Movie Director Uses BitTorrent as Lawyers Chase Those Downloading His Movie
Written by enigmax on November 23, 2007The director of a successful Norwegian ‘Kill Bill’ parody movie who admits to downloading TV shows via BitTorrent himself, doesn’t support his distributor as they take legal action against his fans. Fourteen people accused of sharing the movie have been reported to the police by MPA copyright lawyer, Espen Tøndel.
Tommy Wirkola is the director of ‘Kill Bill’ parody, ‘Kill Buljo‘, which has been one of this years most discussed Norwegian movies.
Having started as a joke and despite its feeble $163,700 budget, its been a success, and has so far pulled in 90,000 domestic admissions and 62,000 DVD sales in 26 territories.
Inevitably, ‘Kill Buljo’ was available for download from file-sharing networks around 6 weeks before the DVD was due its commercial release.
However, in a interview with Thomas Talseth of VG Nett, director Wirkola reveals that he’s not concerned about people downloading the movie and feels that they probably wouldn’t have bought it anyway, which is quite an unusual stance for someone in the movie industry.
This article is in part, direct translation of the original Norwegian interview. Many thanks to Håvard and RayJoha.
Wirkola believes it is an honor to have people download your movie and reveals he is a BitTorrent user himself, downloading TV-shows such as ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘South Park’. He explains why:
“I download lots of TV-shows, I’ll admit that. But it’s also about them already having been aired on TV, and have kinda been accessible for free already. I also think it’s stupid to have to wait for six or seven months to get to watch a TV-show that’s already been aired in the USA.”
Despite the pro-sharing stance of Kill Buljo’s director, the distributor of the movie CCV and their lawyer (uh oh, here he is again) Espen Tøndel, are going on the offensive against BitTorrent users. This week they sent a letter to the Norwegian police wishing to press charges against 14 individuals it accuses of sharing ‘Kill Buljo’ on The Pirate Bay BitTorrent tracker.
Director Tommy Wirkola doesn’t think that downloading causes any problems, on the contrary, he believes the opposite is true:
“I understand that CCV is pressing charges, and feel the need to protect their movie. But it’s flattering that people are making copies of the movie and releasing it on the internet. Besides, all movies today are released onto the web. It would have been worse if no one wanted to share the movie.”
“The artist in you feels some pride?” asks Thomas Talseth, the interviewer.
“Yes, you can say that” admits Wirkola. “I love watching movies in the cinema, in large theatres, and I don’t like the bad quality you often find on the versions floating around online. But I have no moral position on this.”
Lawyer Espen Tøndel, representing both CCV and Norwegian Videogramforening (they distribute all films in Norway), disapproves of Wirkola’s downloading habit:
“No, he shouldn’t be doing that” Tøndel tells VG adding that there’s no difference in downloading TV-shows or motion picture movies: “The laws on copyright have not introduced any way to make a difference between this kind of material, independently of what sequence the TV-show has been aired around the globe.”
Tøndel is making quite a noise around Norway at the moment. It’s a shame he doesn’t listen to people like Wirkola and Eric Wilkinson - he might learn something.
Previously: Poor Anti-Pirates: E-mail About Leaked IFPI Email Gets Leaked
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45 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
“Tøndel is making quite a noise around Norway at the moment. It’s a shame he doesn’t listen to people like Wirkola and Eric Wilkinson - he might learn something.”
so true
Momma, I can’t sleep cause of Espen Tøndel :(
Digg! Awesome, so downloading this tonite!
Someone, please put a hit out on this Espen Tøndel.
I want to see the movie more than ever, and I want to have a picture of Tøndel hanging above my TV set when watching it.
I’ve been trying to send a message to the mods via the contact tab at the top and it just WON’T go through so I’m posting it here in the vain hope that one of them will see it!!! Here it is…
Hi,
This is about the terrible French Anti Piracy Law they are putting through.
