Help Steal This Film Win $30K
Written by Ernesto on April 17, 2008The filesharing documentary Steal This Film has been a great success. Yet, despite millions of downloads and a lot of support from the P2P community, they admit they haven’t yet covered the costs of producing STF II. There is hope though.
Steal This Film Part 1 was mostly about the raid on The Pirate Bay and its aftermath. Part 2 however, views filesharing from a broader perspective and looks into the historical dimension of this movement. The film features admins from The Pirate Bay and Mininova, among others.
The League of Noble Peers, creators of Steal This Film, have been very upbeat about donations to the project and the possibilities of P2P for creativity. However, despite hundreds of donations, the project still isn’t out of the red yet. All is not lost, though. Fans of the Steal This Film series have another chance to help the Peers as they raise money to continue the project.
Steal This Film II is currently running 3rd in the Babelgum Online Film Festival’s documentary category. Babelgum is a Joost-like service that allows you watch free and full length videos, full screen.
Babelgum will add up the votes of users from their professional jury to find three films in each category to be judged by Spike Lee. If they win their category, the Peers stand to win $30,000 (EU20,000) towards the project.
All you have to do to help is download the client, search for “Steal This Film” and cast your vote to let the jury know what you think.
“It sucks to have to download a client, we know, but the cash would come in handy for the next phase of the film,’ said Jamie King of the League of Noble Peers. “And it would be fun to meet Spike – we dug ‘25th Hour‘! Big thanks to anyone who takes time out to lend us their support again.”
Of course, Steal This Film remains free to download and redistribute at stealthisfilm.com. For those who haven’t seen it yet, it’s a must watch.
Previously: The Pirate Bay Launches Uncensored Blogging Service
Next: Pirate Bay Trial Star Witness Employed by Plaintiff
52 Responses
uh. Download a client.. Maybe tomorrow..
I might if they did a Linux version, but I’m not running microshaft just to help, sorry.
Haha, isn’t this only proving against all pirates “belives” ?
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m actually a pirate myself with accounts everywhere, leeching, but seriously.. Everyone’s excusing themselfes with “if ppl would’ve just uploaded movies/music for free, we could donate or something, and that way it would go around!”
So… Now, a movie, made for pirates by pirates, with the ability to donate, haven’t even recieved enuf money to just cover their damn expenses for the movie! Hahaha, and ppl are still pullin’ the old “they could earn big cash on donating!”
Sorry, but here on, from now on, that argument is, and will always be invalid. When the “”biggest”" pirate-themed movie doesn’t recieve enuf, and have to ask all to click on a link to give them a vote so they could actually get some money back.. hahaha, epic fail for the entire pirate community.
I’m ashamed, but I haven’t even watched nor leeched this, so I didn’t donate either, and I’m feeling fine :)
Heh I can’t really afford to donate so I think downloading a client is a fair enough alternative to still support them :) Think of it as a donation ;)
[quote]I might if they did a Linux version, but I’m not running microshaft just to help, sorry.[/quote]
Same here.
Why is it that everything you want to donate to only has a PayPal account? I really don’t like PayPal and cancelled my account a long time ago…
I guess I’ll try downloading this crazy Babelgum thing.
I loved the Babelgum client actualy, think it was an awesome program :)
It only took 2 mins.
Looking forward for the next movie!
I aint goona download anything.. Just give me Voting URL and i will fucking vote for these great dudes :)
Windows only? What the fuck?
For a project like Babelgum, which promotes itself as free and alternative, it’s pretty closed and exclusive minded not to offer clients for free and alternative OSs.
[quote comment="349684"]Haha, isn’t this only proving against all pirates “belives” ?
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m actually a pirate myself with accounts everywhere, leeching, but seriously.. Everyone’s excusing themselfes with “if ppl would’ve just uploaded movies/music for free, we could donate or something, and that way it would go around!”
So… Now, a movie, made for pirates by pirates, with the ability to donate, haven’t even recieved enuf money to just cover their damn expenses for the movie! Hahaha, and ppl are still pullin’ the old “they could earn big cash on donating!”
Sorry, but here on, from now on, that argument is, and will always be invalid. When the “”biggest”" pirate-themed movie doesn’t recieve enuf, and have to ask all to click on a link to give them a vote so they could actually get some money back.. hahaha, epic fail for the entire pirate community.
