Documentary Filmmaker Supports BitTorrent Uploader
Written by enigmax on May 14, 2009When a filmmaker first discovered that his new movie had leaked to the Internet, he was pretty upset. However, this creator has some hacker friends who persuaded him to feel more relaxed about reaching a whole new audience. Right now, he is embracing file-sharing and even the uploader who released his work via BitTorrent sites.
Last week, ‘godcanjudgeme‘, a prolific uploader to Demonoid, The Pirate Bay, Mininova and OneBigTorrent, made another upload to add to his long list of releases, but this one turned out a little differently to all the others.
Blue Gold : World Water Wars from director Sam Bozzo is a movie about one of planet earth’s most precious resources – water. It examines the ‘future’ for water and how various corporations are plotting to control its supply, how governments use water for political gain and how the control of this essential liquid could be the source of future military conflicts.
Of course, when anyone uploads a movie to the Internet in breach of copyright, there is always the chance of a different type of conflict – one with the entertainment companies and their anti-piracy allies. However, this particular movie is independent and less likely to attract that type of attention. Perhaps because of this and a warmth towards independent creators, the movie’s BitTorrent uploader godcanjudgeme added a note to his release on The Pirate Bay, encouraging people to financially support the movie by giving donations to the creators via their website.
Then something surprising happened. “A message was sent to a third party ‘acquaintance’ of mine, from the film’s producer Sam Bozzo,” godcanjudgeme told TorrentFreak.
Dear Torrent users,
I thank all of you for your interest in my film. When I read the book Blue Gold, I knew immediately I must utilize my film talents to relay the urgency of prioritizing our fresh water management for the survival of our race. I had no idea of the financial and physical risks that making this film would entail at the time, and if I did I honestly would not have made the film. Luckily for the world, the film exists, and so it is my goal to follow the advise of the first press review which proclaimed “Every person on the planet must see this film”. In this respect I thank godcanjudgeme for uploading this torrent and bringing a new audience to the film.
I have seen film festival audiences around the world transformed by the stories of the heroes of the water wars. I am thrilled that in the US and Canada the DVD is available via shoppbs.org and amazon.ca respectively. I respect the internet community that chooses to view films through torrents like this for whatever reason. In fact my first documentary, Hackers Wanted, focuses on the philosophy of true hackers and their journeys exploring cyberspace.
It is important to understand that independent films costs a great deal of personal finances to create, in this case over $100,000. In order that I may make other films in the future, I must at least make my money back. I respectfully ask that if you download the film you consider donating $5-$10 to the further publicity of the film via PayPal on my site www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com. Also consider reviewing the film favorably on IMDB and recommending that others buy the DVD.
To be honest, at first I was upset to see this torrent, this film ‘leak’, but some good hacker friends have suggested I embrace the opportunity to reach a new audience, and I feel honored to be doing so!
So what inspired godcanjudgeme to upload the torrent in the first instance?
“I had received a number of requests for “Blue Gold : World Water Wars” after uploading another documentary entitled “Flow : The Love Of Water” which runs along similar lines,” he told TorrentFreak. “It is a topic which should be close to everyone’s hearts. The main reason for uploading “Blue Gold” was that it simply wasn’t available outside America, and so many people were wanting to see it,” he added.
Godcanjudgeme explained that he firmly believes that the downloaders of this particular documentary are not the average ‘hit and run’ movie grabber.
“I felt that in this case these are people that would have gone to a screening or purchased a copy if it was an option,” he told TorrentFeak. “Therefore I truly hope people will realize that independent filmmakers do need our support. If this were a multi million dollar production I could expect no consideration for the producers of the film, but in this case however it was decided to ask that people give something in return to the persons responsible for providing not only entertainment but insight.”
“We all have movies that we have downloaded for free,” he added, “probably large numbers of them, in this case I think it’s time to show our support.”