For obvious reasons I’m sending this anon, hope you don’t mind but anyway, check this - EDIT: apparently your contact thingie doesn’t accept links so, go to news dot bbc dot co dot uk and then click on the technology tab, it’s the main story as of Friday 10pm GMT
Oh dear, it’s the slippery slope isn’t it!
I’m Simon from the UK btw, great site keep it up and I wish Demonoid was back up!!
This Espen dude keeps getting himself in everyone’s business, isn’t he the same guy fighting against TPB right now?
Someone please kill this fucking Espen asshole.
Somebody please but a bullet in his head.
simon@uk - yeah, we know about it, we’ve been talking to a lot of french people about it, and other things too.
Also, if you want to get in touch, hit the authors names, we all have email addresses listed. If you want to drop me an email, thats fine - dmcawanted@gmail.com
Thanks Ben,
Really appreciate the reply. I think it sucks for our French buddies and as I said it’s the slippery slope for the rest of us in this nasty EU!!!
I’ll send this to your email as well bud.
Espen Tøndel sucks hairy mexican balls!
BEIJING (Reuters) - Five Hollywood studios have sued a Chinese online service and internet cafe they accuse of offering pirated downloads of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and other hit films, state media reported on Thursday.
Beijing-based Jeboo.com and an Internet cafe in Shanghai face a legal showdown with Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Studios, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The film-makers allege Jeboo.com created software the cafe used to run a movie download business, and they are demanding 3.2 million yuan ($432,000) in compensation, Xinhua said.
Fuck the MPAA and Hoollywod, their movies STINK!!
InterTran tells me the text at the bottom of the original article says:
“Copying at material at VG Neat for use different location aren’t allowable except agree”
I sure hope you got permission to quote/translate the article, given that TF are very sensitive to copyright in quotes :-P
Wow this guy is exactly the way everyone else should be acting. They should accept this “new” technology called p2p file sharing and find ways to utilize it.
Obviously mother fuckers like Wirkola’s distributor don’t know when to move on when it’s time. Shame.
am downloading this NOW just to fuck off these idiots.
Makes me ashamed to be a Norwegian :’(
Just kidding, it’s a great country to live in :)
I have downloaded this movie and hundreds of other movies over the years. None I know have been sued over this yet.
but you never know..
So, do we buy the DVD to support the director, or do we download the movie to boycott the studio?
This is a dilemma…
ill be downloading this as well and ill let it seed for a few weeks, just because its fun to piss off these stupid anti piracy people
go do us a favor Espen Tøndel strap a few dozen sticks of dynamite to your chest and go have a chat with your anti piracy buddies, im certain there are a few people here willing to help you with that.
P2P will never die, bloodsucking lawyers will.
When will these bastards figure out that going after downloaders is bad for business? Have the execs and lawyers not noticed that when artists and directors come forward and admit to being like us and downloading movies, television, etc. and having no ill-will towards us that we mere pirates think more highly of them? It’s bad for business to press charges on a mere 14 people and lose business from perhaps millions of others. If the people who pirate media are ever going to spend money on a product it would most certainly be on those projects that are created by those who support what we also do in our spare time. When will they notice this trend? I have a guess… never.
@Simon
All that french people will need to do is use a VPN. It’s what Chinese people do to circumvent their government’s monitoring of the country’s internet traffic. More on this here: wired dot com/politics/security/news/2005/04/67221
Nothing will stop people from doing what they wish to on the internet. If you ban something, you automatically create a black market for it. Happened with the outlaw of alcohol in the 1920’s, happens with drugs, and could be happening if they outlaw guns.
History repeats itself, these people should look at a history book and shoot themselves while they’re at it.
reading history books is illegal now
unless they have been re-written to say the world is flat.
and if as you say history repeats itself, then looks like all life on earth will die, just like the dino’s
when that happens will these guys still be hugging there wallets?
will they blame it on P2P??
all i can say:
Espen Tøndel is a dumb ass :)
Another stupid TWAT, go to a psychiatrist dumb fuck.
