Youtube I hate you.

[aragarna]

I know this isn't legal, and I'm playing a dangerous game. So I should not complain about it. But still, it pisses me off.
Peter, hands on hips, would shot me his most disapproving look.  Neal would smile, say he understands and would probably advise me to move to Vimeo all together. And Mozzie would say that I'm crazy to leave such a digital trail, Big Brother is watching me, and I'd better change identity right away. He knows a guy...

Three years ago, while in my Gabriel Byrne phase, I found rare but important old films of his and because not all fans are tech savvy, I wanted to share them in a easy way. I uploaded them on Youtube.
Now a couple of months ago, I received 2 official warnings because of Buffalo Girls (which I had cut in 12 parts, so I should feel lucky to receive only 2 warnings) It's a TV movie from 1996.
And today, it's the turn of Defense of the Realm, a movie from 1986... I didn't receive warnings luckily, because a third strike means account shut down. They just blocked 2 out of 8 parts of the film. So I took both films down.

So, okay, I know, that's part of the game. I shouldn't have played with fire. I know it's illegal to share films, even if I buy them legally at first. But come on, they are 20 or 30 years old.
And the worse thing is, I uploaded them 3 YEARS AGO and Youtube didn't find anything to say to that at the time. Youtube is hypocrite. A big part of their business is made of those illegal videos uploaded there. So, they close their eyes, until they receive notifications from the right owners.
And if I had received a notification when I first uploaded the video, I would have stopped - and waited 6 months to get clean again.

I know this is business, and I know a lot of people live from making movies and TV series. Not paying to watch movies and TV series is not giving them the money for their work, without which there wouldn't be said movies and series. But I do pay my share. I go to the theater, and pay my tickets, 30 to 40 times a year. I have about a hundred DVDs on my shelves. But I don't have the money to buy everything I want to watch, and honestly, not everything I watch is worth its official price. When I think it's worth it, I do pay for it. I bought all 3 seasons of White Collar and pre-ordered season 4, even though I've seen it all illegally at first.

I'm not a big pirate, I'm just an obssessive fan. And I remember the happy time - it wasn't so long ago, 10 years ago - where, all at our joy of discovering this wonderful invention that was internet and high speed connections, we weren't aware of doing anything illegal. We were just happily sharing everything we had with the entire world, and that was so much fun.

Comments

[treonb.livejournal.com]

I so much agree with you! *kicks youtube to bits* and the tv and movie industry too.

[leesa_perrie]

I'm not sure about the movie side, though if they're that old, what's the major issue?

As for the TV side of it, I watch WC illegally and keep the episodes to rewatch, but I have also purchased 2 seasons of White Collar and have put my name down on the Amazon list to be informed when S3 comes out. I refuse to buy R1 DVDs on the basis that I mainly watch things on my computer (and you can't keep flipping between the regions in Media Player), plus my only multi-regional DVD player is on the verge of collapse and I don't have the money to replace it. All of this means I wait even longer for my DVDs than most fans, hence the illegally obtained eps in the meantime.

I admit that not all the TV shows I watch this way get purchased and I wish I could afford to change that. Atm, I'm buying the early seasons of Burn Notice second hand (can't afford to buy them new) and reselling them after I've watched them. The TV company isn't profiting from this (nor me!) but it's not illegal and tracking down older episodes illegally is a pain. But S7 will be via downloads - they've not quite released S6 in the UK yet (I think next month?), so who knows how long it'll take to release S7?! Assuming I last that long and don't get bored somewhere along the way - it's a fun show, but not an obsession like WC!!

Still, it does strike me as odd that selling/buying second hand DVDs is legal, but downloading them isn't. *shrugs*

[sinfulslasher]

I'm with you! I hate YT because of their geographical restriction bullshit. Vimeo is much better. *nodnod*

I download a lot of stuff to watch. Some TV shows aren't airing where I live, so I couldn't watch them officially if I wanted to. Other stuff is guilty pleasure and not available on DVD (and I wouldn't buy it anyway, like, I dunno, American Idol etc). I do download things like WC to watch illegally as soon as the eps are online, but I do buy the DVD sets when they're available. I'm all a-wibble because the S4 set gets published when I'm in the States, so I'll get my hands on it asap. \o/

So yeah. I know I'm breaking the law, but I do my fair share of buying DVDs, and they cost an arm and a leg due to postage and customs (I usually buy region 1 DVDs because they're usually the only ones that have all those nifty special features! *shakes fist*)

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

For the movies, I guess it's a matter of principle. If they are theirs, they're not mine. And I didn't pay the right to distribute them.
My conscience tells me, it's not a big deal, because these films are old, and one is a TV movie... But that doesn't make it legal (Gosh I sound so much like Neal!)