I’m ashamed, but I haven’t even watched nor leeched this, so I didn’t donate either, and I’m feeling fine :)[/quote]
You have forgotten that money is not the end-all of it. Money is not the important part of things – it is the spirit and meaning of the movie that matters most. Those who wish to express the message will pay the most expense, because the message itself covers the cost alone.
Other than that, perhaps the best way of doing this is not to pay all this money to make a movie and expect donations later, but rather make a movie based on donations.
@11 34g34
“… but rather make a movie based on donations.”
Then you’re back to venture capitalism.
“Installing bubelgum requires admin rights”
:-(
I am at home, but do not want to use admin rights for this.
Tried 3 times, each time the downloaded archive is corrupted :(
Found out what the trouble is, the link in the post was for the MacOS version. I didn’t even check because I assumed it was the Win one.
I do agree that it isn’t good that they haven’t gotten more donations. We really should help out, though unfortunately many people who are pirates just don’t have a lot of money.
No version of this client for linux?
[quote comment="349750"]@11 34g34
“… but rather make a movie based on donations.”
Then you’re back to venture capitalism.[/quote]
It was always venture capitalism. Those who are interested in movies and want movies made will be willing to pay, and it is these payments which sustain the ability for people to spend much in the process of making movies. However, people will be willing to pay more before the movie is made, rather than after, because if the movie is already made, then there is no need to worry about the making or the quality of the movie, since it is already there, whereas people will be more willing to offer up money if they think that it will actually affect the result rather than merely to cover the expenses in someone’s pocketbook.
umm.. why would you donate to something that isn’t done? if it’s a sequel i understand, but still..
i liked their documentaries but i feel it’s more important to donate to trackers and game developers. i believe that most pirates feel the same, unless you’re a documentary freak.
[quote comment="349785"]umm.. why would you donate to something that isn’t done? if it’s a sequel i understand, but still..
i liked their documentaries but i feel it’s more important to donate to trackers and game developers. i believe that most pirates feel the same, unless you’re a documentary freak.[/quote]
To make sure that it will be done, and done with better quality.
Ok, I install the client. Then I search the movie. Then it starts to be very slow. Then it almost not react. Then I want to vote. You have to know then in which category it is. Its not mentioned in the details gained by rigthclicking after a general search. How the hell can I then vote? in the vote screen I cant search. Their are 1000’s of movies in the competition, I don’t go to search them manually! I have deinstalled the client again.
@18 34g34″
It was always venture capitalism. Those who are interested in movies and want movies made will be willing to pay, and it is these payments which sustain the ability for people to spend much in the process of making movies. …”
You are right. Somewhat. Those who are willing to pay upfront are interested in a movie which does well on the market. That doesn’t mean that it suffers from poor quality but it often suffers from market driven interests. Most low-budget, debut movies that I know have a lot more to tell than following movies by the same directors that are made by Hollywood.
“… However, people will be willing to pay more before the movie is made, rather than after, because if the movie is already made, then there is no need to worry about the making or the quality of the movie, since it is already there, whereas people will be more willing to offer up money if they think that it will actually affect the result rather than merely to cover the expenses in someone’s pocketbook.”
Well, I think you lump together two sorts of interests here. Those you are talking about first are interested in a financial return for their investment. And they do a lot of “mainstreaming” to “affect the result” as you say. Often, more than what’s good for the movie. The Disney stuff is a good example for that.
The moviegoers that are expected to pay after the movie is made, have of course some resposibility to actually pay for the whole show. The investors don’t pay for it, they just lend the money. But as you say yourself the incentive to cover the expenses of Hollywood are pretty low. It’s sad to see that they are pretty low for “Steal This Film” as well.
What I don’t like about the idea of a market driven movie scene, is that the diamonds in the rough get buried under a heap dirt. I had the movie industry in mind, when I was sceptical before. I agree with your argument when those who thrust out the money is the society as a whole. Tax money, so to speak.
[quote comment="349684"]Haha, isn’t this only proving against all pirates “belives” ?
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m actually a pirate myself with accounts everywhere, leeching, but seriously.. Everyone’s excusing themselfes with “if ppl would’ve just uploaded movies/music for free, we could donate or something, and that way it would go around!”
So… Now, a movie, made for pirates by pirates, with the ability to donate, haven’t even recieved enuf money to just cover their damn expenses for the movie! Hahaha, and ppl are still pullin’ the old “they could earn big cash on donating!”
Sorry, but here on, from now on, that argument is, and will always be invalid. When the “”biggest”" pirate-themed movie doesn’t recieve enuf, and have to ask all to click on a link to give them a vote so they could actually get some money back.. hahaha, epic fail for the entire pirate community.
