Will Pirates Kill This Industry???!!!

[Bluestone]

I thought it was high time to discuss a very pressing concern! All of the producers in this industry are relatively small operations. We depend on every dollar in order to continue producing videos for this community, especially in my case if I am to continue to bring Petra across the Atlantic. There are pirates who are re-posting your producers' videos on various pirate-friendly forums and message boards. I urge all those who read these words not to give into the temptation to encourage these pirates. In doing so, you'd be driving another nail into the coffin of necro producers, and they will very quickly disappear. Then, there will be NO videos being produced for this community. I encourage everyone who sees any producer's copyrighted material posted on a forum or website to email the producer, so that he/she can attempt to have the copyrighted material taken down. Hollywood production companies can weather the growing wave of copyright pirates, but I'm not convinced that our industry can.

I invite your opinions and comments on this very troubling issue.

Blue

[bakerboy]

Yes indeed but there may be help on the way from Hollywood studios

http://www.contentagenda.com/article/CA6640624.html

[kevin67]

Hi,
Piracy is definitely a problem for all of us. We spent our hard earned dollars to view
or create a custom and some peple think they can not only view it for free but even
possibly sell it.
The mainstream movie theatre may be better able to absorb these losses, but I believe
it eventually shows up in the price you pay for a movie ticket. we are all losers when it comes to piracy.

[Max5s]

I don't know if piracy will kill the industry or not, but a couple of things are clear--it is STEALING and it is UNETHICAL.

[elsullo]

"Uh, like WOW, man! EVERYTHING should be FREE, man! If it's on the internet it is FREE for the taking! We should all be free to run anywhere like wild wolves in the woods! Nobody STOLE anything---they paid good money for it and can now post it for FREE if they want to! If I WANT IT and want to bellive it, it MUST be true! "

Gah! That's a composite statement of actual comments I have argued against on various messageboards and Groups. I am PROUD to be unpopular there amongst reposters. As the Klingons say, "This Generation has no Honor!"

I think producers have a right to take any action necessary to protect their copywrited works that they worked so hard on and paid so much for. I only wish that we could shoot lightning out of the monitors of the assinine reposters!

Why, I'll even repost MY motto: IF YOU LIKE THE ART, SUPPORT THE ARTIST!...........................elsullo

[Templar]

Possibly... Piracy is especially disastrous for small niches. I remember when I was supporting a small, proprietary computer system and it ended up going out of business mostly due to pirating. I talked to a rep who created high-end graphics software for the computer and they told me that they were shocked at the amount of piracy and wouldn't bother releasing product for it anymore. This computer was well ahead of the industry and the software manufacturer built the applications on the computer to port to other computers. No money. No incentive. Piracy kills!

[JohnM]

In good times, probably not. In bad time--probably so. Or, at least many.

JohnM

[tommygun]

I'm really depressed about this. This community is very small. I've had two producers tell me that they are seriously considering getting out of it all together because it is too much work and virtually no profit, even a loss. Would you do something that took a lot of work and cost you money? I'm not sure it can be turned around, either. Once people get into a habit of doing something, it's almost impossible to get them to stop. So the producers will. And all of us are the losers. The only thing that made this possible was that we ALL contributed money for the product by buying it or by taking on subscriptions.

[JohnM]

Here is some food for thought.

If a producer was selling 10 movies a day for the last couple years, yet according to the rapidshare download counts, people were pirating on average of 500-700 instances of that movie, would you feel it is having ad impact on that producer? Specifically, would the producer sell more if there was not piracy. For instance, if that producer sold 10 more movies a day, that doubles the producers income, thereby effecting productions, lifestyle, and most importantly, motivation. When you start seeing very simple, cookie-cutter productions from any given producer as they try to survive as their revenue stream is pinched, you have to wonder this: Are sales drying up due to poor quality or is poor quality the result of sales drying up?

Finally, now, fast forward to a year later and that same producer is averaging only 5 movies a day sold. What effect might piracy have now?

And yes, all those figures are real-world numbers.

JohnM

[tommygun]

Very clearly stated, John.

Priacy, "sharing," whatever. It all is money out of your budget, isn't it? And the result is that you don't do as much work, which is a shame, because I love your shooting stuff. Some of my favorite productions are the ones you have done for me and for others.

So listen up, everyone. You should consider the purchase price of any movie you enjoy as your personal and absolutely necessary contribution to the cost of these productions, not as simply something you'd shoplift at Wal-Mart while no one is looking. If we don't turn this situation around, we're going to be back trying to find the odd scene in Hollywood or TV productions, and that would be terrible...

[chton]

Very clearly stated, John.

Priacy, "sharing," whatever. It all is money out of your budget, isn't it? And the result is that you don't do as much work, which is a shame, because I love your shooting stuff. Some of my favorite productions are the ones you have done for me and for others.

