Tim Ritter's Production Corner

TIM RITTER'S PRODUCTION CORNER #13
BOOTLEGGING
So you've finished your movie. You've suffered through to the end. Your credit cards are maxed and you owe every relative in your family a large chunk of change. Now finally at the tail end of your journey, you're distributing your movie to the video market. You've either landed a distribution deal or you're hawking tapes out of the trunk of your car. Maybe you're giving the DVD market a shot as well, and what an expense that is! There’s more cost involved in authoring, replication, and duplication than there was in actually producing your movie. As we’ve seen.
But finally, the blood, sweat, and tears are about to pay off. Your work will be seen all over the country, hopefully in as many rental outlets as possible. The day is coming where you’ll be able to walk into Best Buy or Hollywood Video and see your work on the shelf. Your covers have snazzy artwork that delivers all the elements. Did you also hire a celebrity for additional value? Well, that’s going to help too. It's very probable that you'll make back that micro-budget you had and get on to your next project within the year.
This is it! The moment you've been waiting for. Sales are brisk for a few months and you're on a roll. Distributors and consumers dig the packaging and the product within. The hype is on and going strong! Internet sites and magazines are giving you your fifteen minutes of fame! This is what we all work so hard to achieve: the chance, that underdog chance, of getting somewhere. The reviews from even the harshest critics are all excellent. Then you run into an unexpected snag.
Piracy.
What, you ask? Piracy? That only happens to the big boys, you say. The Spiderman and Star Wars movies, where crooks sell movies they've taped off the silver screen with camcorders. They peddle them at flea markets and on the streets of New York City. Or score a video master and make tons of illegal dubs before the official "street date" release. (This piracy effort usually starts in the shipping stage, where the person who’s delivering the prints to theaters stops by an illegal dubbing house and they make a nice, pristine video copy from the actual 35mm print. Now you see why studios are so interested in projection digital movies via satellite into theaters!) But it’s mainly big-studio fare like Disney and Warner Brothers that get hit with those types of problems, you say.
Guess again, indie filmmaker. There's a better than average chance that if you make something that people want to see, it will happen to your movie, too! Even if it's a no-budget shot-on-video flick. Chances are, if it gets into the marketplace in any form, sooner or later you will be looking at piracy face to face. Eye to eye.
Illegal duplication is virtually impossible to stop at every level. Sometimes, it's even flattering to a microbudgeted filmmaker that fans are actually making dubs of their flicks and trading with others. After all, it is positive word-of-mouth and can possibly lead to even more legitimate sales through this “underground, cult following.” Take Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, for instance. It was available on the bootleg market years before it was officially released, and the positive word-of-mouth on this flick spread like wildfire. The movies eventually sold over 30,000 VHS copies when it was released in 1990 and most of the fans that purchased bootleg copies updated their collections with the pristine picture that the official MPI release offered. However, it doesn't always turn out like this. Sometimes, believe it or not, the movie never makes it out of the bootleg stage!
Although all illegal duplication hurts filmmakers and distributors, if someone dubs off a copy of a shot-on-video flick and makes an even trade with another person for a different movie, that's just the way it is. As independent filmmakers, we don't particularly like this to happen, but it does occur. We'd rather see everyone buy his or her own copy, but let's face it. Even "B" or underground movies are an addictive expense and you're never going to stop people from trading dubbed copies. We just don't want to see people who don't have a financial interest in our projects profiting from them (for no reason other than they liked the movie or see the opportunity to make some extra grocery money off of making copies) while us creators (and financiers) struggle to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads.
Pirates are actually hurting people when they do this type of thing, whether they realize it or not. It's no different than robbing someone of their wallet at gunpoint in a back alley somewhere. After all, stealing is stealing, isn’t it?
Some people rent videos and record them to watch at a later date. While technically an infringement of copyright, everyone is still making money. The filmmaker received payment from the distributor or retailer that purchased the movie to rent it out. The customer is simply "time shifting," so to speak. I personally don't have much of a problem with this as long as the filmmakers made some money and the individual isn't selling dubs from his dub for a profit.
Myself, if I enjoy a movie and want to own it, I usually end up purchasing a boxed copy when the title reaches a "sell-through" price, which can be anywhere from $12.00-$20.00. And with the way the market has shifted to DVDs (and all the extra features on a disc), there’s really no excuse NOT to make that purchase. All DVDs are pretty much priced under the $20 mark any more! I like to have the whole package, including the artwork. Most consumers are like this as well. It's all about entertainment value and how many times you plan to watch and enjoy the movie. You might want to add it to the collection. It's all a big business: videos, DVDs, books, and CDs. That’s one thing I’ve never understood about CD piracy---you still don’t get the cool jewel case and the color booklet that the legitimate release offers. Myself, I like all those photos and lyrics printed in there, it’s a nice bonus. Downloading and burning a disc sure isn’t the same as buying the finished work that the artist labored over!