Since Sam Bozzo is embracing BitTorrent, it seems appropriate to add links where people can download the movie. And in the spirit in which godcanjudgeme uploaded the movie, please consider donating.
The DVDRip can be downloaded from OneBigTorrent or The Pirate Bay .
Previously: Vulnerability Renders MPAA/RIAA Copyright Warnings Useless
Next: Shocking: Pirates Like Britney Spears Too
82 Responses
hope some more convincing brains work better in future.
This is good to hear for a change! :)
Off topic anyone know whats happened to REVOLUTION TT. Site and tracker both down :(
thanks for seeing the light. one step closer to defeating the maffia and friends.
very nice change
PD : @3….¿?
smiled. agreed. donated. smiled again.
This is a good documentary. Water is the new oil.
It won’t be long before the MPAA convinces him to change his tune, possibly after he hears from their plethora of lawyers.
I’ll download the movie and if it’s a good movie, I’ll make a donation but is there a way to mail them a cheque I wonder? This is the way things should be.
We shouldn’t be tricked in to buying crappy movies. Been there done that!
In addition, this isn’t the first time an artist has asked for donations. One person, Jill Sobule, in particular was an interesting as she asked for donations FIRST so she could create an album.
These are interesting business models where movies and music was directly funded by fans. Imagine if the movie and music industry operated in this manner. It would completely eliminate the need for greedy and extortionist MPAA/RIAA laywers and their executives (oh we defend the artists but they only get $0.045 cents for each download from iTunes).
I say, this is the future. I say we all must kill The Beast.
Donated 20$
Therefore I truly hope people will realize that independent filmmakers do need our support. If this were a multi million dollar production I could expect no consideration for the producers of the film—
So it’s ok to download movies, music and games from companies that earn millions but if you download an indie movie, music and game then it’s not ok… cool ad hominem bro.
It’s like those retards at ‘chilewarez’ they pirate any game but ‘Zenoclash’, if you post Zenoclash in there they ban you. also reminds me of the dolts at ‘RSlog’, it’s ok to post games like GTA series, Postal, Saints Row, Soldier of Fortune, Manhunt… etc but RapeLay it’s not ok, cause it’s offensive… i can murder people, decapitate them, stab them, dismember them… but rape? OMG! that’s not cool, good one guys.
If you say stuff like that, then don’t upload ANYTHING at all.
I want to download that Hackers Wanted film, looks great.. but cant find it.. :(
Water doesn’t concern me.. I drink only Dr Pepper.. lol.
@12
“cool ad hominem bro.”
pirate everything – I have no problems with that – but sometimes you need to consider giving back to the cook if you want him to make your next meal.
@13
It’s still in post production – it was filmed prior to Blue Gold but is awaiting release..
Thank you, will watch it and if its good, you have my word you’ll receive a donation from me/our site.
/Ryan
Just donated 10$ for this movie, even i haven’t seen it yet (downloading in progress), but has good reviews.
I don’t have enough right now to buy the DVD, but it’s gonna happen eventually :)
Downloading, will donate if it shocks me/makes me think.
Very cool! It’s great to see documentaries like this being made and I’ll definitely donate to this after viewing.
Thanks for the article, TF, and thanks for the movie, Sam.
I’m really interested in your next movie!
@14
either be ok with pirating everything or don’t pirate at all.
and the cook can be anyone, either an indie company or EA, Capcom, Ubisoft… etc, it doesn’t matter. Just don’t come here with that Robin Hood-esque way of thinking that stealing from some it’s ok.
At least he realizes getting something is better then nothing and is embracing p2p via donations.
Yup, will surely check this out and donate a few bucks…
MPAA, are you listening? This is the future, you Fascist morons.
IPT HAS SHUT DOWN IPT HAS SHUT DOWN
Must have been a real shocker to discover people actually wanted to see the film :p
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8049495.stm
Confirmed I.P.T (IPTORRENTS) has indeed close its doors.
good for him now that hes strate about imagnary property howabout makeing a documentuary about ip curruption.
