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The Web blackout mounted this week by Internet companies to denial anti-piracy legislation appears to have derailed the measures and won the day for an uncommon constituency: online pornographers.
The industry calls them “tube” sites, a well-traveled red reflection district that includes PornHub.com, the 58th most viewed website among American Internet users, and XVideos.com, the 64th most viewed, according to Alexa, which monitors Web transportation. That’s on par with the traffic to Reddit, NFL.com and Hulu. Like many Internet companies, the tube sites are extremely opposed to regulation and have been asking their visitors to urge lawmakers to resist the legislation for months. Protected by the First Amendment, YouPorn.com and others voluntarily went grim Wednesday along with other, more mainstream sites like Wikipedia .
The tube sites’ pleas are bumping against the lifeblood of the dynamism: the professional producers of adult content like Vivid Relaxation and Hustler, the flagship publication of Larry Flynt’s smut empire. They argue that they have suffered at the hands of piracy more than any other business.
Source: Roll Call (subscription)