Help Us Stop Magic Piracy

[j.bayme]

A frequent topic on this forum is piracy - exposure, and how to stop it. I don't think it would surprise you to know that this is a frequent topic of discussion behind the scenes, as well, and something we work to minimize on a daily basis. It's a constant battle for us, and hardly a day goes by when we don't deal with members who, with no moral hesitation whatsoever, upload copyrighted videos of work that does not belong to them.

It's even more troubling when - rarely, but sometimes - we hear about copyright infringement and filesharing from members who post here in these very forums, supposedly respecting the art while at the same time robbing those who are fighting, innovating, on its front lines.

Everyday we have members of our core crew and legal team on the look out. We try to minimize piracy as much as possible in - quite frankly - an effort to protect our work and our business. More than that, we do it to protect our artists - many of whose livelihoods and families depend wholeheartedly on sale of their original work. Every illegal download, every copyrighted video that is shared - does not go unnoticed. It matters - it really does matter.

There comes a point where we must admit that we are only a team of limited resources. And right now especially, we place those resources on what we do best - producing, creating, interacting, and advancing this artform one day at a time. Dealing with copyright infringement is a distraction to that goal, an interference to that objective. So today, we ask for your help.

Help us stop copyright infringement and illegal filesharing within this artform - both in magic and in cardistry. Report any active links that you come across - whether that be a YouTube video of a theory11 production (exposing something for all to see), a RapidShare / MegaVideo link, or any other of the sort.

With your help, we can not only make a difference - but maintain better focus on our work.

http://theory11.wufoo.com/forms/theo...yright-report/

[cm763]

Alrighty.

[RyanH]

Great Post. I will report any links I see. It sickens me to see piracy because I know everytime someone clicks that link someone just lost 50 bucks. It needs to stop.

[penguincdude]

I'll do my best to help. That link should be accessible to everyone really easily. You should post it at the bottom of the home page or something.

[Jacob L]

This should be a sticky so everyone can see. This is very serious, I'll be on the lookout.

[KeoSilver]

If I catch wind of any I'll report em.

[Rockefella]

Piracy is something I really feel strongly about and I really wanted to chime in on this issue.

Just to throw it out there, I am not defending piracy in any shape or form. However, we have to accept that piracy will be here to stay, especially with the advent of high speed Internet connection and the like.

Piracy can give a phenomenal amount of exposure to up and coming artistes as well as spreading their name around. Just like in the music industry, piracy can actually help. For example, you download an album from a band you've never heard of, listen to it and realize that you really enjoy it. You start to look through their discography and check out their tour dates. Soon enough, you'll be a fan and start talking about the band in your daily conversations with that hot girl you met at the bar.

However, if you saw the album on the shelves, you might have looked at it and considered buying it but your head told you to put it back for so many reasons like "What if I waste my money because it's bad?"

We do not have to embrace piracy but we can use piracy to our advantage in a variety of different ways.

[True2Coins]

http://twitter.com/search?q=%23STOPM...TOPMAGICPIRACY

Hmm who could THIS awesome dude be who created a topic for this RAISE AWARENESS!!! Your money will be respected if we can get this thing really going. Also, I think it would be cool if we could try to do this for EVERYONE, not JUST Theory11 if possible. But then again, there could be more out there that I don't know about. Afterall, I don't google search "Illegal magic downloads"

[dragon521]

The ill-effects of piracy are way overstated. Numerous studies show piracy's effect on sales range from negligible to positive...

[JetEyeNight]

I'd have to agree with you dragon. People who weren't planning on purchasing in the first place, but who received a pirated version, weren't planning on putting any money in the creators pocket to begin with, so I can't see how it's money lost. What may happen is people give the artists work some exposure and is sort of a form of advertising.