He should make a documentary on conspiracies of MPAA and RIAA
Congratulation on the success of your documentary film on our precious water. Please keep up the great work.
I hope you will make documentary film on how RIAA/MPAA abuse and impede our freedom to share our precious cultural values with one another. How they run around bribing politicians, judges and intimating innocent people around the world.
God bless you and your works!
That is so awesome. I agree that it reaches a whole new audience. When wolverine was leaked, I watched it.
And seeing it, without completed effects, just made me want to see it more in the theater, which i did, twice.
I am going to download this. If I like it I will donate.
Today I had to write-off Dany Boyle, it appears the star child actor who played in his movie is still living in a slum and just got his home destroyed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8049735.stm
Meanwhile the movie Slumdog Millionaire grossed $200 million ($350 million according to Wikipedia), so the producers and media cartels can continue their lavish lifestyle by exploiting people’s pity for slum dwellers.
Who is stealing here?
Just watched it…..Very informative…Everyone should download this and watch it. Big buisness dont only control media. We all need water to live….THEY CONTROL THAT AS WELL..(Where’s me tin hat, paracetamols and whiskey. I have had enuff..(goodbye cruel world…theres nothing left to say…cept….goodbye..goodbye….
Goodbye.
Same here, cant find “Hackers Wanted”
Hi, I cant find the ‘Donate’ button at all. Just the link to buy the dvd. Can someone help out? I would like to support this man for being considerate.
@Dellum, WTF are you talking about?
well after reading this and see’ing the words from the man’s mouth etc i decided not to download the film…..but donate $50 and buy the film at the nearest store..thankyou hope to see many more :)
I hope the money goes straight to the author. By the way is there anyway I could donate by bank transfer or something else than a credit card, which I don’t have? Thanks :p
Guys, I also suggest if you watch it rate it at imdb.com. This gives a film a huge channel for publicity if it’s rated good :). Personally I gave it a 10!
@33 May 15, 2009 at 01:36 by anonymous
Hi, I cant find the ‘Donate’ button at all. Just the link to buy the dvd. Can someone help out? I would like to support this man for being considerate.
———————————–
On the left side of their page it’s a banner with “Subscribe/Donate”
Okay. Nowhere to mail a cheque.
This is the filmmaker of Blue Gold. Thank you for your support in this decision! I appreciate the donations so far and especially the enthusiastic appreciation of the situation. It’s a very important film and I hope you all view it and let me know what you think.
I updated the site to include an address of a non-profit you can send check donations to as I see that has been an issue for a few.
Imagine if I were to make my investment back by Torrent users alone? We’d make film industry and set a standard for the studios to follow. Help me achieve it! Spread the word.
Sincerely,
Sam Bozzo
“pirate everything – I have no problems with that – but sometimes you need to consider giving back to the cook if you want him to make your next meal.”
Thank you for being one of the few cooks to provide the means for people to do this, and to contribute to the extent they can afford, rather than some artificial maximum they want the market to bear. I would gladly redirect some of my disposable income back to copyright owners and content creators for ‘pirated’ material, if only they would make it possible for me to make such donations without exposing myself to more liability. It would also have the effect of encouraging the creation of art people will pay for, rather than sustaining industries in which executives & laborers feel entitled to derive a lifetime of income for their role in producing & marketing works of dubious merit.
A couple of questions: How much do you get for each DVD sale? And assuming this pans out, are you to spread your enthusiasm to other filmmakers, production companies and distributors? It’s the only way we’ll see real change, IMHO.
There’s a donate button on the left-hand side of the page. Information on how to mail a cheque is right underneath that.
does anyone know a private tracker where this was uploaded to?
i reside in denmark and my ISP blocks out TPB, so i can only download it from a private tracker.
purchased, then downloaded/watched. great documentary, great idea.
http://www.easy-share.com/1905193025/Blue_Gold___World_Water_Wars_-_LIMITED_-_DVDRip_697_MB_-_GCJM.4889913.TPB.torrent
@44
Utorrent + DHT + PER Enchange..
