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Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

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Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#121

Post by cbs »

funkah wrote: post #27

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thin…

I've noticed this attitude as well. It's really, really annoying.

Annoying or not, as someone who only has a job because of copyright law, its fucking really important that we're reaching these people. I'm glad that people are saying this. Its great if you can afford to support artists all the time, but a lot of people can't or don't. This shows that people are willing to pay, but only for a product that they want.

Piracy is one thing, but a matter of practicality is another. I never pirate, but other than cable TV and netflix I hardly buy any copywritten works. When I do buy something that is copywritten I do it explicitly to support the person making the art. Its good material, at good price, without DRM, yes fucking please, I like that, want to support that and is finally on terms that I can support that.

I don't care if you want to scoff at people living up to what you consider their obligations after pirating, it is a big deal to the pirate that they paid money, and its should be a big deal to the entertainment industries. Someone who steals and steals and steals but buys this special is voting with their wallet, we need to pay attention to this demographic. If they'll support Louis C. K., who else do they would support if we offered a good product at a good price? We can never get ALL the pirates to come over to the paying side, but given the way we currently enforce copyright, we could convert a good number of them into paying customers.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#122

Post by minikomi »

_delirium wrote: post #99
Ryanmf wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

who would have been popular in a classic promotion environment wat Because the time and energy of the world's hackers is best spent on cargo cult business models attempting to mimic successes of yore? How about developing tools to facilitate discovery of talented acts who will be popular in the current, real world environment where there's an internet, and people use it to find and distribute things? To borrow a meta…

Sure, we can look at that, but then the experiences of people like Louis CK, Brian Eno, Trent Reznor, Radiohead, etc., are not particularly relevant, because they got famous in the old system, so aren't really examples of anything except, "if you got famous via old-style promotion, once you're famous, you can then sell direct online successfully". To reach a conclusion that you don't need the old-style promotion at a…

As is often the case, look to hip hop.. Odd Future, lil-b, Das Racist and (in the beginning) Soulja Boy are all examples of leveraging online presence into widespread popularity

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#123

Post by MrMan »

ceol wrote: post #109
ff0066mote wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the attitude which some torrent users have (feeling good when they actually pay for things) is annoying. However, nobody can deny that computers and the internet have irreversibly changed the game. It is simply no longer default that one must purchase information. Information doesn't want to be free, it just is free (for better or for worse).

I don't believe it was ever default that one must purchase information.

books, sheet music, information used to be more expensive by far than it is now.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#124

Post by liquidcool »

smackfu wrote: post #11
ryandvm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I never realized that Louis C.K. was so mainstream. I thought his humor appealed to me and maybe three other people. Well, he does have his own show on FX.

FX is the home of non-mainstream comedies.

Actually, I think if you look at the ratings Comedy Central has more obscure comedies. I am assuming that "non-mainstream" translates to small audience. Keep in mind that while Sunny started out as a cult hit, it's about to become the longest running live action comedy on cable. In contrast, last Thursday The Daily Show did worse than Sunny, The League, and Beavis and Butthead.

And if you compare to broadcast, all of cable looks non-mainstream.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#125

Post by dudurocha »

evan_ wrote: post #116
AgentConundrum wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude? I'll admit I've pirated things, and I'll admit that I did feel good about myself for buying this video. The good feeling, in my mind, had nothing to do with having paid rather than pirated. I liked that he was bucking convention, and trying his own distribution model, and the lack…

> Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude? Yes. I belong to a number of private trackers and out of curiosity I checked to see if it had been torrented. One has an all-out flamewar between people who bought it and people who didn't. Over a thousand downloads.

I saw this yesterday in demonoid, and was kind of funny to see that.

And some people felt more awesome, because they have bought and download the torrent "to save the site bandwith".

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#126

Post by waitwhat »

MrJagil wrote: post #67
jrockway wrote: post #2

One factual error that the article makes is that DRM'd content is harder to pirate. That is simply not the case; every piece of content ever released is easily pirate-able. The only thing that DRM does is hurt legitimate users. Also, I was kind of upset by the "letter" that the person who uploaded the torrent wrote. "Art is meant to be shared"? Why bother justifying it with something that sounds stupid when you could…

"every piece of content ever released is easily pirate-able" Tell that to the guys trying to crack propellerheads Reason 6.

To save anyone else the googling: Reason 6 requires a dongle.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#127

Post by nodata »

andrewfelix wrote: post #111
funkah wrote: post #27

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thin…

I bought it because it was convenient. I also torrent because it is convenient. Price is not the issue for me. I'm in Australia, which means I typically have to wait for something to come out on DVD before I can watch it legally. I can't purchase through amazon, and Australian distributors don't get American shows until months(sometimes years) after they're released in the States. I feel good because I got it when it…

Me: I want to watch the film

DVD: No. You will first watch the adverts.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#128

Post by dspillett »

dudurocha wrote: post #125
evan_ wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude? Yes. I belong to a number of private trackers and out of curiosity I checked to see if it had been torrented. One has an all-out flamewar between people who bought it and people who didn't. Over a thousand downloads.

I saw this yesterday in demonoid, and was kind of funny to see that. And some people felt more awesome, because they have bought and download the torrent "to save the site bandwith".

The funniest thing you see from pirate release groups and other distributors of such material (or so friends tell me...) is when (and it happens often enough) one lot gets all indignant because someone else copied their release and removed the credit. And they really don't seem to see the irony in their complaints.

Re: Louis C.K. "I've never seen a check from a [TV] comedy special"

#129

Post by davidw »

AgentConundrum wrote: post #101
funkah wrote: post #27

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thin…

Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude? I'll admit I've pirated things, and I'll admit that I did feel good about myself for buying this video. The good feeling, in my mind, had nothing to do with having paid rather than pirated. I liked that he was bucking convention, and trying his own distribution model, and the lack…

> I liked that he was bucking convention, and trying his own distribution model, and the lack of DRM and just eliminating all, or as many barriers as possible. I wanted to support the effort.

So if this were ever to become the norm, would the equilibrium again shift back to people just plain grabbing stuff again, because efforts like this would not stand out any more?

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