People putting Awakening clips online

I don't know if anyone saw this, but unofficial clips from The Awakening are being posted on YouTube. What's the reaction from the filmmakers?

www.youtube.com/profile?user=scarru

Thanks for the heads up man. I sent the guy an email asking him nicely to remove them. We'll see.

bully_pup -- Kelly

Looks like about 20 minutes of scenes from the movie. Not a very good compression job. Maybe, it will spike sales.

I'm more upset with someone else, who is offering the entire movie for download, for a fee. It's not us.

Well, that just stinks! You guys go through all that effort to produce and sell that work and others steal it. Not only that they are selling it for download! The Steeles need to join forces and kick their asses. Can't anyone do a story like this to warn the rest of the world?

Seriously, this is horrible. If honest people can't make some money let alone break even we will all hurt from this. Thanks for pointing this out steelknight3000

It sucks, I agree. I even heard the other day that people were downloading music from the Net that they weren't paying artist royalties on. Can you believe that?

What's the world coming to.

Shadar

It sucks, I agree. I even heard the other day that people were downloading music from the Net that they weren't paying artist royalties on. Can you believe that?

What's the world coming to.

Shadar

LMAO ~ I try not to get too worked up about it other then when people try and justify how what they’re doing isn’t wrong and doesn’t hurt anyone.

Downloading without paying is stealing, period. It’s no different than shoplifting.

It’s a fact of life for hosting/producing creative media: it's just a shame that the more people “steal” the less incentive there will be for people to create new content.

What amazes me is things like “Confessions of a Teenage Supergirl”: which was a free download but has some guy at conventions selling DVD copies.

I suspect the types who hawk our material for a fee at conventions, et.al. think we're suckers in providing free content. But I grew up with the Net before it went commercial to I'm less sensitive to that.

With the vast amount of material on YouTube, there is more 'free' material out there than ever. If someone isn't doing it yet, I bet we'll see DVD's at conventions that are the 'Best of YouTube' compilations for given themes.

I'm torn between that being a service (all material is in one place for a theme and no download delays) and a blatant rip-off for commercial profit of free material. I'll decide based on the price. If they are just charing for media and their time, then maybe its a service. If they are charging more than that, then they are rip-offs.

The only place I really don't have any flexibility in my ethics on this is when the item being sold was created for the profit of the person who holds the copyright or intellectual property. A situation where the revenue from sales is required to offset costs and perhaps provide a bit of profit.

Most music falls into that category. And while the movie Awakening might be viewed as a 'fan film' by some people, I suspect that its creators intended to generate some revenue to cover costs, etc. When somebody rips that off, they rip us all off, as its less likely new films of the type will get produced.


Shadar

Ok Shadar, good joke. However I was pretty pissed off hearing someone was posting or selling stuff that most of here have paid for. Not because we paid and other seem to be getting it for free. Pissed because as Random321 said it means that the small niche market here may get smaller. Why put your money, time, and effort into producing a video, photos, or other media.

The big guys can absorb a tremendous amount of piracy simply by their size. Not rationalizing it just stating a fact. Personally I buy any software I regularly use, music that I love, and superheroine art, video, sites. I'm no saint but I'm no demon.

If I ever found a site offering up anyones pay content I'd report it here as well.

All the music and video I own I paid for, but I do swap a lot of free picts around. My other point is that I've never charged a nickel for any content I've brought to the net, but that's just me. I understand when people want to charge for what they create.

My point was that piracy is widespread.

But I totally agree with you on the risk of shrinking our already small genre by sucking the money from those who are investing money to generate content. We have to protect them as best we can.

Shadar

I got a reply back from the guy who posted the clips on youtube. He was very cool about it, and pulled them down.
Just thought I'd mention that.

bully_pup -- Kelly

At least he wasn't trying to sell the movie and line his own pocket.

Shadar

The guy on Youtube didn't piss me off, at all. 20 minutes? Heck that just exposed the movie to 2,000 people who probably didn't know about it.

At least he wasn't trying to sell the movie and line his own pocket.

No, that would be this guy:

sharethefiles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51009&view=previous

I can't find it, right now, but THE AWAKENING was also for sale from some lower Baltic country, as well. Someone's trying to make money off of it.

I would like to say that THE AWAKENING recouped peripheral costs, like DVD replication and the advertising/rental for the premiere. It hasn't, yet. However, it has only been one year. There are some continued sales and maybe, another avenue will open up.

I'm with Shadar in that I've never charged a penny for my published work. I've been lucky enough not to have incurred costs beyond webhosting (no cameras, FX equipment, lighting, models etc. required for a writer) so I could afford not to. The hours and hours I spend are a labour of love. I have a job that pays for my (and my family's) living.

I totally agree with the points raised above - namely that piracy=theft and that every sale lost to smaller "niche" producers like Random FX or the Awakening team reduces the likelihood of new material appearing to satisfy our specialist interests in future.

But let's not kid ourselves: this has been going on far, far longer than the internet has been around. In the 70s, we photocopied comics in my dad's office when he wasn't looking. In the 80s, we were pirating computer software by rigging up 2 piano-key style cassette recorders (yes, kids, software once came on audio cassette). Then they brought out twin cassette players with a "hi speed dubbing" function. We were assured that would be the complete death of the music industry, much as Napster and then Kazaa were going to be (and weren't.)