@Ionut – http://www.onebigtorrent.org – a great site – most of my uploads are there
^ thank you :)
from imdb
”
MOVIEmeter: Up 307% in popularity this week.”
can anything else other than torrents give it this much exposure
torrents are a great way to bringing more media to the people, the entertainment industry should consider it as boon rather than a curse. But those BA****** never learn will they.
http://www.wannabets.blogspot.com
Haven’t seen the movie but this attitude has to be supported!
well i will hit this movie, if its good, and informative, i will donate.
we should support what we liked.
To Raised Eyebrow’s question. For DVD’s my cut depends on where you buy it. If in America, it is best to buy from shoppbs.org rather than from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, or Best Buy (where it is also available) because all those 3rd party places take a huge cut off the top (up to 50%) whereas if you buy directly from PBS (the distributor), I get the most from the DVD (can’t contractually say how much) and the rest goes to PBS, a non-profit providing excellent public television (win/win).
In Canada, it is best you buy from Amazon.ca or at the HMV stores.
One thing I am checking on is if I have the right to sell custom signed PAL DVDs for the rest of the world from my site until when/if deals are set up in each country.
If you like the film, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter so I can inform you of each country’s distribution as it occurs.
Also would love to get as many positive reviews on Amazon, Netflix, and IMDB!
@ Sam Bozzo
About the exposure of this film in non-english speaking countries it would be a good ideea if someone can provide a subtitle for this film, couse even the DVD doesn’t have one.
If a subtitle in english can be found then the translation it’s not a problem.
I cannot say if this exposure will translate in more donations/purchases of this movie, it’s just an ideea.
Thank you,
Andrew (Romania)
http://www.prensoyun.net/barbie/trt-cocuk.html
http://www.prensoyun.net
Embrace them, get them to donate so you can track them all down and sue their asses for copyright infringement! Nice
Yea, hacker 7337 doods are really your primary market. Get them all to download because they are so amazed that someone didn’t immediate threaten them. Half of them probably can’t read this post anyway…
“can anything else other than torrents give it this much exposure”
Yes, legitimate viral video will do it as well. I don’t think Blair Witch required torrent to spread like wildfire… It was word of mouth.
Hey, Sam,
Just donated $5 (well, that’s a cost of a DVD here in Russia), looking forward to watching your film yet (still no doubt it’s great because of the IMDB ratings).
Wow, it’s nice to see a sensible person in the whole filming industry. Would you please tell us how this in going to work out after a few weeks / months (in the long term). If you manage to get at least some of your money back by donations (which you wouldn’t have got back otherwise), it would be an interesting example.
I mean I have no problem with donating something directly to the author / producer after watching a film which was delivered to me the way it is convenient for me. Still seems like nobody cares about that. Download = piracy / theft / murder / criminals.
It would be nice if people like you and us would be able to make a difference together.
Z.
Finally its starting to roll, slowly but the message is hitting the right persons :)
For the first time since I can remember, I smiled during my entire 50 mile commute to work due to the reaction of all of you to this ‘experiment’. Some wonderful messages from a few of the donators I wanted to share;
“Just to clarify: I haven’t even seen the film yet. However, your choice of giving the movie to the ever growing internet community and relying on the people’s conscience for monetary relief is a brave and a bold one and should be supported to the highest of extends. May it be a guiding, blistering torch for others to share the same values and ideas you stood behind. Thank you.”
“Great film that is not available in my country but thanks to internet and the torrents community i managed to watch it and now I recommend to all my friends!”
“I am donating because I read the article on torrentfreak. I have never watched your film, and I may never do in future, but the fact that you understand the value and importance of digital sharing and a community of global contributors is worth donating to in my view. Thanks for being smart and selfless enough to help mankind towards a free future, reflected in a free digital world.”