My own view on the whole thing to me (and for my conscience) is that if I could have recorded it from TV, there's no harm in downloading it instead.

Sharing (which is what I did on Youtube) is a bit different, because if those films are so easily available for free on Youtube, nobody will pay for the dvds. But honestly, I'd rather buy a newly released film than, again, something I could just watch on TV. (If only TV had a better program ;-) )

The Region thing is even worse, and it's one of the reasons I do pirate, because it's all such an hypocrite world. Regions only exist for profit. I bought an external DVD player, pretty cheap, and keep it for my R1 dvds, while my internal player on my computer remains R2.
I did buy some R1 dvds, because I was tired of waiting for R2 releases. The funny thing is about this, is that in France, you cannot release a movie until 4 months after its theater release. So, the DVDs are released 4 months after. Consequently, if I buy a R1 dvd of a film that is not released in France yet, it's illegal. If I buy it after the French release, ie after those 4 months, then that's fine...
Same principle for TV series. It's not legal for me to own White Collar season 3, because it's not yet released here (It's showing on TV right now)

Isn't that stupid, in our modern world ?

Good point about buying second hand dvds. Especially since now, it's pretty easy to rip it. And I have seen many times for resell dvds supposed to be "for rent only"...

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

*grin* It seems we're all doing the same things ;-)

Where do you live ?

That's really true about the special features. My first R1 DVD, I bought it for that reason. Other big reason is the wait. That's why I bought White Collar Region 1. Which was illegal too, but I was tired of waiting for a R2 release (which or course, happened 2 months after I bought the R1 dvds, and they have all the extra features... Plus Peter with Neal on the cover!)

And yes, I'm moving to Vimeo for video sharing (I've all the TDK stuff there already) but Youtube remains the most watched plateform, by far. But people will just have to learn to use Vimeo I guess...

[sinfulslasher]

Well, it's the only way to keep up with our boys! :D

I'm in Germany, though really, everyone outside the US and Canada has the same problems. *shakes fist* (Not just us Europeans, I mean. Look at Asia or Australia!)

Can you imagine the amount of money I've spent on DVD sets R1?! Let's see...WC (4 seasons so far), NCIS (9 seasons), Buffy (7, I think?), Scrubs (again, 7?), The Simpsons (20 so far!!!), Star Trek: Next Generation (7) and Voyager (7)...and some other stuff I'm probably forgetting right now. *frowns*

Oh yeah! The Shield! It was a special edition the-whole-series-in-one-set that cost me an arm and a leg. The show never aired here. I downloaded the first few eps due to my friends reccing it, and I was hooked. Watched the whole thing in record time, and then bought the DVDs. So, I basically spent money I never would've spent if I hadn't done something illegal first! LOL! (This is Caffrey Logic. I wholeheartedly approve of Caffrey Logic.)

Now tell me, why would it be illegal to buy R1 DVDs only because you're in Europe? As long as you buy them officially (Amazon.com FTW) you're perfectly fine!

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, but Germany is the worst for Youtube restriction ! Half of my fanvids are blocked in Germany... Poor you !

Wow that's a lot of DVDs ! And yes, I totally agree with your Caffrey logic. Same here. Apart from Sherlock that I first saw on TV (yes, legal !), all the series I have on DVD, I downloaded them first.
And of course, if we had to wait for our own TV to show the good stuff, we would wait forever...


Well, I only know the law for France, it's not necessary the same elsewhere. But in France, there are rules about gradual releases. For instance, for a movie. It's first released in theater. Then, there has to be 4 months before a DVD release. And yet again another wait before it can be shown on TV, or in VOD. It's to protect all the markets (and make maximum profit). First, theater, then DVD sellers, then TV commercials.
I'm not sure of the details for TV series, but as a French, I'm supposed to wait for my French TV to buy the rights of the show so that I can watch it.

So, if I buy a R1 DVD of a title that is not released in France yet, that's illegal, because I'm not supposed to own a copy of a movie before 4 months after its French release.
And when I bought season 3 of White Collar last summer, that was illegal, because season 3 is only shown on French TV right now, and the dvd isn't released yet.
It's stupid, and I don't think it's really dangerous for me (nobody will bother arrest me for a dozen of dvds), but it's technically against the law. Because the law is protecting the French market.

