Piracy isn?t THAT bad and they know it

[Machar]

Just came across an old article on RLSLOG from its owner which seemed to be quite interesting:

I received a very pleasant mail today. My inbox is usually full of stupid cease & desist messages from various antipiracy organizations, but it’s mails like this one which make you happy. It’s good to see that some people realize that internet piracy isn’t just evil…

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Eric D. Wilkinson and I am the producer of a small independent film called “Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth” (our review).

I am sending you this email after realizing that our website has had nearly 23,000 hits in the last 12 days, much of it coming from your website. In addition, our trailer, both on the www.manfromearth.com site and other sites like YouTube, MySpace and AOL has been watched nearly 20,000 times AND what’s most impressive is our ranking on IMDb went from being the 11,235th most popular movie, to the 5th most popular movie in 2 weeks (we are also the #1 independent film on IMDb & the #1 science fiction film on IMDb). How did this all happen? Two words: Torrent / File Sharing sites (well, four words and a slash).

More specifically, RLSLOG.net. Our independent movie had next to no advertising budget and very little going for it until somebody ripped one of the DVD screeners and put the movie online for all to download. After that happened, people were watching it and started posting mostly all positive reviews on IMDb, Amazon and other places. Most of the feedback from everyone who has downloaded “The Man From Earth” has been overwhelmingly positive. People like our movie and are talking about it, all thanks to piracy on the net!

Am I upset… surprisingly no. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded this torrrent and watched the film, our awareness level is through the roof. For that I say, “THANK YOU”!
What you guys have done here is nothing short of amazing. In the future, I will not complain about file sharing. YOU HAVE HELPED PUT THIS LITTLE MOVIE ON THE MAP!!!! When I make my next picture, I just may upload the movie on the net myself!

This guy really deserves support from the file shareing community! You can support producers of The Man From Earth by buying the retail DVD, which should be available in the US stores from tomorrow.
Update: Proof for the non believers:

With so many scams on the internet these days it is not entirely surprising that some may jump to conclusions about the legitimacy of this whole ordeal. Well for one I can tell you he does indeed check out as legitimate. Here are some reasons:

• his comment IP matches his comcast ISP when a whois query is initiated
• his email is the same on his myspace page and he references in his rlslog comments
• he recently added more proof with an image of himself with the rlslog.net website

Recently his new myspace message confirms. Also the Director, Richard Schenkman gives his backup that both of the men have “discussed the matter quite extensively before reaching out to the download community.” But their whole idea behind ‘going public’ was to “pull a Radiohead… to reach out to the online community and say, “If you downloaded this movie and liked it, please buy the DVD; and if you can’t buy the DVD where you live, please send us some money.”

Source:

Moderated Message:

Link removed to keep our users safe, it's reported to be infected

Machar Reviewed by Machar on 3rd Nov 2012. Piracy isn?t THAT bad and they know it Just came across an old article on RLSLOG from its owner which seemed to be quite interesting: I received a very pleasant mail today. My inbox is usually full of stupid cease & desist messages from various antipiracy organizations, but it’s mails like this one which make you happy. It’s good to see that some people realize that internet piracy isn’t just evil… To Whom It May Concern: My name is Eric D. Wilkinson and I am the producer of a small independent film called “Jerome Bixby’s The Rating: 5

[Jesse]

And you think it works like that in every situation or that everyone wants that (theft) to happen?

[Machar]

of course not
I was just pointing out the fact that sometimes piracy does have a positive aspect

[WDF]

of course not
I was just pointing out the fact that sometimes piracy does have a positive aspect

Believe it or not there are some that say American DTH DBS provider Directv used the business model of piracy to increase their market share to #1. They did this by making it easy to hack an activated access card requiring viewers to purchase and maintain a low level subscription before they could "Open" the card and apply extra tiers using commonly available practices from the internet community.

Of course after they assumed majority share of the market they introduced a much higher level of security forcing all but a few to purchase a full subscription to view their desired programming.