“thank you for not being stupid (as so many are) and accusing filesharers of thieves when all we want is to share culture.”
JS, thanks for the subtitle note. It’s tough because it is costly. Right now I have a French subtitled DVD and soon a Spanish one. Slowly I will have more as the film spreads to markets. Right now it is English only.
If you read my director’s statement from my press kit.pdf on the film site, you’ll know I risked my life to make the film. Audience response to the issue and film has been worth it, and this is icing on the cake. Please enjoy the film, absorb the vital message in it, and pass it on.
Sam
Maybe this will persuade the filmmaker to release some projects via Creative Commons license. Or at least move them to a more public copyright after a year or so. If we don’t utilize these copyrights, and release everything under the standard copyright we aren’t filling in the gray area that the RIAA/MPAA loves to paint black for us.
Don’t worry about the costs of subtitling the movie, if one subtitle is found in an international spoken language, the rest is the work of others (for free) in many countries to translate and put that subtitle on the dvd and make this movie available for more people.
You don’t have to translate this movie in every language of this earth :)
Andrew
It was fun learning how to use torrent technology for the first time to download Blue Gold.
I was a bit nervous about it, but using called Transmission that came with my computer system, it was surprisingly easy to do. I thought the movie would take days and days to finish downloading, but it was finished in less than an hour. I left the Transmission program running for another hour afterwards, because I’d read that’s the polite way to give back. (is that correct?)
Anyway, it is a tremendously powerful documentary, well done and very relevant to the part of the world I live in…well actually it’s relevant to EVERY part of the world. I have made my donation for the gift of the movie (thank you Sam Bozzo for allowing us the opportunity!). I hope the movie maker does many many more.
Just wanted to share my experience. My grandkids will laugh when they find out I’ve become a downloader (dear me, where will it stop? ;).
I fully intend to share this documentary with everyone in my family (and a few neighbors, maybe). I hope they are all moved to donate money as well.
This, my friends is information-sharing at its best. Don’t you think?
One more thought for the film makers. As I watched this incredible documentary, one thing kept popping out at me. If you change the corporation names and change the theme from World Water Wars to World Wide Web, it would still be the same story. Did anyone else notice that?
Maybe there needs to be an investigative documentary into that issue as well. I hope someone can do it. I’d certainly contribute to that!
This support the independent scene, whether it’s video games or films, is nonsense. We’re opposed to copyright in full, regardless of who is responsible for its upkeeping.
Copyright & patents are useful and necessary. It is the way that they are implemented in most of the countries’ laws which is completely idiotic and harmful. And to make the things even worse the control over the copyright and patent laws was hijacked by a bunch of corporate thieves so that they can make it even more criminal.
You should provide some kind of protection to the *authors* (and not only to the distributors) and *inventors*, but this protection should be time-limited and well-thought so that is doesn’t impact the availability.
Of course developing such kind of laws is extremely difficult. It’s so much easier just to label everyone who shares as a thief and squeeze all the money he has out of him.
Hi!
Are there any subtitles for this movie? I would watch it but my “listening” English is not so good, it would be better if I had subtitles for it.
UPDATE FROM FILMMAKER:
Hi all. I wanted to update everyone on the status of the torrent donations. First, I am pleased that the uploader godcanjudgeme contacted me and he and I are working together to make this torrent the most successful it can be. He informed me that over 2,500 torrents have been downloaded so far. With a documentary like this, with such an important message, it is wonderful to have an instant audience like that.