God, I hate that Espen Tøndel bitch. He puts a bad image on Norway (which is normally a great country btw).
How come everyone is so surprised at this? Obviously distributors are taking legal action.
If they wouldn’t they’d have been out of business long ago. The directors and writers can’t be replaced. The distributors can. And they will. Given time..
I love how time and time again they claim to be protecting the artists rights, yet as shown here, the artists rights have been ignored in favour of money grabbing. I hope I am in a position to treat the RIAA and its lackeys for cancer one day, I may just decide its in there best interests to not treat it and sue a dog, beings as they like to involve themselves in pointless tasks.
^^the guy above me spams pretty much every topic these days. ipban?
anyways. this news, as stated in post 26, really shouldnt be that surprising. And this Tondel guy is good, isnt he? hehe.
Espen Tøndel
Trosterudv. 9 C
0778 Oslo
home telephone: +47 22137089
private cellphone: +47 97595347
work cellphone: +47 92044966
et@simonsenlaw.no
employer: http://www.simonsenlaw.no/
Office adress: C J Hambros plass 2 D
0164 Oslo
Salary in 2006: 3.576.353 kr
Don’t post personal information here, that is just plain stupid, even though he is an asshole, posting personal information about someone is just stupid!
I downloaded the movie and watched it, it was a really good movie and wow the female cops are HOT in the movie!
That was really funny picture. Where can i download this movie ?
Eliena Andrews
http://happy-funtime.blogspot.com
@31 - Karl
You sir, are a douche bag. I would post a fucking map to the guys house here if I could.
p.s.-
Espen Tøndel
Trosterudv. 9 C
0778 Oslo
home telephone: +47 22137089
private cellphone: +47 97595347
work cellphone: +47 92044966
et@simonsenlaw.no
employer: http://www.simonsenlaw.no/
Office adress: C J Hambros plass 2 D
0164 Oslo
Salary in 2006: 3.576.353 kr
It’s freely available on the internet. There is no reason why he can’t post it on here. Though it may be somewhat against proper behavior.
The biggest problem for Norwegian pirates these days is Espen Tøndel - not because he actually creates problems for us, personally, but because he’s ruining our reputation as honest upstanding citizens =/
Btw, Kill Buljo is an awesome movie. I downloaded it right after it found its way onto the web, and bought the DVD right after it was released :)
[quote comment="222248"]So, do we buy the DVD to support the director, or do we download the movie to boycott the studio?
This is a dilemma…[/quote]
The real question is will he get legal action against him if he downloads then seeds his own movie?
Seems in this case the distro. company is ignoring the creators rights.
As a very excellent director you may make a very excellent film from my story which has the title ” The man with the killer eyes” You can read 5 chapters from my story on my own 2 web sites which are:
http://www.samyeissawi.freeservers.com
http://www.orgsites.com/dc/samycity
Please tell me if it is possible to make it film. All rights reserved.
Samy
If you all knew how little money there actually is in distributing movies (unless it is a HUGE studio movie) you might feel differently about this issue.
I’m not sure what you do for a living, but imagine if your boss said he was going to cut your salary in half because there were enough people out there doing the work for free? Sure, maybe you’d find a new job in a different field, but you also might have a moment of resentment that after investing X amount of time and money on becoming qualified in your field, you suddenly find yourself struggling to survive.
This isn’t an us versus them issue. I think the debate gets framed that way because it makes it easier to feel better about pirating.
Obviously electronic distribution is the future, and to fight it is retarded. But you can’t fault a distributor who is trying to protect their investment of time and money they has put into a film.
For the filmmaker it is a different story–they get paid once the movie starts production. And if it is successful, and if they made a good deal, then perhaps they might make some additional money once it is released. But you can’t really champion Tommy’s position in this case as a demonstration of the righteousness of the piracy cause.
He already got paid.
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