Just to be straight hereI don't judge 'em, I just pass them
along as you say, this may work for some types of media but not for
all, and certainly not for film
From: videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu
[mailto:videolib-boun...@lists.berkeley.edu] On Behalf Of Dennis Doros
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 5:14 PM
To: videolib@lists.berkeley.edu
Subject: Re: [Videolib] Piracy: another perspective
Just to agree with Jessica here since I have very little time before my
next tennis match. A song or a photo (can) cost very little to produce.
To make a film is relatively very, very expensive. To restore the next
film we're working on, will cost us $100,000. Add to that another
$50,000 to release it. There is a very small profit margin to release
serious films in the United States and because it's in the short film
that the NYPL restored and is on our next DVD, BOWERY MEN'S SHELTER,
I'll quote from John Donne's sermon. (It's NOT technically a poem,
folks...)
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
And each illegal download is a clod. And yes, I'm seeing a LOT of indie
distributors facing financial difficulties this year.
Dennis
On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 4:55 PM, Jessica Rosner
jessicapros...@gmail.com wrote:
Sorry Chris but this is crap along with the piracy really helps a film
theory propagated by Pirates. Look if a filmmaker who paid for his own
work wants to make it available for free than that is their right but it
does not justify stealing from others who don't. The situation is simply
acute with American Independent films and especially foreign films.
There will be virtually be no legal distribution of older films soon and
little production of new ones. Feature films are not individual works
and they cost a small fortune to make, if people and INSTITUTIONS
continue to steal them ( and sorry there are institutions doing this)
Let me give you two recent examples
I am working with a company that has a number of very good foreign films
that they acquire the rights to for US UK distribution. One of them
was
a top prize winning film from Italy made in 2010 that has not yet been
released in the US. I found it up on youtube (neatly chopped in 10
segments)
I had the company file with youtube and it was taken down. First it was
replaced with a snarky message about being forced to remove an item (
really youtube thinks posting an entire film over 100 minutes was
legal?) and THEN the original poster was allowed to post a LINK TO
Bittorrent illegal copy. Thanks a lot. What possible market can't their
be when people not only don't care that they are stealing films, they
claim that either they are doing you a favor or you are just a greedy
pig.
The 2nd incident was a conservation with my nephew, an NYU senior. He
and his roommate have never paid for a film they watched at home. All
are all illegal downloads. This is hardly surprising because they go to
a school that condones and engages in illegal copying and streaming (
there I said it) in which a leading professor ( who is very active in a
variety of academic and foundation groups on copyright)tells
librarians and institutions that they should be able to copy and stream
any film they want to use because if the rights holder has not made it
available that is just too bad( trust me I am not exaggerating as he
said this to my face).
So when you wonder why the only copy you can find of a film looks like
crap from a bootleg site or there are a lot fewer foreign films around,
this is the reason. People are stealing them so there is no incentive to
make a good legal copy available. Also remember this when the next indie
distributor goes under.
On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 4:08 PM, Chris McNevins
chris.mcnev...@uconn.edu wrote:
Hi All,
My cousin sent me this tidbit:
https://plus.google.com/105237212888595777019/posts/Da1wjfvrLxq#10523721
2888595777019/posts/Da1wjfvrLxq
https://plus.google.com/105237212888595777019/posts/Da1wjfvrLxq#1052372
12888595777019/posts/Da1wjfvrLxq
Chris McNevins | ACQUISITIONS COORDINATOR
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT | HOMER BABBIDGE LIBRARY
369 Fairfield Way Unit 2005AM | Storrs, CT 06269-2005 USA
PH: 860-486-3842 | FX: 860-486-6493 | EMAIL: chris.mcnev...@uconn.edu
mailto:chris.mcnev...@uconn.edu
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