Ink and Piracy -- the filmmakers get it.

[pmark23]

Check this out.

When the producers find out that Ink is being massively downloaded, they put a link of their site and ask the downloaders to pay whatever they feel like if they want.

I freely admin that I'm a downloader of films because I live in a region where it's impossible to buy films (either can't online, or can't sell to this region, or DVDs are region-1 locked, etc). This is the first time I'm able to give someone money (who I feel deserves it).

It will be interesting to see how much they make from these donations, and I'm sure a lot of people will be following the results. Is this the future of (indy) film distribution?

Check the link above for the producer's comments and thoughts -- very interesting.

 

[Barry_Green]

Okay, first of all, Piracy is a forbidden subject here, and you announcing that you're a pirate is a poor move.

But, seeing as there is some relevance to the community, we'll engage this briefly. I went to that site, and I read the producer's comments.

So let me see if I understand this properly:

These folks took out a mortgage on their house to make this movie. They spent $250,000 to make this picture. They spent three years of their lives making it.

Then some pirate steals it and the next thing you know, it's been downloaded 400,000 times. So they're screwed. Screwed screwed screwed.

So they put up a donation box...

... and they've gotten a grand total of less than $400. Meaning each pirate gave them, on average, one tenth of one penny.

And you see this as a "good thing"?

If the future of indie film distribution is that pirates steal it, and then donate (on average) a tenth of a penny each, yeah, I don't think there's much future there in indie film distribution.

This is a disaster of the worst sort for those people. They've got $250,000 in debt. (oh, wait, let's update that figure -- $249,600 in debt). And everyone who wants to see it probably already has, leaving no room for a distributor to make any money. They're screwed. "Yay pirates"? "go team"?

Maybe they'll sell some t-shirts from their site... anybody feel like buying 15,000 t-shirts from those poor folks to make up for them being totally ripped off?

Oh, let's not forget the netflix and hulu revenue! According to the exec producer, they'd need 50 YEARS to pay off their debt at the rate netflix and hulu are paying. Sounds like they're getting around $250/year from each.

Sure, they can claim that it's "one of the top 20 most popular films online." That, and another $249,600 in t-shirt sales and donations, and maybe they'll be able to break even.

But, heck, at a tenth of a penny each, they only need another 249,000,000 pirates to download it and then they'll break even...