[sinfulslasher]

*boggles at French logic*

Where would I be if I had to wait until WC was shown on national TV? They never even aired the second season, much less season 3 or 4! (Come to think of it, I'm not even entirely sure if they ever finished season 1... *ponders*)

This is ridiculous beyond belief. I say we stand up and shake our fists against The Man! *joins Mozzie in his fight*

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

Yes ! And keep breaking the law ! ;-)

[kanarek13]

Okay, first of all, we are so getting together rather sooner than later for a day of WC squee and whatnot... why was I convinced you're in the UK? *facepalm*

Now back on topic, I think we all share pretty much the same ideas, on one hand, I can understand the industry blocking the new and popular stuff, but the rare and really old stuff - come on, give us a break :D Or at least release it so that we can buy it :)

I pump a significant amount of money into R1 DVDs and blu-rays, I don't remember the last time I bought anything in Poland. And, of course, I also buy season passes on iTunes for the shows I really love and need to watch ASAP and in nice quality :D

But it does happen that sometimes I have to visit the dark side. And quite often those visits lead to me buying the BDs/DVDs once they are out :D

I guess what I want to say, it's never black and white like the industry is trying to convince the world, it's a very complex issue and it requires some effort from both sides :)

[kanarek13]

I didn't know that! This is ridiculous. Here in Poland we don't have any laws prohibiting us from buying DVDs from other regions, I think they assume the region protection takes care of that (yeah, right :P)

And when I think of the quality of Polish releases, nothing would ever force me to spend money on them, anyway :D

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

I think one of the biggest issue is that the industry is way outdated since the internet revolution.
It used to be fine for us poor European to wait one year for the last season of our favorite show when we didn't have a choice, but it's just stupid to think that we'll still wait nowadays, when all you need is Google to find everything within 24 hours.

And they just can't compete with the free illegal offer if they keep prices that high and keep thinking like in the 20th century.

I mean, look at you, you're paying the big bucks for iTunes files, and yet you have to go to the dark side if you want to share your own property with your friends.
Isn't that crazy ?

[kanarek13]

It is crazy, indeed. Although here in Poland it isn't against the law to share my stuff with friends. Still, knowing how everything operates, I'd never do it openly :) They just love making big cases out of little fishes, those who truly harm the industry are often very difficult to track down and catch, but a regular John Smith who pays his share and occassionally downloads something will get arrested and prosecuted and convicted and they will make a big deal out of this :/

Or you will get a complaint after 3 years for something the majority of people doesn't even look for... while the current hot stuff is still online and doing great :P

Life :)

[sinfulslasher]

LOLOL! I dunno why you thought I was in the UK. I used to live there on and off, so there's that. ;P

And, if everything goes well, we might meet next year at the fangirl get together? *looks hopeful*

[kanarek13]

Heee, definitely. I am so bummed I can't go now :( But at least you have a whole week at HW to look forward to :D

I'm doing a mini get-together next week in Munich :D

[sinfulslasher]

Hee! Well, it's "only" five days, but they're gonna be EPIC! \o/ Though it's a huge bummer that I'm "too early" to go the get-together in DC. *sulks* Still, I get to meet two other fandom friends before I stay at HW, maybe even three, so that's pretty neat! (different fandom, not WC)

And oh, sounds like fun! Who you gonna meet with?

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

But it's definitely against iTunes's policy (Not that I'm complaining !)

And you're right. We had our share of stupid laws to prevent pirating. It's only aimed at P2P... Which is already outdated... *roll eyes*
And the only people they got and went ot trial "for the exemple" were little pirates like you and me...

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

We're doing a European meeting in Paris in January. You can join us if you're interested :-)

[sinfulslasher]

Ohh, sounds like fun! I haven't been to Paris in ages! Please do keep me updated, all right? :D

[kanarek13]

I'm meeting three collars who are not on LJ... two from Germany and one from Italy. Unfortunately our wonderful Aragarna can't make it *sniff*

But I'm definitely hoping we can coordinate everything so that we can all meet next year across the ocean :D

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

PM me your email adress I'll add you to the group list. We're just starting coordinating. It should be the weekend of the 18/19 of January.

[sinfulslasher]

Gotcha. Have fun then! :D

I hope next year's meet-up will be doable. I do have plans to go on vacation in Canada in Spring, so it's a matter of money... *crosses fingers*