On Pirating
Wes Miller of H-Bomb films
While filming for Huevos Ten, Wes Miller of H-Bomb Films and his American entourage a rack full of pirated H-Bomb titles. Here's what Wes had to say about he encounter.
ATV Rider: Why don't you tell us a little about the bootleg situation in Argentina. Were you at all flattered by the fact they had all of your titles for sale?
Wes Miller: I would've been flattered if they had paid for them and had them for sale.
ATVR: How surprised were you when you saw bootlegs of your videos firsthand?WM: I've seen that type of thing before in other foreign countries, so I wasn't that surprised. The first time was in South Africa back around Huevos 4. A kid came up and asked me to autograph a really poor copy.
ATVR: I know we would've had a hard time keeping our cool, how hard was it for you?
WM: It pisses you off because they're basically stealing from you and making a profit off of your work. But what are you going to do in countries that don't respect international law?
ATVR: How damaging is it to your business? How much business do you estimate you're losing to these types of situations?
WM: Pirating has become a major problem for U.S. businesses. Look at what it has done to the music and entertainment industries, it costs the original producers millions of dollars. With us, I would say we lose about $50,000-$100,000 a year to piracy. There has been a shift in culture both domestic and abroad, where people think it's OK to steal music, videos, software, etc. Companies have gone out of business over this. I think the biggest thing that consumers forget is that by stealing the products, they're affecting the artists they enjoy. Imagine if your favorite band quit making music because they were fed up with piracy. It's not out of the question unless things change. There are shifts occurring in the entertainment market, but in the meantime it's frustrating to have thieves make a profit from your work.
Brad Phillips Of Premis Industries
We knew the guys at Premis Industries felt very strongly about the woes filmmakers are experiencing associated with bootlegging, YouTube, etc. because the CD4 opening has a pretty heart-felt request to the viewers to refrain from pirating the film. So we met with Brad Phillips for his take.
ATV Rider: How prevalent has bootlegging become in the ATV video industry? Would you say that it's reflective of the film industry as a whole?
Brad Phillips: It's extremely prevalent. It's just as common as the mainstream, theatrical-released films. But it hurts us a lot more because of our size and market share.
ATVR: You mentioned that Cale Downen was once approached by a proud bootlegger. What exactly happened in that situation?
BP: Someone approached him at Ballance MX and told him he liked Carpe Diem 3 so much that he burned 10 copies and gave them to his friends to check out. He thought it was normal and acceptable to do it. Cale ripped him a new one and for good reason!
ATVR: How much revenue would you guesstimate Premis is losing through piracy?
BP: Based on sales and financial models, it wouldn't surprise me to be in the six-figure range. I personally think for every DVD we sell, two are pirated.
ATVR: What steps can you as a filmmaker take to prevent this sort of theft?
BP: We have already taken all the steps possible, anti-pirating software and other techniques, with no luck. Our last hope is creating an open discussion and educating the public about the problem.
ATVR: ?How do you feel about YouTube and Internet video in general? Are these tools that you may one day embrace?
BP: We have already embraced YouTube and Internet video. We were actually the first-ever filmmaker in our industry to utilize this by placing teasers online. But you can't make a film like Carpe Diem 4 and then just place it on the web for people to view. These films can cost upwards of $50,000 to produce; we need to be able to recoup that somehow.
We rely on the sales of previous movies to make new ones. We have plans for another documentary as well as another Carpe Diem plus some other projects that we are keeping under wraps for now. Hopefully we will get to do them!