I am glad you posted this as it does illustrate the problem, clearly. Honestly, what incentive is there to continue to contribute good content when people pull this? No matter what business, if you can't yield a comfortable profit, there's really no incentive to keep up with it... so when we say piracy hurts everyone...ultimately...it's good people who enjoy varied tickle video content that will get the harm.
I can tell you from our standpoint, we have contacted the FBI and spoken with an agent and submitted as much supportive evidence as we could. Sure they shut down megaupload and it's a good step, but unless more is done, you will see more and more producers just stop out of disgust and frustration... not trying to be dramatic...just keeping it real.
My suggestion to those who are really looking to stay w/it and fight back... I know some aren't for it, but private sales are a good way to ward off this problem and create accountability to those who do buy so they are far less likely to pull this. Unfortunately, since this also means higher costs, as others have said, some buyers may be turned off where they otherwise would have bought... and it sucks all around...
There is also a company that has offered to provide legal settlement options for those caught pirating the content and downloading it. I think it's a good offensive avenue to pursue since it is offered by a law firm and group with the expertise to help. I know the record companies used them some time ago and sure this may sound a bit extreme, but for those who wish to stay with it, to be frank, a strong response is warranted.
This is just my opinion...some will agree, others not...but it just bothers me to see a good producer like UK and others get screwed over by cheap, selfish, self-entitled a$$holes who feel like the world owes them something...
Opinions on emotive issues are rarely helpful when perfectly good facts are available, so I will try to be as factual as possible. If you want to stop any kind of piracy, going around threatening people in order to gain legal settlements (which is at the heart of the legal practise you are describing) doesn't work. Aside from it being a sleazy practise that relies on it being more expensive to hire a lawyer and go through the legal process than to pay settlement demands, even with the best entertainment lawyers on the planet fighting your corner, it's proven to
lose you massive amounts of money and have zero net effect on stopping pirates, or increasing the amount of money you can make from your product online.
Unsuprisingly, the only people that truly benefit from this kind of "aggressive" legal action are the lawyers. There's a reason why only the corporate side of the entertainment industry has followed this path and that's because they have money to burn and can soak up the losses. More importantly, they can afford the potential counter-suits which would be an absolute train wreck for an average joe (financially speaking
😀) like you or I. Of course, specialist media lawyers are going to whisper sweet nothings in your ear and offer you options to fight your corner (thats how they pay their bills after all) but I can't see one good reason why an indie developer or media producer would ever seriously consider this route. The highly respected
EFF compiled a
great article on the subject a few years ago -
section VII is particularly illuminating if you can't muster the enthusiasm to read the whole thing.
Putting all that aside though, the single most important step you guys can take if you want to improve the rewards for doing business is to make your infrastructure better. The root of the problem for producers here, ie. mass chargebacks allowing fraudulent individuals to get hold of your entire backcatalogues for free, can only be solved by upgrading to a platform that protects against that. It's entirely up to you guys to do that, nobody will do it for you.
You fix a hole by plugging it, not by furiously threatening legal recourse toward people who live on the other side of the planet (and are just going to laugh at you while you feed money to American lawyers who have no legal power to do anything in that person's country). It's a big reason app developers want to sell their goods over the Apple store, or Google Play, or game developers want their game on
Steam - aside from the massive exposure those platforms give them, they are quick and easy to use for customers and most importantly
secure and reliable.
Sure, I can imagine charging $3 a minute and private sales being a decent option if you really can't stand seeing your work pirated and you want to control who is buying your material with the hope of making them more accountable - that's totally up to you guys as content creators. For me personally, from a business standpoint, I can't see that method making you more money than benefitting from the exposure, reasonable pricing and ease of use a platform like clips4sale (however imperfect it may be) provides you.
In short - it's difficult, but there's no point destroying yourselves and your businesses by getting too emotionally attached to these issues. Moral crusades and business don't go well together. I can't help but feel a more secure sales platform and working on making the best clips you can are always going to affect your bottom line a great deal more than groups of people who are unlikely to pay for anything regardless. I think it was Tommy who said earlier something along the lines of there being an inevitable amount of losses in all business, and you have to learn to accept that or just not be in business - and whilst I certainly don't want to see good producers pack up shop, I think it's hard to argue against that.