Some people feel that when they buy a movie, they own the whole ball of wax, including the copyright! From there, they transgress into making dubs of that movie and selling it to consumers at a discounted price. This is where your movie is pirated, and it hurts everyone involved, particularly the filmmaker who's trying to make back that budget!
If Joe Blow from Florida buys ONE copy of your movie at the $20.00 price and puts it on the Internet at $12.00 a piece for dubbed copies, you're screwed. He might sell twenty dubbed copies of your video, which translates into $400.00 that should have gone back to your distributor or you! In some cases, that $400 might have been your entire budget!
With a small market to begin with, soon your minuscule budget seems impossible to get back as more and more of these "sellers" start to do this. There's a sad trend in the business, especially on the Internet, to do just this. I have seen my own movies (as well as many other filmmakers’) being sold illegally. Some of them even have clamshell packaging that's quite good.
All you need is a scanner and the original video box these days…
And it's a crime. Contrary to common belief, even low to no-budget movies are not public domain. They are copyrighted through the Library Of Congress and it is ILLEGAL to make dubs of them to SELL to ANYONE.
This original copyright lasts for TWENTY-SEVEN years and can be renewed by the original owner when that time comes up. That means that anyone doing this can be punished to the FULL EXTENT of the COPYRIGHT LAWS, the same laws that punish people who are bootlegging studio features!
We all understand that fans love to trade tapes and talk about the latest Z-grade flick, especially aspiring moviemakers that want to get into the business. It's fun.
But taking that next step into SELLING someone's copyrighted product and effectively stealing money from them (which those relatives are still waiting for!) is indeed a CRIME and you can be PROSECUTED for it. Doesn't make a difference whether the movie’s budget was $2 dollars or $200 million dollars!
At the very least, the F.B.I. can be dispatched to your home and they will confiscate your computer, your VCRS, and the tapes in question. Then you'll have to go to court to defend yourself, which is a LONG process. There's always monetary fines involved in all this (and the defendant has to eat most of the costs), and more times than not, restitution has to be made with the filmmakers and/or distributors. So whatever money a pirate might have made off those shot-on-video movies that they believed no one cared about will quickly be removed from their pockets by the law.
Not to mention the issue of quality. When you make a dub from a regular VHS copy of a video movie, the image often suffers. All of us independent moviemakers are extremely neurotic about the picture quality of our work as it is, and when someone peddles an inferior copy of our work it hurts the whole business. We strive to keep the image quality the best that we can, and that can only be done by making sure all the copies sold are made from a master quality tape. The bootleggers don't care about this at all, they're only after your money. However, with recent digital technology, I’ve noticed that this area of picture quality is rapidly improving (unfortunately). It’s becoming easier and easier to make DVD copies of our movies (even from VHS) and the slipcovers are very easy to duplicate with a decent computer.
So if you're into the underground or independent movie scene, please support the industry by buying the movies from the proper sources and not getting involved with the selling of dubbed copies. You can usually tell who the legitimate sources are: they offer shrink-wrapped, factory sealed copies of the movies they sell, and more times than not, the company name you're making the purchase from is on the packaging of the product. Places like amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com are also a pretty safe bet to purchase product from and they’ve gotten really good at carrying hard-to-find indie movies any more! This really helps the business a lot.
A sure-fire way to tell if someone is dealing in illegal tapes is if they ask you to write a check out to them personally (e-bay auctions aside, of course) and they are not the filmmaker. Another dead-giveaway of product being sold illegally is websites or catalogs that have ridiculous disclaimers that state ALL TITLES IN THIS SECTION ARE BELIEVED TO BE IN PUBLIC DOMAIN. This basically is someone who knows that they are in violation of copyright laws and are trying to hide behind the fabrication of jumbled words and false innocence. Don't fall for this! They are breaking the law. Another red herring is this phrase: ALL PRODUCT IS BELIEVED TO BE ORIGINAL AND FROM LEGITIMATE SOURCES. What? Believed to be? This is someone who is obviously trying to cover their tracks just in case they’re caught. I recently dealt with a website that had a disclaimer up like that and let’s just say that thanks to a couple of good lawyers, that site is no longer up and running on the worldwide web.
Another shady tactic some unsavory Internet sellers use for false legitimacy is this disclaimer: ALL TITLES SOLD ON THIS SITE ARE FROM FOREIGN SOURCES AND ARE DIFFERENT VERSIONS FROM THE U.S. RELEASES. COPYRIGHT LAWS DO NOT APPLY TO THE VERSIONS WE SELL. Well, I hate to break it to the sellers of these movies that yes, those versions are under copyright protection as well. Just because the movie is released in a different country and has more (or less) footage than its U.S. counterpart doesn’t put it up for public grabs! The company that is distributing the material in that particular territory has copyrighted the movie and there is still a copyright warning at the beginning of the tape or disc, is there not? So why would it be okay to blast off copies of the movie and sell them in the U.S.? Even if there’s more footage or less footage on these editions…the fact still remains that the footage on the foreign release is also copyrighted in the United States as well! So don’t buy into any of the malarkey that some of these unscrupulous web sites try to put up in their defense to rationalize committing a crime.
