To the OP's original question:
I think it's a "perfect storm" that we face in adult with all those factors kicking in.
Would we be doing 10X better in this economy without piracy? Yes, I do believe so...people look for an escape during bad economic times. Back in the early 1980's we had a horrible recession in this country. But the movie industry, music industy, bars, and anything entertainment related had boom years...including the XXX vid stores.
Flash forward to this recession...it's happening that way again for movies and bars. Music and porn? Not so much.
So I think it's a mix of all those things. I think if the economy were strong...not as many people would settle for just jerking off to free porn and would decide to join and have membership privileges (sites that have live cam interaction and they can email the girls etc.). But with the economy so bad and having the choice NOT to pay...it just makes it that much worse.
A perfect storm.
EDIT: And keep in mind that people in this bad economy don't mind paying out $100 to take the wife and kids to the movies to see AVATAR in IMAX 3D And they don't mind dropping a couple of hundred bucks at a bar on the weekend partying. But for some reason...$29.99 a MONTH is too much all of a sudden? Well, of course it is when you can get it for FREE.
