The American Male Slave Market Article The Big Picture

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The Big Picture

This article was originally written in response to a letter of complaint from someone who joined my Yahoo Group. I have changed his name for the purposes of discretion, however the balance of the article remains in tact.

There is an old saying that I am sure we are all familiar with: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." While, in my opinion there is plenty of room on the web for free content, there is also a clear need for commercial websites and products. The vast majority of images we enjoy come from these commercial sites, and those who buy access or purchase films make it possible for everyone to enjoy this media.

Apparently however, some folks absolutely disagree with this idea. To be honest I am not convinced that they have thought this through and I think they misunderstand what I am doing with both this group and my websites. As the letter from JoeBob suggests, albeit with a mildly unintelligible quality... this group seems to some to be nothing more than a place to promote my website. (see Message # 67 & 68 for JoeBob's letter and my reply)

To a certain degree there is some truth to that. I do want to promote my website. I want to let those of you who may be interested in what I offer, know that the site is available. I don't see anything wrong with that, particularly in a forum like this where I state very clearly on the home page that the group is designed for the promotion of both free and Pay sites, and for the promotion and discussion of films in our genre.

I sent out a very very long letter yesterday (Group Message #64) that explained what the AMSM was all about. It explains what I am trying to do at the AMSM, but I don't feel it goes into why I am trying to do it - at least it doesn't seem to explain much to guys who, like JoeBob, don't seem to appreciate or maybe even "get" the big picture.

Folks, it is commerce that makes the media we enjoy possible. That is a fact and it is absolutely undisputable that every single piece of media we enjoy both on the web and off costs someone either time or money... and in most cases it requires both. The very best images depicting the fantasies we enjoy typically come from someone's film or magazine. How much does it cost to make a film? How much do you have to pay models and camera people. How much for the camera, sets, editing equipment and so on? How much does it costs to reproduce these films or print these magazines? You see what I'm getting at? These guys deserve to be compensated for their work... not just because it's their legal right under copyright law... but because it is absolutely right and just to compensate someone for their efforts.

JoeBob... are you paying attention?

But the picture is bigger than that. It's not just about legal rights or personal ethics. It's also about a healthy dose of self interest. Where would our community be without Drummer Magazine or Zeus Studios? Where would we get the pictures and fantasies we enjoy if Close-Up Productions or Apollo Productions never existed in the first place? Anybody know what happened to Metropolitan Slave Magazine? I don't know it as a fact, but it seems a little more than coincidental to me that they closed up just as the web started really catching peoples attention - and all the companies I am familiar with were discussing the fact of declining sales.

Guys, we need producers of adult media to produce the media for us, and we need commercial sites to promote and sell the media. For the most part the producers of the media we enjoy are what is known as "cottage industry." They are small companies who focus exclusively on making media within the gay fetish genre. None of us are becoming "Hugh Hefners." I talk with many of these companies...and to the best of my knowledge none of them have private jets, so don't start thinking that any of us are getting wealthy at your expense. It's just not true. I believe they make a living at it - I know they work longer hours and sometimes get discouraged... but in the end they, like me, do it because it's something they love. They do it because it's important to them.

The underlying concept of this group, and one of the many goals of my site, comes from my belief that guys like JoeBob are in the minority. I think the 5+ year history of my website supports this belief. I believe that the vast majority of us who enjoy this media are in fact willing to support and endorse the media by purchasing the films and website access. I believe that most of us understand that by spending our money on the media we enjoy, we are in fact encouraging the producer of that media to work harder and make more.

What's great about this support being commerce is that you get something real in return for your money. You aren't just supporting an idea, you are getting the film or the website services, plus you are contributing to the producers of that media and encouraging them to make more of the media you like. It wasn't that long ago that the film producers believed that everyone wanted muscle boys in bondage movies. But along come the websites that focus on twinks in bondage, and start selling movies with twinks in bondage and low-and-behold we are now starting to see new films with twinks in bondage. Pretty cool huh?

There is one last thing I absolutely need to talk with you about. It's pretty important. As many of you know there are lots and lots of adult media producers that refer to shared images as web piracy. In the end, they are right. Many of them have sued website owners in court or at very least threatened to do so... and while I absolutely understand why they are doing this... I do believe it goes against their best interest to do so.

The productions companies whose films are available at both the AMSM and GBTV have agreed to give my ideas about sharing more information about these pirated images a try. They have agreed to allow me to post the images in the AMSM archives from any source and to make these still images capped from their films available to you with certain restrictions. Those restrictions include the image size, and are the reason there is so much text on the images. If this works... if you guys really do buy more films then I am certain the producers will ease those restrictions some... they'll maybe allow larger images with better resolution... or maybe they'll allow more conservative text overlays. I don't know what improvements we will be able to arrange. But one thing is absolutely certain:

If we continue to bite the hand that feeds us... it may stop feeding us altogether.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Replies and responses are most welcome. Please respond in group or by writing to me directly at tentaka@tentaka.com

Peace,
Master Tentaka
http://www.tentaka.com

P.S. Does anyone know where I can get a copy of JoeBob's free Gay Bondage film? LOL! Just kidding.