I’m ashamed, but I haven’t even watched nor leeched this, so I didn’t donate either, and I’m feeling fine :)[/quote]
You are new on TF. The donating part is around 60% of the viewers. You have to find enough viewers to get a project around. This being on of the first such projects, is a great step. You forget that total point. I am happy for you, that you are a profiter of all private area’s you are privileged in. I assume you don’t donate here as well? So the community did never profit from you in any way? Then you should be ashamed that you think you are a part of the community. Its al about together. Sharing for all of us.
[quote comment="349709"]I aint goona download anything.. Just give me Voting URL and i will fucking vote for these great dudes :)[/quote]
Rite
[quote comment="349798"]Ok, I install the client. Then I search the movie. Then it starts to be very slow. Then it almost not react. Then I want to vote. You have to know then in which category it is. Its not mentioned in the details gained by rigthclicking after a general search. How the hell can I then vote? in the vote screen I cant search. Their are 1000’s of movies in the competition, I don’t go to search them manually! I have deinstalled the client again.[/quote]
Same here. Although I must say I think it’s a relatively nice app, it could do with a little less cpu/grapics intensivity. Anyway, the film is in the “Documantaries” category, and should show up when searching for it’s title, or simply the word “steal”.
[quote comment="349684"]“they could earn big cash on donating!”[/quote]
they could, if the movies were any good.
Downloaded client, found film, voted. It’s easy.
If you’re simply posting here to give an excuse for not doing so, then why post at all? We won’t miss anything by not reading your excuses.
If you believe in the film, then believe in trying to help those who made the film — it’s not like it’s costing YOU any money, now is it?
I’ve done my deed and voted for “Steal This Film”. Actually, it’s more like rating it 5 out of 5.
I’ve extracted the url of that video
http://www.babelgum.com/html/clip.php?clipId=108121
so that those who don’t like to download untrusted software can have a look at it as well. I myself hate to download stuff that I don’t want, but it was for a larger cause in this case. You can feed that url to your browser and watch it from there. However, I couldn’t find the buttons to rate, comment and so on that you get in the Babelgum viewer. Can somebody else figure that out?
lol i seen the headline and thought there was a raffle that you could win 30 grand
to enter ya must dl a certain flick
help me stael a film and you could be in for 30 g’s!!!:)
fuck pirate bay and the theives they convince to steal . all a bunch of vampires and zombies
i bet in truth that worthless film really flopped so now they need to beg for money. HHaaaaaa Haaaa Haaa.
Pirates dont support shit cause they aint got shit.
They take not give because they are worthless leeches.
@23 – Jasper van Weerd
Hi there! :)
Nope, I’m not new here, but not too old tieher, thanks for the warm welcome =)
I don’t quite get your tone on the whole prvilieged kinda thing, but I assume it’s sarcasm. I’m not rich, I don’t have a fast pipe, I’m a poor student, but yes; I’m gonna get an education, so I guess that’s making me prvilieged.
However, I would appreciate if you didn’t pretend to know me, and also judge me based on nothing.
No, I haven’t donated to TF, where can I? Since I joined this site, all I’ve seen is banners on top, with no donate-link anywhere. I assumed they “got around” based on ads, but I guess I’m wrong?
And also, I’ve donated to other torrentsites. Not much, but I hope it’s enough.
All I’m saying about this, is that they made a movie based on 21th centrury pirates, and they didn’t get enuf donations to pay for the productions.. Maybe we should all look in another direction when it comes to making money om movies, not just the anti-pirates.. :)
And I’ve made comments, I actually read TF’s articles, so don’ you dare accuse me for not giving anything to the community, cause you’re steppin’ on too many toes with that kinda attutide.
Regards
for people with linux its not hard to get it running under wine “sudo apt-get install wine”
sod downloading a crappy client. Use a better method of voting and i will…
I’d vote, but the stupid client requires Windows XP or Vista and I’m one of those horribly backward people still using Windows 98SE. If someone can find a way to do it without using the client, I’ll happily vote.
tried donating…trough paypal
they fucking returned it…
not gonna install windoze$
[quote comment="349684"]Haha, isn’t this only proving against all pirates “belives” ?[/quote]
This kind of illiterate gobshite is what you get when a fucktard forgets to take his ‘anti-fucktard’ meds.
Keep it up, you lackwitted dullard.
