Michael Elliott
Senior HTF Member
Robert Harris said:I'll add something that should be understood, simply and easily, even by those who support, piracy, IP theft, and via links, international terrorism.
Two of my current projects involve films that are in drastic need of digital clean-up. I'm working with a gentleman in LA on one. He is able to process about ten seconds of material a day. That project may be completed this year.
As this project is being funded, and tens of thousands of dollars have been incurred thus far, an older version of the film, to which my company owns copyright, shows up almost daily on eBay and YouTube. I spend probably an hour a week, time that I need to do other things, playing whack-a-mole with the idiots that have nothing better to do but post Intellectual Property owned by others.
Several years ago, a company to which I had licensed one of the titles in question, took it upon themselves to take our old VHS master, freeze frame the area just before the copyright notice appears, and created a new DVD, which they placed into release.
While the FBI may get involved where the stakes are high, and the press sizzles, they do not get involved in these types of situations.
I was force to litigate, and after spending about $40,000 to protect our IP, came away with a settlement of 60k.
Our ability to actually see a return, once our new HD master is competed toward a Blu-ray release, is extremely dependent upon the work not being available for free download, or $5.99 DVDs.
This is not about studios, billion dollar Marvel deals or executives who go home at 5 and they're off the clock. This is money coming out of the coffers what enable restoration and preservation work to be performed and high quality Blu-rays to be released, along with the creation of DCPs.
If we cannot control the theives, we cannot save the films.
Simple as that.
As an aside to Mr. Elliott, I may have a different concept of a "very Christian person." One can plug in the religion here, as the thought has little to do with religion and more with the concept of goodness, propriety, and heeding man's laws. I see no moral difference between what she is doing, and stealing a car. One is grand theft. The other may not be, dependent upon the number of discs she copies. One can only wonder where she might come up with the funds to pay her fines -- at $250,000 per disc. You might ask her if she'd like to be receiving visitation from her children under guard. I would hope that she doesn't understand the consequences of what she's doing, and can find a means of making a few dollars in a more legitimate way.
RAH
What film are you working on that is constantly on Ebay and other places? Perhaps I missed something here but I've yet to see too many examples of the films that are being sold in stores that are owned by someone. The MPAA bring up the exact type of titles that I do (any blockbuster) but they don't seem to be bringing up Hitchcock or Ed Wood. I don't suppose GONE WITH THE WIND, THE WIZARD OF OZ and REAR WINDOW are showing up on Amazon as bootlegs so there must be other titles. I've pointed out several but once again these are small movies that "experts" and the MPAA aren't going to care about.
As for the girl, no one has taken me up on the offer so obviously it's just more people blowing smoke, which adds up to nothing since all message boards are full of this. Just as I won't be sending my money to Fox to release a title, others aren't going to stop supporting Amazon or turn in a crook when I offer their information and can supply them with the stolen goods.
It's clear you compare grandpa Jones buying a Hitchcock DVD at Wal-Mart to someone who rapes innocent people but you still seem to be forgetting that most people don't spend their lives on an internet message board to where they can hear or see anything you're posting here. Grandpa Jones is worried about feeding his family, paying his bills and might just be looking for some cheap entertainment so he buys a product at his favorite store because it's cheap and features a name he knows. This guy is not a criminal. Dumb? I don't think so because not all people have a desire to read threads like this and learn. If the MPAA doesn't care about these "small" films then how do you expect mainstream America to? They don't care about IRON MAN 3 let alone some forgotten Hitchcock movie that would really be forgotten if it weren't in these dump bins. It seems Wal-Mart is showing off those 50-Movie-Packs on their center display and they're selling like hot cakes. Most just see cheap fun and don't care that one transfer was taken from people in Italy or that one score might have been taken from a piano player in Iowa.
The problem is that most people aren't going to see things this way and they really don't care about studios losing money. I'm going to guess that the music industry has been hit harder than the movies and see how much people care there. Again, people just on principle hate banks, collection agencies and they really hate studios, the MPAA or theater owners who complain that they aren't making enough money. Trying to get rid of this stuff, to me, is just as pointless as trying to stop underage drinking, stop bad things from happening to good people or trying to stop rednecks from sneaking in pot at a Kid Rock show.
If one thinks a thief is a thief, as you do, then that's fine and I support your opinion even if it differs than mine. However, you're real fight is with the MPAA but I don't think they're going to care when you walk in asking for the Mr. Wong films to be saved or that BLACKMAIL is pulled from Wal-Mart. They're not going to fight for EC when their transfer to HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK is stolen. They won't fight for Code Red, Retromedia or even Shout!. They're going to fight for the richest of the rich, which is why mainstream doesn't care and why those, like me, who buy certain titles won't care.
DR. JEKYLL VS THE WEREWOLF, the Paul Naschy film, is a highly bootlegged title and has been for decades. I first bought this from an illegal company back in the day on VHS. Later in life I bought the foreign, clothed version of the film, which was an official release. A few weeks ago I ended up buying the nude version from Code Red, another official version. A week later a more graphic version of the film was released and I was able to get a copy as it was passed out to fans by the person who discovered it. No money every exchanged hands. Fans do this. Fans want all these weird, alternate versions and they support the official stuff as well as the other stuff. Fighting these people just makes no sense to me.