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The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The March 2008 entrée: Wayne Houchin » » Digital Piracy » » TOPIC IS LOCKED kannon Special user 723 Posts Posted: Mar 10, 2008 9:18am       Hi Wayne, Piracy is getting flaming rampant! As I believe you've definitely been a victim of this. How has this affected the work you have put out and work you would of released otherwise? And are we looking at higher prices or lower quality to offset the losses? N2SH & Complete offerings Precursor Notes at LULU W:H V.I.P. 215 Posts Posted: Mar 10, 2008 1:20pm       Greetings! Great questions. First, yes I among many others have absolutely been a victim of digital piracy. Whether that piracy is occurring via a bit torrent site or a low-quality YouTube video that either intentionally or un-intentionally gives the secret away - there are many magicians who have been affected. Has this affected the work that I put out? Absolutely. I am very careful about putting up videos of myself & showing my unreleased effects to anyone within the community. Regarding higher prices & lower quality: No. I don't see that happening. If we want to truly understand this phenomenon & problem, we need to closely look at the music industry. They have gone through (and still are) the same problem on a MUCH larger scale. The music industry will survive - it's been forced to evolve, but it will survive. I could write a whole book on this subject, but I'll try to keep it short. If the magic market (the magician's who purchase the products) were ONLY interested in the SECRETS to the effects - then we would have a very serious problem. The dirty secret that many within the community disagree with me on - is that the magic market IS NOT just interested in the secret. They largely want to be entertained. A well produced & entertaining DVD that teaches a mediocre trick - will be reviewed better & will be more financially successful than an un-entertaining poorly produced DVD that teaches a fantastic effect. The bottom line is that the quality of the product & the entertainment value MATTER. The days of producing a magic video in your living room with a handy cam are over. Ultimately I think that the revealing of secrets on sites like YouTube will have the effect of forcing the quality of videos to rise. This is something that myself & Dana Hocking noticed 3 years ago - If you are creating a magic product to market to the community, it needs to offer much more than just the secret. You have to give your target audience enough reasons to PHYSICALLY OWN your product - as opposed to just learning the secret. Based off of what Dana & I were able to accomplish at Ellusionist - we directed, filmed, edited & helped market: Stigmata, Silver Dream, Army of 52, Kaos, Fraud, Indecent, Fallen (directed, filmed & partial edited), Box Monster, DG loops DVD, Bullet (filmed & co-directed), Factory Sealed (filmed & co-directed), and finally - The Ultragaff Project. And now what we've been able to accomplish with Theory11 & the pre-release of Theory11, http://www.whatistheory11.com - I'd say that this strategy is working. However, this is still a problem that needs to be dealt with as much as possible - in all of our contracts with our artists at Theory11 - we have a clause that states we as a company will go after copyright infringement for each particular effect. I know that I'm rambling a bit here, but again - look at the music industry. Napster changed the industry about a decade ago. Music was being shared on a massive level - why? Why were people downloading their favorite songs? It's NOT just because they were free. The real answer is that people were TIRED of paying $20.00 for an album largely full of sh*t with maybe one or two songs worth listening to. It was much more appealing to "steal" the one song you wanted from the album instead of being forced to buy $20.00 worth of crap. So WHY do some magicians download secrets for free... I think the answers are similar. So MANY of the products that are offered to the community are junk. The effects aren't well thought out, the products aren't produced well, they're not entertaining - there are VERY FEW reasons to actually physically own the product. This certainly isn't an excuse, nor does it justify the wrong. What it should do is start to shed some light on WHY people are choosing to illegally download the secrets as opposed to purchasing the product. If we can truly understand "why" then the solution to the problem becomes obvious. W:H WAYNE HOUCHIN W:H WAYNE HOUCHIN www.waynehouchin.com wayne@waynehouchin.com Andy the cardician Inner circle A street named after my dad 3373 Posts Posted: Mar 10, 2008 5:51pm       Wayne, thank you for this great answer. That was very, very insightful Andy Cards never lie kannon Special user 723 Posts Posted: Mar 11, 2008 7:16am       I agree about the 1 good track in 1 album idea, but I think that was the beginning. The trend I think that has developed now, is using forums as a way of creating a kind of communist-file-library. In such forum users donate an annual fee and this is put towards purchasing and copying the latest material....meaning essential one purchase of a DVD/effect is then shared with 20-30 people. Which is disturbing as the community side of it encourages more to follow suit, as well as meaning forum owners are profiteering from the work of others. Resulting in internet getting flooded with fairly easy to access professional level stuff, with no financial returns for the creators: who are not big film moguls making millions from cinema tickets and merchandising. I've contacted numerous companies regarding these sites, but nothing has happened. But perhaps a kind of annual fee (similar to the Genii forums) could work out for companies like T11 as well. But could just as easily be abused. EDIT: Whats interesting is: What motivates the uploaders those actually spreading what they've brought? money? community appraisal? dissatisfaction? N2SH & Complete offerings Precursor Notes at LULU The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The March 2008 entrée: Wayne Houchin » » Digital Piracy » » TOPIC IS LOCKED <<< Previous Topic   Next Topic >>>

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