It's bad enough that the moviemaker of today must face insurmountable odds, dishonest distributors, and a somewhat limited marketplace. It's even worse when professed "fans" decide to go into business for themselves, selling dubbed copies of the movies that they claim to be so dedicated to. These individuals are actually helping destroy the very market that they profess to love so much. It's quite an oxymoron.
Please don't be a part of this. Rent or buy legitimate copies of the underground movies you want to see from their legitimate sources, and if you see someone selling illegal copies of a movie, notify the legitimate distributor of the situation. They will know how to handle things within the parameters of the law and have lawyers on staff or retainer to handle exactly this sort of thing. Otherwise less movies are going to be made and prices are going to continue to ascend! It will hurt both the moviemakers and the fans in the long run.
Some people ask me why certain older titles…or certain indie DVDs…are priced so high compared to big studio releases. Well, in addition to the higher costs it takes to mass-produce indie product, piracy is the answer. The distributor has to find a way to recoup his investment and get money back to the filmmaker, and many times, if a movie has been heavily pirated, this is one of the only ways to reap any profits: by raising the prices and passing the burden on to the consumer. You also have to factor in that because we are making fewer copies than the big studios (compare an indie DVD hit at 10,000 units to a studio hit that sells 10 million DVDs!), you’ll see that the studios spend less per unit in manufacturing than the indies. A simple rule of thumb is that the more copies you make, the cheaper they are to manufacture per unit. So the studios might only be paying $1.50 or less in manufacturing costs (per disc) while an indie distributor might be paying $5.00 or more (per disc)! That’s an astronomical difference, as you can see.
It's time to take out the crime and look out for one each other. No one in the shot-on-video industry is out to get rich (right away, anyway!). We're all just trying to break even on a project and move on to the next one, eventually (hopefully!) getting to a higher level someday. And entertain people in the process, of course. That's what it's all about. And paying off those relatives…and credit card bills…you get the picture!
What follows is more copyright information that might be of interest to the reader. First off, from the Library Of Congress: Sec. 302. - Duration of copyright: Works created on or after January 1, 1978-
(a) In General. - Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author's death. Any copyright, the first term of which is subsisting on January 1, 1978, shall endure for 28 years from the date it was originally secured.
(B) In the case of - (i) any posthumous work or of any periodical, cyclopedic, or other composite work upon which the copyright was originally secured by the proprietor thereof, or (ii) any work copyrighted by a corporate body (otherwise than as assignee or licensee of the individual author) or by an employer for whom such work is made for hire, the proprietor of such copyright shall be entitled to a renewal and extension of the copyright in such work for the further term of 67 years.

Here’s some more interesting tidbits: in the USA, almost everything created by an artist after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted worldwide and protected whether it has a notice or not. The rule of thumb you should follow for any work (book, movie, or music included) is that the work is copyrighted and may not be copied under any circumstances for any reason. Not for trade, not to sell, not even for an extra backup copy in your home. (Yep, you read that right! Lawyers can adhere to EXTREME rules, can’t they?)
If you sell copyrighted material that’s not yours, it can affect the damages awarded in court, but that's the big difference under the law. It's still a violation if you give the item (like a copied videotape, for instance) away for free --- and there can be very serious damages awarded to the copyright holder if it is proven that you hurt the commercial viability of material owned by someone else. (Think about those Disney characters painted on a day care center wall---yep, in a recent court ruling, they had to paint a fresh white coat over ‘em all!)
Most copyright lawyers will tell you that nothing modern is in the public domain anymore. The only exception to this would be if you know the person who created the material and have their express permission IN WRITING to make copies of their work.
Copyright is effectively never lost these days, unless plainly given away or signed over in a contract. Also, you can’t copyright such things as character names or movie titles. The only way to do these sort of things is by trademarking, patenting, or (in the case of movie titles) by registering your title through the Motion Picture Association of America, which involves a monthly or yearly fee.
Copyright law is mainly civil law. If you breach a copyright you will probably get sued, not be charged with a crime. You will more than likely be judged on what evidence the party suing you has accumulated against you---i.e., web site content that has been saved, copies of the bootlegged material you sold, machines you created the copies with (especially computer hard drives), and black and white catalogs that were mailed to customers. "Innocent until proven guilty" and “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” both come from criminal courts. In copyright suits, these defenses are usually jettisoned right out of the window. A judge usually decides the verdict…based on the evidence the plaintiffs have against you. In many cases, there’s absolutely no way to defend yourself if there’s overwhelming evidence on the table, such as the aforementioned computer hard drive, Internet sites, and catalogs. In a recent USA commercial copyright violation case involving more than 10 copies with a value of over $2500 in sales, the charges were made a felony! Hopefully, this type of information will dissuade people from getting into bootlegging…because the copyright holders do ultimately have the law on their side.