I informed godcanjudgeme that I’ve received $400 donations to date from 51 people and he shares my disappointment. As my previous posts state, I am so grateful for the supportive messages that have come with these donations and appreciate those who are honorable to donate for viewing the film.
godcanjudgeme and I both agree, however, that the numbers of downloads vs. those who donate are such that any industry professionals viewing this story will continue to see Torrent downloading a failure as a business model. On average, a filmmaker will make $5 per DVD sale (it greatly varies from contract to contract, the costs the distributor incurred, and the 3rd party sales outlet cuts), so thanks to the fact that most of the 50 donators donated $10-$20, we can say that the torrent donations have earned me that of 80 DVD sales to help fund future films and make my money back.
I have a few high-end Hollywood producers contacting me asking me for these numbers because they are curious about the TorrentFreak story and want to see if Torrent downloading can be turned into a positive for the film industry.
Unfortunately, as it currently stands, they will view this as a failure unless I can make $5 per download, currently $12,500, to match filmmaker DVD royalties if those users bought a DVD instead of downloading the Torrent.
Personally, I again stress I see this as a positive, since 2,500 more people are aware of the film and that will ultimately help word-of-mouth, but if the torrent community wants this to be a valid business model for the film industry and stop the studios from attacking Torrent downloads, we need to raise another $12,100 in donations for BLUE GOLD so that I can go to the press and media and present this as a success story.
For those 2,449 people who downloaded BLUE GOLD but did not donate, PLEASE reconsider. If everyone could also please help spread the word to any people you know who support documentaries, the water crisis, or the idea of Torrent downloading, to help raise this remaining $12,100, then I promise to use some of those funds for PR to get to the press so we can proclaim this a success story example to the film industry!
To help with your efforts, any of you with websites can upload a BLUE GOLD banner there and link to the site. Banners can be found at http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/banners/index.html
Thanks again for your interest in BLUD GOLD!
Sam Bozzo
Filmmaker
Blue Gold: World Water Wars
Yeah, it’s the way copyright is implemented that is mental, not the fact a mere idea can be sold as a commodity.
IP is diametrically opposed to availability. No matter how lax the law is made on it, people are going to be excluded. There’s no need for spouting vapid rhetoric when this is the reality.
As for you Sam Bozzo, torrents aren’t a business model. They are a stand against archaic law, and the sham that is private property. We want to abolish the ability to market art, not help prostitute it.
So you let your Hollywood producer friends know, and yourself of course, that you can stick it up your arse. We’ve no interest in selling your shite.
Wow, Anarcho, I see you are part of the problem, not the solution, to a successful future of internet distribution and filmmaking. That is unfortunate, but the rest of your note is interesting, the ‘prostitution of art’, as you put it, which I am against more than anyone.
Let me take the opportunity to differentiate ‘profit’ from ‘costs’. All art forms require time commitment from the artist, but the financial ‘cost’ realities for each art is very different; a painter might invest $200 for paints and canvas, photographers maybe $2,000 for a camera and software, a musician maybe $8,000 for instruments and mixing equipment. But when each piece of ‘art’, EACH feature film, costs at least $100,000, you can hopefully see why p2p sharing is a double-edge sword, depending on what portion of the Torrent audience donates.
Even though Blue Gold is ‘only’ $100,000 film, compared to the $100 million films in theaters, independent budgets often come from the filmmaker’s pocket and credit cards, which is almost always the case with American films since America is one of the few countries without film funds from the government. If you work a day job, have a family, and pay bills (i.e. if you are not born rich), then $100,000 is a HUGE investment, and the simple reality is I must make that money back or I can never produce another film again.
I hope Torrent users who experience any negative opinions from filmmakers can try to understand that filmmakers are reacting to the horrifying thought of not being able to make another film, not to the community taking interest in their film on the Torrent.
I don’t know any filmmaker who is not disgusted by profit going to Executives and those not involved in the filmmaking, but if you continue to view an artist making his/her money back as ‘prostitution of art’ and do not donate to filmmakers like me who open their arms to this new frontier, the irony is that yo will kill the artists ability to make more art.
Sincerely, thanks again for your interest in Blue Gold and supporting documentary filmmaking via your donations when you download.
