Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage • Hacker News Board

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#21

Post by bobds » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:20 PM UTC

I've enjoyed much of Louis CK's content without a chance to put some money in his pocket. So I've bought this.

$5 feels like a good price point. I don't think I would have paid $20, especially if I knew that he would only be getting a small fraction of that. Bonus points for making it a 1.2 GB h264 encode. I hope this works out great for Louis and makes other people want to try it.

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#22

Post by brentvatne » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:20 PM UTC

Happy to support this with my five dollars! Hopefully this model catches on.

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#23

Post by Qz » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:23 PM UTC

nathos wrote: post #10

caiusdurling wrote: post #9

I bought this purely to support him for being brave enough to release it DRM-free. Currently watching it and trying not to snort my drink over my laptop due to laughing too much. Excellent way to discover a new comic I'd say.

If you have access to Netflix streaming, his show Louie [ http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Louie/70179977 ] and one of his older stand-up specials "Chewed Up" [ http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Louis_C.K._Chewed_Up/70108... ] are available.

Louie is also available on Hulu (though I'm not sure about the first season).

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#24

Post by dreamux » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:23 PM UTC

pkulak wrote: post #15

thehodge wrote: post #11

I wonder how much he makes after bandwidth + paypal fees, he limits it to 2 streams and 2 downloads but the file is still 1.2 gig so not a small one..

Bandwidth is pretty crazy cheap these days. I can't imagine it costing more than a quarter to send out a couple gigs.

About 14 cents per download (streams are probably even smaller) on the lowest tier of S3 (once you're over 10TB/mo it gets even cheaper).

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#25

Post by lgeek » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:24 PM UTC

Chromium crashed during my first attempt to download the show and then I ran out of free disk space the second time (yeah, SSDs are a bit too small).

Anyway, my point is that starting a download and then only getting a couple of MBs shouldn't really count as using a download slot. On the other hand, I don't know if it's possible to check how much data has been transferred using existing technology. He seems to be using Amazon CloudFront.

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#26

Post by leftnode » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:24 PM UTC

caiusdurling wrote: post #9

I bought this purely to support him for being brave enough to release it DRM-free. Currently watching it and trying not to snort my drink over my laptop due to laughing too much. Excellent way to discover a new comic I'd say.

His show "Louie" is equal parts drama and comedy. It's really an amazing show and he's easily the top comedian today, hands down.

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#27

Post by tfb » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:26 PM UTC

I bought this not only because Louis CK is both awesome and hilarious, but because I really, really want his "method" to become more widespread. I know it's a long shot, but I hope so many people buy this because of how he's released it that it garners some serious attention towards the issue and proves that restrictions like DRM are actually hurting the applicable industries.

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#28

Post by dangrossman » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:27 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #20

Is anyone wondering how long until PayPal locks his account? Not wishing for it to happen - but realize it's PayPal. Now if we can just get him to be making jokes about PayPal, that I'd pay to see.

> but realize it's PayPal.

Which several hundred million people use without having their accounts locked.

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#29

Post by tpowell » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:28 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #20

Is anyone wondering how long until PayPal locks his account? Not wishing for it to happen - but realize it's PayPal. Now if we can just get him to be making jokes about PayPal, that I'd pay to see.

I synced my bank account with Dwolla. Now I wait. And wait.

Re: Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage

#30

Post by yangez » Sat, Dec 10, 2011, 8:29 PM UTC

turoczy wrote: post #6

His description of why he did it: To those who might wish to "torrent" this video: look, I don't really get the whole "torrent" thing. I don't know enough about it to judge either way. But I'd just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to b…

Wow. His simple tone belies the brilliance in his writing here. I seriously doubt he just spent 5 minutes scribbling this out as an afterthought. He gets a few key ideas across:

- he doesn't understand torrenting and so is helpless against it

- he cares about his viewers more than taking advice about DRM

- the video is owned solely by him and not some soulless corporation, and you're directly hurting him by torrenting

- you'll destroy his faith in mankind if you torrent

- five dollars is nothing compared to all that!

All of which combines to make you feel like a huge asshole for even considering pirate bay - in the nicest possible way. This type of thing makes a lot more sense than DRM in his case, and I bet it's a lot more effective too.