So listen up, everyone. You should consider the purchase price of any movie you enjoy as your personal and absolutely necessary contribution to the cost of these productions, not as simply something you'd shoplift at Wal-Mart while no one is looking. If we don't turn this situation around, we're going to be back trying to find the odd scene in Hollywood or TV productions, and that would be terrible...

Hmm yet it's ok to post those scenes from Hollywood movies right? That's an acceptable form of piracy it seems. You can split hairs about amount of frames or what not but how many people here watch the entirety of many of the movies they watch clips of? How many potential sales of such movies are lost due to people getting what they want from clips "reposted" by others?
Here's an idea, if people consider it their "contribution" why not just send money to the producer of your choice? If most of the people who posted such stuff actually put their money where their mouth was it would probably be fine, but I imagine there's a lot of hypocrisy in that talk as well.
It's easy to blame pirates and ignore how some producers have done some things to contribute to their own problems as well as people feeling that they can do what they like with something they paid for.
I'm all for people getting recompensed for their efforts and for people to make a living off of what they create. I think it's also silly to believe there will not be sharing of IP over the internet. Piracy doesn't kill healthy businesses, that given maybe these niches aren't healthy to begin with, thus don't be surprised if you don't turn a profit. You know what you're getting into. I always believe that people will pay to support a quality product, even if free versions are available.
Finally, piracy is not going away so, best figure it into your plans and deal. Trying to fight it is silly and only wastes more time and energy.

[Geno]

Finally, piracy is not going away so, best figure it into your plans and deal. Trying to fight it is silly and only wastes more time and energy.

You tell him like it is.. chton. The next time Blue sees one of his Silk videos posted in its entirety on YouTube© he should just leave it up there. Having them take it down is a wasted effort. He needs to learn to write that stuff of as a loss, and move on. That's telling him chton.

[Bluestone]

I assume that Geno had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek on that response, Chton, so don't think you have an ally there

I vigorously defend the copyrights relating to my videos. I will threaten Rapidshare, YouTube, various message boards, in short anyone who posts my videos without my permission. The Fair Use policy protects none of these unauthorized postings. If I was to lie down and play dead, this site as well as Silk Videos would quickly fold up and be no more. That's why I have to defend my copyrights and I'm resolved to do so.

Let me put this another way. Silk Videos supports FF, not the other way around. I could close up FF tomorrow and not lose a thing, except the company of many fine friends who I've come to know on this board. The revenue from Silk Videos supports this site and funds the costs of producing more videos. I am not making obscene profits from the video reviews posted here, and the Fair Use Policy allows me to post these video reviews. Perhaps I should set up a poll. It would read:

Do you want the erotic death fetish producers to go out of business?

Yes or No?

With the greatest of respect for differing opinions, in my humble opinion, that's the real bottom line here.

Respectfully submitted,
Blue

[Geno]

Naw you better not set up a poll like that Bluestone, because it'll will be way too vague.

Not too many people really want to see fetish producers go out of business and not for the honest reasons you think. If do you put up poll like that....I can tell you my vote right now. Sir. I am voting "yes". YES= I would like to see death fetish producers go out of business. ---Geno ..Now take a fellow member like Chton ,for instance, he will most definitely will vote "no". "NO= He does not want to see death fetish producers go out of the business.--would be Chton" Why in the world would Chton want to see Silk Video's go out of business. If you go out of business, where in the world will he ever be able to find free version of your clips, when you would not be making them anymore?

The difference is , that good honest people, like Geno, who like quality (as Chton put it earlier) , will pay cash money for your clips anyway, regarless of piracy problems as long as you have copyrights and the quality, which you do. In the case of Chton, he's already told you, you can leave up your productions on Youtube ©, RapidShare© and the rest, when you find them there and still stay in business. Don't you realize there is an engery, and a use of your time, when you e-mail those free posting sites and demand that your videos be taken down.

Then again posting a few minutes of a free mainstream movie clip is about 5% of the movie. Posting a few minutes of a Silk Video clips could be 90% of the production. I think copyright law allows for only a very small percentage like less than 10%.

Go get him Chton!

[Bluestone]

So, Geno,

Where would you get your erotic death fetish fix if all necro producers went out of business, i.e. No Bluestone Silk Videos, No KHP, No Anne's Dreams, No Ruemorgue, No PKF Studios, No Susyfight, etc., etc....??? All there would be would be the mainstream stuff, and you'd be limited to what Hollywood, Bollywood, and the other mainstream film studios would produce. No real pussy shootings from those organizations

Tell me, guys. What would this community really be like without the producers that I've mentioned and their ilk? Is that really the landscape that you'd like to see?

And what about sites like DeadSkirts? Would it survive or thrive without the necro producers? Something to think about for sure

Blue

P.S. Geno, it doesn't consume too much time or energy to attack the pirates. Plus, it's a good way to get out my bottled-up aggression