I wasn't aware of BangBros charging extra for 4K downloads but at least they are offering 4K.

Evil Angel and I believe XEmpire are offering streaming-only or streaming + downloads memberships, but they are upfront about it. I wouldn't be surprised if all of the gamma-affiliated sites have this membership structure.

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That being said, piracy is a big reason to charge extra for downloads. The producers know very well that all their pirated content is provided from legitimate members who download, so why not charge extra?

They also presumably did the research and concluded that most people just streaming and skip through many parts of a scene so why not save on bandwidth and make a few more bucks?
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What's the study, survey or show of hands in a sizeable sample you've done to show a good chance that previously paying customers will turn to piracy?

Is it truly the case that "a lot of people" will turn to piracy after having paid legitimately before or are you talking about "a lot of people" vicariously to make your narrative sound convincing?

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Whether you like that model or not is a different thing.

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This is not a rip off. This is you making a wild assumption that what you want will be included and then being upset when you find that it's not.

This is like paying to go to the top of the Empire State Building and complaining afterward that the ticket didn't include a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

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I have no issue with sites having a tiered membership structure that requires members to pay a bit more to get downloads. The average porn buyer is probably okay with streaming but there are those of us who are more collectors and downloading is important.

If sites are trying to protect their interests I think charging more for downloads is fine especially since the alternative is streaming-only with no download option available at all for any price.

What bugs me is some of the shady billing practices that many sites use. Pre-checked cross-sells is a particular pet peeve of mine. After two decades of buying porn memberships I'm usually pretty savvy about avoiding scams but occasionally I get burned. Last week I joined a site and there was a camouflaged drop-down menu in a banner at the top of the page that I didn't see so I got signed up for a site I didn't want.

Likewise with cancelling. Billers like CC Bill and Epoch are probably more expensive than some other billers but they're also the gold standard. I'll just not join a site if the biller looks sketchy. It bugs me that there are still some sites and billers that require you to contact them to cancel a membership. It's 2020, FFS. I should be able to do that online.

I guess my bottom line point is that with piracy as rampant as it is you'd think that sites would warmly welcome paying members and avoid shady practices.

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I also think that most fans hate it when they leave a site that they may have been with for months and because they didn't pick the download option than they can no longer watch a video they really liked because it's not on their HD.

**The reason why I wrote above that 25$ for Adult Time may not be worth it is that AT is at this moment primarily 3 sites: Girlsway, Pure Taboo and 21Sextury. They are other sites that add the odd video but the 3 listed ones are the ones that offer the bulk of all new content. I love lesbian porn but too often feel that what GW puts out is subpar g/g porn. Pure Taboo tends to always put out amazing stuff so no complain there and finally 21Sextury. Sadly the days when they put out great Euro porn is behind them so thast today you get a significantly less impressive content from them and if you aren't a fan of Euro porn as a rule than that basically means that a third of all new content on At will not appeal to you.**

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On a separate note, I noticed a couple comments questioning the value of Adulttime (I was fortunate that my Adulttime membership was grandfathered-in because I had originally been a Girlsway member.) However, I think they can make a pretty strong argument for two-tiered access. They've acquired 200+ sites with attached libraries, and many of their purchased studios (like Burning Angel) are still churning out weekly content. Factoring in the combination of an enormous library & regular updates across multiple different genre sites, I actually think $25/ per month for streaming+download is quite a bargain.

**One other recommendation I'd make is look into purchasing a yearly subscription if possible. Your upfront cost may be a bit steep, but if you can take the initial hit it will end up being about a $7-10 per month cost (depending upon the site of course).

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Personally, my desire to pay for porn with gift cards instead of credit cards and the new policies of certain networks means that I won't be joining these sites/networks. For example, Naughty America & Reality Kings allow me to join and stream scenes with a gift card but doesn't allow for downloading. I'm guessing it's the same with Brazzers and the other Mindgeek sites. I think the policy sucks but I'm not going to illegally download scenes because of it. I want to make sure that my favorite performers are shooting and illegal downloads don't create the opportunity for more scenes.

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I was a member of Sweetheartvideo about 6 months ago. Then rejoined after the mindgeek switchover...no more downloads, no more photosets for the older scenes, and nasty bitrate drop on the videos. Very disappointing...

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Feels like mindgeek considers its customers to be suckers for paying for the content instead of pirating it and tries to take them for a ride.

Another example: gatapop.com. Another scam site that advertises videos that simply are not on the website, and if you want to cancel it directs you to a fill out a form on its website to that affect, then giving you a message that your membership will be cancelled within the next 24 hours. Months later they're still charging you and you have to jump through hoops with the payment processor : verotel, to get the rebilling cancelled, and no refund.

Verotel seems to be the payment processor favored by all these shady/scammy south american websites, avoid it as well.

Edited by - hoochimama on 2/3/2020 1:38:56 PM

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Edited by - philly30 on 2/4/2020 11:45:28 PM

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https://www.thebestporn.com/review/adulttime/

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