‘If you downloaded this movie ….’
p2pnet news | Movies:- Further to yesterday’s story in which the folks behind The Man From Earth rhapsodise unreservedly because their movie was picked up and screened on the P2P networks, please give us money! – they earnestly requested on MySpace the day before, saying:
We, the filmmakers behind “Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth” understand that this is a film many sci-fi fans just couldn’t wait until 11/13/07 to see. And we especially understand that if you live outside the United States, you’ve had absolutely no way of knowing when this film might be coming to your local cinema, video store, or TV… if ever! Indeed, all international rights to the movie are still available.
And as a result you may have downloaded the film from one of the many torrent (or other) sites available. Chances are, you paid nothing to do so. But please understand that we are just some independent filmmakers who put everything we had into our little movie, and you really hurt us directly when you downloaded the movie illegally.
Judging from the postings at IMDB.com, we see that the vast majority of you quite like the film; many of you even love the film and have watched it repeatedly.
We made this movie with a great deal of love, sacrifice and effort on a low budget. But as low as the budget was, it was still a LOT of money to us, as well as to the people who trusted us with their investment to go ahead and make such an unusual, even controversial film.
So we are making an unusual request… asking you to return the love, if you will:
Please visit www.PayPal.com, and make some sort of payment for the enjoyment our movie brought you. It could be fifty cents, it could be fifty dollars. Perhaps you feel the average weekly video store rental is a fair amount. Whatever it is, it might be small to you, but if every single person who downloaded the movie — heck, if only the people who LIKED the movie — paid a few dollars, would certainly help get us to break even. Just go to PayPal and click on “send money” (you don’t even need to have an account). The address to use is ewilkinson100@comcast.net.
Shortly we hope to also have a link at our main site, www.manfromearth.com. Either way, the money will go DIRECTLY to the people who actually made the movie. And who knows… if we ever do break even on “Jerome Bixby’s The Man From Earth”, maybe we can go make another intelligent, thought-provoking film.
Thank you very, very much for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Eric D. Wilkinson – Producer & Richard Schenkman – Producer / Director
(Thanks again, Liam)
Also See:
rhapsodise unreservedly – Piracy and The Man From Earth, November 13, 2007
MySpace – IF YOU DOWNLADED THIS MOVIE – PLEASE READ!!! , November 12, 2007
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for the download, and here for details. Click here or here to learn how to by-pass censorship in your area.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:08 am
I never would have heard of this movie if it wasn’t for this site, which wouldn’t have posted about it if it weren’t for P2P. I’ll wait before paying. If they change their mind and start whining like Metallica did my wallet’s CLOSED.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:16 am
“you downloaded the movie illegally”….
Well, only for these words, I changed my idea. I dont want to pay now!!!
If they want people to pay, they should correct their idea first.
November 14th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Sounds like they just made the argument why their downloaders would not have otherwise purchased the film. They also made a compelling argument why independent film makers shouldn’t trust a wide group of people with pre-release copies. And why, due to a pre-release leak, they were damaged.
The problem here is they still blame the p2p user for acting in self-interest. I’d also worry that paying these guys via paypal or whatever would be likely to get ones name on a list of copyright infringers, and even if not a legal admission of guilt, it’s close enough for other unwanted things.
This smells a lot like blaming a scapegoat for the market failure of a production.
November 14th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I didn’t watch the movie but to thank them for all their hard work and encorage future releases why can’t he ask for a donation. shareware authors do it all the time.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
“paying these guys via paypal or whatever would be likely to get ones name on a list of copyright infringers,”
That exact same thing happened in the 80s with black market cable boxes. People ordered them, gave the company their credit card numbers and when the FBI raided them they had saved a list of numbers (something like that). Another thing they did was ask the credit card companies “who’s been buying from these people?” Credit card companies then gave them all the info they needed. A better solution would be to mail cash to the producers. It’s harder to track the serial numbers on cash.
November 14th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
“shareware authors do it all the time.”
But those people never say that the shareware users are ILLEGALLY using their software!! I think thats the point..That’s the attitude towards the users and filesharing.
November 14th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
I dont see any harm of sending money to them by paypal. It isnt gonna get your name on some infringment list. Because for one you dont have to say “hey i downloaded your movie here is a couple of bucks” You can just send them movie just because.
I just finished downloading it and watching it and thought it was an interesting film. I would have never known about it or even seen it. So by me reading this story and downloading it they wouldnt have got any money from me anyways cause I would have never even thought about seeing this movie.
I would actually send money to them by way of paypal if I had a credit card or paypal. But sometimes donations are just pointless. For me Id much rather pay for the dvd when it comes out to show support for the movie and the people behind it. More people I know would have a better chance seeing it if it was in my dvd stack then a file on my computer.
That being said I wouldnt pay 25bucks like most dvds cost now but someting along the lines of 10-15 and maybe some extras like behind the scenes, even though there really wouldnt be much behind the scenes footage.
So basically I enjoyed the movie and it was thought provoking and wouldnt mind seeing more movies to that nature.
November 17th, 2007 at 7:44 am
if you want money, then sue your employee who physically stole, ripped and shared the screener.
yeah, i got the film. and downloading and sharing films for personal use is LEGAL – the law says it is legal – where i live.
so go piss in the wind.
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Is it coming to blu-ray?
Im guessing no. see, thats the problem with third party movies. you never gettem in High Def.