20 meg download to vote? Nah – I donated to STF2 – that’ll do me. (or gimme a URL that’ll log my vote…)
P.S. “lol?” (comment #3):
You’re deluding yourself. You’re definitely _not_ a part of ‘the community’ (or _any_ community, for that matter). You’re a pimply-faced little kid who hasn’t got clue one about even the most fundamental principles of file-SHARING.
As you so succinctly put it: “epic fail”, except it’s _you_ who fail – on _every_ count.
Now why not fuck off back to kazaa/gnutella/limewire/whatever the fuck it is immature tards like you use to do your self-absorbed leeching…
i m going to vote in return for…..
hey,….wait a minute,…the title says “steal this film”,…and promotes gran theft video,….so giving any favor in return wouldnt be stealing anymore,would it ?
in line with the spirit of “steal this film”,…i’m not going to do anything that takes “steal” away from “steal this film”…
At lol? comment 3
Truth is that by donations film makers earn shit. Which the only font of Income for STF.
BUT major corporations can easily make a lot of money by sponsorships. If file sharing of films became legal a lot more ppl would be downloading movies and watching them, from bad to good movies there would be many more viewers and the price for sponsors could easily go up covering much of the investement made by the companies themselves.
Many ppl can’t pay for movies and many don’t download because they know it’s illegal and don’t like it or are afraid of getting caught. I know many ppl who think this way, if it was otherwise most movies would have a wider audience. More viewers = more money from sponsors.
[quote comment="349709"]I aint goona download anything.. Just give me Voting URL and i will fucking vote for these great dudes :)[/quote]
Agree 100%
[quote]The filesharing documentary Steal This Film has been a great success. Yet, despite millions of downloads and a lot of support from the P2P community, they admit they haven’t yet covered the costs of producing STF II. There is hope though.[/quote]
LMAO. WTF are you posting this for Ernesto ?
Couldn’t you just point them to one of your many, many stories here claiming that producing movies you receive no income for is the business model of the 21st century and they like everyone else just needs to accept this ?
[quote comment="350214"]@23 – Jasper van Weerd
Hi there! :)
Nope, I’m not new here, but not too old either, thanks for the warm welcome =)
I don’t quite get your tone on the whole privileged kinda thing, but I assume it’s sarcasm. I’m not rich, I don’t have a fast pipe, I’m a poor student, but yes; I’m gonna get an education, so I guess that’s making me privileged.
However, I would appreciate if you didn’t pretend to know me, and also judge me based on nothing.
No, I haven’t donated to TF, where can I? Since I joined this site, all I’ve seen is banners on top, with no donate-link anywhere. I assumed they “got around” based on ads, but I guess I’m wrong?
And also, I’ve donated to other torrentsites. Not much, but I hope it’s enough.
All I’m saying about this, is that they made a movie based on 21th centrury pirates, and they didn’t get enuf donations to pay for the productions.. Maybe we should all look in another direction when it comes to making money om movies, not just the anti-pirates.. :)
And I’ve made comments, I actually read TF’s articles, so don’ you dare accuse me for not giving anything to the community, cause you’re steppin’ on too many toes with that kinda attutide.
Regards[/quote]
You’r complete right. I make assumptions on the many people who do profit around and then make comments that I think are ridiculous. You made a good point stating out that you cant know people from just a few posts on TF. So my excuses for pointing into your direction.
The donating to TF was not meant to be the point. Thats seems not possible indeed. Never meant it that way. More for the film.
I am still hoping that the way of donating gets to work in the long term. In my opinion the many pay for the more less fortunate people.
Jasper
downloaded, installed, launched…long wait, connection error, fuckit
Exactly as I thought! Thieves! A whole den of ‘em!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
What! No Vic 20??!
[quote comment="352679"]Exactly as I thought! Thieves! A whole den of ‘em!
[/quote]
ur 1 sick pup, wake up an smell the napalm
downloaded much quicker with this http://www.fastertorrent.co.uk/
the client is 21mb….wtf
ok…i downloaded the client…clicked on the fucking retarded film festival thing…how the fuck do you vote? wtf is this shit?
i don’t want to watch the movie, i’ve already seen it!
This film is good enough to win any film festival. What I would do with this film => I would submit this film to every single film festival I could and then even if it wins one award and cash prize I would be very happy. If it wins more then one award then let the $$$$ flow in from Hollywood and rental sales.
Get it here > Steal This Film 1+2 ENG (2006-07) AVI > mininova.org/tor/1339330
6 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.