Donuts 'n Porn

Jason's got a spectacular post about how business can acquire trust and regular customers by doing their best to deliver what people want, as quickly as possible.

The comparison between a music company and the donut guy reminds me a lot of a similar more obvious comparision I've been meaning to make for years:

Jack Valenti and Hilary Rosen could learn a lot from porn.

Remember the old jokes from the 90s about how the internet was nothing but a place for free porn? Well, it sort of was, and still is, but you don't hear about porn companies making a big fuss over people downloading free porn. You know why? They're too busy making a large profit. What about file sharing networks? Places practically built on free porn? The Adult film industry is embracing it and using P2P to post $750 million-to-$1 billion in profits. This quote from the article is apt:

"The adult industry is leading the way in peer-to-peer and begining to monetize it instead of fighting customers," Hunter said. "Any smart merchant can't look at a mall filled with 200 million people and not look at the opportunities to set up a kiosk."

The story of the donut man reminds us all there are two ways a business can view people crowding around their valuable products: either as  thieving pirates that must be stopped at all costs, or as potential customers that can bring in a lot of money. As a business owner, what view is best for your profits?