Sam Bozzo
Filmmaker
Blue Gold: World Water Wars
Anarcho,
You are a fool whose tongue is best left in mouth. Torrenting happens to be an efficient method of delivery. This is the essence of it all.
However, it ISN’T unbeknownst to me why you wouldn’t realize that because I suspect you’re simply a torrent uploader trying to make a name for himself because he has no other way to feel accepted by society. Some quasi-intelligent person who has no idea why torrenting was invented in the first place or what the basis of the use was/is.
Nobody is asking your for help to sell shite, so get over yourself.
To the moderators: Please pardon this response to Anarcho as his post was clearly trolling without at least a slight bit of sensibility behind it. Allowing his flawed, hostile post to be viewed by this article’s readers, and not my response (which is admittedly somewhat hostile) would be unfair. Thanks for the consideration.
@ Sam Bozzo
The torrenting with donations is the future model of business as far as I can see. Donating itself in piracy world is just catching up, have seen many places where it’s (more or less) succesfully employed. But it isn’t there yet. 400 USD is small money, but it was just released in Torrentfreak few days ago, so give it a bit of time.
$5 per download is probably too much to ask for. But then again 2000 downloads isn’t too much either yet. Don’t worry though, the downloads will rise, and so will the donations.
Not sure if torrenting is viable business model right now, but as long as it’s going to happen anyway, i would consider the fact to get the added exposure (I for sure would have never seen the movie), and get some money back from the thankful community, a great success.
Steps to take:
1. Although risky business, you should raise the awareness of the free version. Link to the torrent from TBG homepage?
2. Release English subtitles to community to get the translation going on.
I, in my all evilness modified the banner to show “Available on TPB” :)
http://remixta.net/bluegold_720_90.png
The majority of torrenting also happens to be copyright invoking. Odd that you’d sweep that under the carpet.
Why it was invented is moot. What matters is like all P2P, it allows free information access over an individual or group interest which is its primary use. Look at the donations for this film; more often than not, people have downloaded without giving anything.
But then, I wouldn’t expect much less from a bellend crying troll when a differing view doesn’t sit well with them. The real world must be tough!
revoking* even.
why is this not on slashdot? It would certainly give the donations a healthy boost.
Should the public finance the film industry just like profits for corporations, when in fact, it’s because of these things that are causing our current situation!
On the other hand torrent sharing isn’t about profits, money and corporate greed… It’s getting the word out…
If the word is good, people will share it more… and as for the reward, saving the world, isn’t enough for you?
What is the cost of making a film when compared to saving the world?
I’m sure, the 8 billion citizens of the world can help find you a home, food and even water, should they get off they lazy, exhausted tired ass and do something positive to save themselves…
But, I would be glady pay for your film, had I had money… Had I had water, had I a method to afford your film….
The truth is, I am without a home, without a job, without a mate and totally stuck, being stateless…
I was made that way, because my country was ruined by corporate greed… to be without a place to live.
filmmaker wrote:
Unfortunately, as it currently stands, they will view this as a failure unless I can make $5 per download, currently $12,500, to match filmmaker DVD royalties if those users bought a DVD instead of downloading the Torrent.
it seems you are arguing for the MAFIAA mindset “every (not acompanied by a donation) download is a lost sale”.
Just because someone downloaded it, does not mean he WOULD have bought it in the first place would it not have been available as torrent for free too!
And regarding your numbers, when you compare the fugures in the first place have you deduced from the numbers of your “could have been made if a DVD was sold” the downloads that were done from IP-addresses in places that do not offer the DVD for sale in the first place?
In tradition of the damage calculation of the MAFIAA in the TPB trial, you should count donations from those IPs as 10x the value since the stuff was NOT released there and no “legal” alternative to buy was available at all so you would not have made a single cent from those people willing to pay but unable to get “physical product”!