[cvrle77]

Your source is infected, or distributing malware

damn, rlslog is spammed to hell and back, that page have 250 spam comments...

[Heath]

Lol at 'theft' not being 'that bad'.

As a former musician, yes. It actually kills any chances some people had at making some money with music. I created, and sold sample CDs that I created myself, filtered myself, ect. It ended up on every damn torrent and DL site imaginable within weeks of selling my first batch. I tried to get them taken down, nope. Long story short, I kept checking back, at this point I sold maybe a hundred or so, and they were in the tens of thousands of downloads.... I was only selling them for $5. Which is insanely cheap for sample cds. Overall I lost in upwards of 50,000-100,000 just off a few sites I seen it posted on.

So yes. Piracy is bad for musicians, especially aspiring ones.

[amartin99]

yea because every single download = a lost sale

just because someone is willing to try a freebie dosn't mean they would have been willing to pay for it

and what about the advertizing power of torrent websites
im not saying there advertizing it for free is good for you
but they have a network of people you do not
if they had not offered it most of these people would never have heard of you

[Heath]

I think you missed the point.

Clearly they're not willing to pay for it, if they're downloading it. A sample CD has nothing to do with 'advertising' it has to do with making money. Basically using that logic, if some one steals your websites entire theme and uses it as their own, its good advertising for you.

Those who have never been in my situation, or millions of others and think downloading music is ok, will never understand. But it does in fact hurt people, especially those who aren't signed to big labels. That is a undeniable fact. If you want to come up with lame excuses to make yourself feel better, so be it.

[cvrle77]

I think you missed the point.

Clearly they're not willing to pay for it, if they're downloading it. A sample CD has nothing to do with 'advertising' it has to do with making money. Basically using that logic, if some one steals your websites entire theme and uses it as their own, its good advertising for you.

Those who have never been in my situation, or millions of others and think downloading music is ok, will never understand. But it does in fact hurt people, especially those who aren't signed to big labels. That is a undeniable fact. If you want to come up with lame excuses to make yourself feel better, so be it.

Your ideology of how something should be done on the internet is not the logic of people on the internet.
Instead you should upload your own work, and share it for free. It would be a free advertisement to you, with a backlink to your site,through filename, where you should put MORE of your work.
Instead of screaming 'JUSTICE' for yourself, use the system, see how it works, and pull the benefit toward YOU. Resistance is futile. You either cooperate, and get benefit, or you use 20th century model, thinking you own bits on the internet. Once something is on the internet, it WILL be shared.
Or, start making cars, they can't be uploaded, and shared

You have to understand that there's a difference between bytes, and cars. Bytes can be replicated in one second. Cars can't. You can't upload cars on the internet. But whatever is made of bits and bytes, can. What you need, to make sales, is to show you are not resisting to other people's ideology of sharing for free. Instead, use it for your own benefit.

Why the hell do you think Microsoft allowed windows to be pirated so much, and never released anything to prevent actual hacking, and today, they are the most richest company in the world? Because they wanted to become famous, and best way is, give it for free, let them crack it, let them hear your name, let them use it, once they get hooked, they will come for more.

It's called free mass advertisement, that you would have to pay in tens of thousands of dollars. (in case of Microsoft, probably tens of billions) Let them repeat your name in real life, let them see you sharing your own files, and work for free, and have the actual site, selling product. They WILL COME. It is inevitable, if you have a good product.

I know you will say: don't teach me how to do my job.
But hey, there's only 2 roads in this, and you picked the wrong one, and failed.

[amartin99]

ironically enough you seem to have missed my point

im not saying they where good advertizing for you
im saying if they had not posted it how many of thows down-loaders would have found your site offering it

ill put it this way
say you park yourself at the door of a local grocery store selling your music
then someone gets a copy of it gows to another country on the other side of the world
parks himself at the door of another grocery store giving it a way
how many of the people he gave it to would have even heard of you let alone bot from you if he had not done anything

im not saying you should be happy people are giving your work away
im saying downloads do not equal lost sales
and a site with established visitors has access to people you do not