To take someone else's creation/work and sell it for profit as if it was your own is a shitty thing to do. To distribute it for free is wrong, no debate about it. But I think Bully and David have struck the right tone in their responses. We shouldn't get too carried away with our moral indignation: there's plenty of really OBSCENE crimes happening all around us everyday...

Cmon…Piracy=theft….Are you kidding me?. Who’s being victimized?. It’s not poor and middle class people, I can assure you of that. Here’s an example. I make a low budget movie (trying to stay on theme here) of Infinity Crisis….Costs say 5 – 10 thousand to make. And 5 of you guys buy it for 20 bucks a pop (cause I know there’s at least 5 of you who like the story =). Now, 6 month pass and now my copy write material ends up on youtube and is downloaded 10 000 times. (I’d blame Conceptfan) I should be upset about this?. My fan base may have shot through the roof. Maybe the next time I put something out there 100 people will by my movie and it will be down loaded 30 000 times. Sure, ill lose money at first. But as long as its not complete shit that I throwing out there, I will eventually make a name for my self…And thanks to piracy and all those thieves out there…..I might be able to make an honest living out of a passion. And that would be a dream come true.

So get on your computer and start stealing!

Cmon…Piracy=theft….Are you kidding me?. Who’s being victimized?. It’s not poor and middle class people, I can assure you of that. Here’s an example. I make a low budget movie (trying to stay on theme here) of Infinity Crisis….Costs say 5 – 10 thousand to make. And 5 of you guys buy it for 20 bucks a pop (cause I know there’s at least 5 of you who like the story =). Now, 6 month pass and now my copy write material ends up on youtube and is downloaded 10 000 times. (I’d blame Conceptfan) I should be upset about this?. My fan base may have shot through the roof. Maybe the next time I put something out there 100 people will by my movie and it will be down loaded 30 000 times. Sure, ill lose money at first. But as long as its not complete shit that I throwing out there, I will eventually make a name for my self…And thanks to piracy and all those thieves out there…..I might be able to make an honest living out of a passion. And that would be a dream come true.

So get on your computer and start stealing!

If it ever gets to a point like it was in Afghanistan we are all doomed. I could buy a copy of AutoCAD2007 for $2 at the Haajimart. It normally runs about $3,500 here in the US.

Piracy or unauthorized clips on Youtube may help spread the word but they may also hurt sales. I have a distaste for MP3's because they are inferior quality to the CD. Most people could care less. They like getting free music. People still drink cheap beer even!

People still drink cheap beer even!

I brew my own. Got the recipe off the internet...

Hi Kelly and to all concernd with this topic,

I hope you dont mind if i add a reply to this discussion but as im the cause of it i thought it only right to explain. It was me who posted some of the clips on youtube (not the ones for sale though) so first of all i would like to say sorry to all the production staff of the movie as i never intended to harm any revenue you would of got from it or purposly violate any copyright laws.
The main reason was i bought the film when it went on release and i edited some scenes out and posted them on a runboard i am a member of. It is similar to this site and is set up for the sole purpose of sharing with other members of the board and nothing else, no selling or making any revenue is involed just sharing clips amongst other members. Unfortunatly it is viable to a few turds who gain membership with no intent on sharing anything just nicking all the clips then selling them on under different usernames on other sites, so just after i posted the first few clips of the edit i done on the 'Awakening' i saw them posted in youtube with the option to buy a dvd featuring my edits and other peoples clips aswell. I was asked to post some more clips off the film from a genuine member of the runboard i joined which i did, and so they were not used as part of a rip off dvd i also put them on youtube before anyone else could.
Regarding using the clips for any personal money gains is something i dont do though and totally against it, selling other peoples work wether its a film or edit sucks arse as far as im concernd and so the only reason for posting them on youtube was purely to prevent someone else doing it for there own profit, anyway after a few weeks i got a message from 'Kelly' asking if i would remove them which i had no problem with and took them off straight away and thought it only wright to let him and everyone else know the reason.
Hopefully as someone has mentioned it may of done more good than harm and promoted more sales of the film as i only posted clips not the whole film and any feed back i got was all positive. The clips being sold by the other guy are still there though.

Scarru,

I think the initial reaction was to the whole movie being on line. Once I saw that only 20 minutes of scenes were up, I actually thought it could be a good thing. (I can't speak for Erik and Kelly, though.) Heck, I have 20 minutes of clips posted on one of my sites.

Anyway, it's all good. Thanks for being such a cool person and a fan! You're aces, in my book.

I'm with Mike. But just the same, thanks for being so cool about it.

bully_pup -- Kelly

Piracy is overblown because it takes money from very rich people. Famous Actors, singers and their pimps mostly.
There are so many problems so much bigger then piracy that gain no attention cause the people who are getting screwed are comon people.
In this case I have sympaty for your case, but I wouldn't worry too much, if the movie is not provided in its full version I think its actualy helping spread the word aout the movie.