@Sam Bozzo (the filmmaker):
I just finished watching the movie and donated 5$ through Paypal. I can see your point about the “failure” of Torrent as a business model but lets not forget. This is a VERY special topic and the majority of people simply isn’t interested in seeing these kinds of films. I enjoyed it very much (apart from that ultra-annoying music you’ve used for some of the “eerie” parts of the film -there was a constant ringing noise that was nearly unbearable). For the water cause it’s already a success that so many people watched that movie. I am not surprised though to learn that not that many are actually donating. As a commercial product (hate to put it in these disgusting terms) your film just doesn’t have enough “appeal” to the audience that would be more likely to spend money on things like that. I am happy to give you the little I can afford as a student but using Torrent for “indie” products as a distribution means only is not really up to snuff actually. There is still a lot of work to do to get more people to appreciate what people like you and Rick L. Winters are doing and to actually pay where credit is due. I can see why people rip-off billion dollar Hollywood studios when they still make hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office but for projects like yours help would be much appreciated.
Unfortunately, as with the privatization of water and business in general. You can’t force people to NOT be assholes … I am one myself often enough but I try to support as many small businesses as I can especially when I get such great entertainment as a rewards out of it.
Cheers, keep fighting!
I haven’t read all of the comments above–i just happened across this page and found it quite interesting. At a glance, i think $5 is too much to expect most people to pay for a download. But what if a million people downloaded the movie and 1 in 10 gave $1.50? THat would more than cover the prod. costs. Not that a good movie is only worth $1.50, but the reality is that people download lots of movies. Also, far more people are likely to download a given movie than would ever buy the DVD, so that comparison is weak.
An economist is needed to do a diminishing marginal returns calculation or something. NOt that the goal should be to maximize profits, but i wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it is a viable business model. It’s a tadpole right now, but could become a monster fish. It’s kind of scary actually. It also needs to be REALLY easy to make the donation, e.g. a few pleasant clicks and no brain usage. I don’t even see a “donate” button or link here.
:) Watched & Donated!
As people probably has pointed out several times, the number of downloads is different from the number of people actually seen the movie and very different from those that would have bought the dvd. I have downloaded it (and donated because I like to support this business model) BUT I havent even watched the movie yet and maybe never will. And I can guarantee that I would never have seen even the dvd case in any store, let alone bought it.
@Sam Bozzo
I am downloading the movie at the moment and am setting up a paypal account to donate.
However, you and other content creators has to realize that a download is not necessarily a lost sale, By getting more viewers you can make more money in total while still making alot less on each individual viewer.
$400 for 2500 downloads can be seen as a failure since the revenue / copy is rather awful (~16 cents) but it could also be seen as $400 that you wouldn’t have gotten if the movie hadn’t been available on the P2P networks. (It is entierly possible that none of those downloaders would have bought or even heard of the movie otherwise)
I don’t really think you should expect to make $5 / copy if you are aksing for a $5-$10 donation, people in general will be assholes when noone is looking (Especially if not being an asshole takes a bit of effort).
The main problem i ran into with donating was that it required a paypal account, (Which i didn’t have) and creating one just for one donation is a bit of a hassle, its not really that $5 or $10 is alot of money (it is alot for some people ofcourse but i could pay more for a pizza where i live)
Anyway, i’ve donated $15 now and I sincerely hope you’ll make enough money on this movie.
If the P2P experiment doesn’t work out you should still consider some other form of online distribution for your future projects.
This is 2009 and its insane to buy/sell information on plastic discs that are transported halfway across the world when it can be sent over the internet at a low cost in a matter of minutes.
Watched the doc. and just donated 10$
I hope this kind of model gets used more often in the future.
Thank you for teaching me something I was not realizing was that apparent and but not least this important to everyone on this planet.
And I live in the Faroe Islands, water is not an issue here, but I will be more aware/awake now if there are at any time talks about privatizing the water-supply here.
5 references to this post
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.