to get good pictures and movies nowadays. I mean productions full of passion, not only exploiting fetish/bondage universe like an excuse to make porn stuff. I know one thing : those who helped to make our passion popular with aesthetic and creative artworks were individuals. They worked hard to bring us a lot of pleasure and they couldn’t do the same without any support. This is the reason why some of them already stopped, closed their website because things were too much complicated. I think that’s the future : free stuff, maybe… but it won’t be so good, worse, I think it will be old stuff because, don’t be foolish, nobody will make new productions for a dead loss. I remember when internet arrived, people were exchanging scans of old magazine in the newsgroups. I would be sad if the future would be the same : exchanging pics of closed websites.
One simple thought to conclude this post. If artists (models, photographers) are the first victims of the piracy, I know members are also affected. Indeed, some of them are blocked because their access has been illegaly used. But the truth is ALL members are concerned by some decisions taken to fight against piracy : rotation system is exactly one thing I don’t like. But, I started it several months ago for my premium features (large pics and movies) and I know one thing, today, when someone steal my content, he doesn’t take all my creations in one-time. It means all members lost full archives privilege because some people decided to use illegal access and share my artworks. That’s really really sad. One last question I have in mind. Would they accept the same treatment if they would take their own pictures ? I don’t think so. Would they love to see their girlfriend on the internet without any control on their own work ? I don’t think so. Would they appreciate to loose their job because someone dediced to ruin their work ? I don’t think so… what about you ?
Que dire? Belle démonstration! Je n’ai rien à ajouter!
Cest vrai que c’est un moment dur à passer. Je pense que le “piratage”, c’est comme les bonbons, il faut pas en abuser. Une petite fuite de temps en temps ne fait pas de tort, au contraire. Mais là, c’est l’hécatombe (pour tout le monde). Les pirates devraient tourner leur langue 7 fois avant de poser ce genre d’acte. Comme vous dites, comment pourrait-on encore avoir de la qualité si elle n’est plus rémunérée? Mais, personnellement, je reste certain qu’on doit pouvoir tester quelque chose avant de l’acheter. Je n’ai d’ailleur pas honte de dire que c’est une petite fuite qui m’a convaincu de la qualité de ce site (qualité confirmée vu que j’y suis encore après 2 ans). (Et j’utilise maintenant souvent cette méthode car j’ai déjà été fortement déçu de la qualité d’un site par rapport au “Take a tour” qu’il proposait…)
Bref, je ne peux que vous souhaiter un bon rétablissement. En espérant que les conséquances ne se fasse pas trop ressentir (ou du moins pas trop longtemps) et que cet incident ne tache pas votre passion et votre travail.
PS : je n’ai personnellement aucun problème avec mon compte (à première vue) mais je pense que dans ce genre de situation, vous ne devriez pas hésiter à couper l’accès au site et prévenir les membres du problème.
Aucun souci à se faire pour le découragement éventuel. Je connais les risques et j’en ai vu d’autre. J’ai, à priori, réussi à juguler l’attaque mais je ne me fais guère d’illusion sur les conséquences négatives du pillage potentiel. Ce sont de telles pratiques qui finiront par tuer le système et même si je suis le premier à critiquer les sites qui affihent un “free tour” trop limité ou même trompeur, je pense que pirater pour s’assurer de la qualité d’un site n’est pas la meilleure des solutions. On ne vole pas une baguette chez un boulanger pour vérifier la qualité de son produit tout comme on ne rend pas un hamburger entamé à monsieur fast-food sous prétexte qu’on le trouve moins agréable que sur la photo présente au-dessus de la caisse. Tout achat comporte un risque, malheureusement… tout comme il existe, clairement, des abus de part et d’autres. En ce qui concerne votre suggestion de couper l’accès au site, je ne pense pas que pénaliser l’ensemble des abonnés en mettant le contenu “hors ligne” soit envisageable… beaucoup ne le comprendrait pas. En tous cas, merci de ces commentaires et encouragements :)