Where in the world is Copyright Protection? Do some soul searching before your next download punk!

Oct. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- The time 3:am, someone in a darkened room comfortable in their boxer shorts or night gown (whichever the case might be) and their credit card safely stowed in the next room checks search results of their favorite flick of the moment and partakes of a freebie download. Truth is if giant Hollywood Film production companies cared about what you download surely the Internet would have been heavily regulated by this time. Of course those same high profile Directors and Producers in the established Entertainment Industry realize that, after investing millions on a Film's budget they shall certainly recoup many millions more at the box office, through DVD sales and rentals, and therefore don't really care what your doing in your boxers or nightie at 3:am! But did you ever think about the meager Independent Filmmaker?

Unlike the Hollywood giants, the Independent Filmmaker, often putting up their own funds, produce labors of love, and if they are lucky , have some hope of drawing some audience response and even perhaps some meager compensation for their efforts. Unfortunately without the famous name or big studio backing they are relegated to the wonderful world of Film Festivals. With everyone from 3rd graders and up with a camcorder submitting these days, unless your Film coddles to some social, environmental, political, or liberally sympathetic subject matter chances are your not going to be featured in a Film Festival. So whats the Independent Filmmaker to do? Like any Film project the Independent Filmmaker must eventually seek the services of a distributor. Many low budget Film's first hurdles might involve a small deal with one of the large DVD rental companies but in that brief light of perceived success lurks the real harm. Now distributed and available to the public, the Film, lurking near the bottom will inevitably be detected by the 'bottom feeders'. A tiny  minority (we hope) of the vast majority of decent honest renters deduce correctly that a low budget offering is produced by an unknown production company with limited or no resources available to employ legal representation regarding Copyright infringement of their Work. Hence it is ripe and 'at the bottom' for them to feed upon. Let the proliferation begin. Within days of such a 'distribution deal' with a DVD rental company the Independent Producer will likely see the illegal (often declared 'free) down-loadable versions of their work (which are unauthorized by the original Copyright owner) appear as search results. "It's all good" for the for the Film, the Filmmaker and the Customer, right? WRONG. Consider this: If you purchase or obtain a free download from these unauthorized 'bottom feeders' the original creative entity receives nothing. Where is the incentive for these Independent Filmmakers to proceed with further projects if their works are pirated without compensation?

One such example of this scenario is a little known 1980s low budget Science Fiction Film production entitled 'Saga of a Crew'. The producer, Daniel R. Christopher labored for about 3 years back in the early 1980s to nearly complete the effort. Due to budget restraints the nearly completed Film was placed into long term storage. In 2005 production resumed and the Film was completed originally as intended. Daniel R. Christopher Productions has just recently made the down-loadable version of his 'labor of love' available at the Film's Official Website:   www.sagaofacrew.com   The DVD is also available to purchase there. But as far as the down-loadable version is concerned, the 'bottom feeders' have beaten him to it by about a year. So he can only hope that if your intending to download Saga of a Crew, we hope you'll be wearing your trousers or have your purse with you, whichever the case may be. That way you might have your credit card within easy reach and consider doing the right thing: allowing your dollars to directly support the creative force behind the offering, the Independent Filmmaker. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiSfx5_IUpg



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Small Film Production unit creating film shorts since the early 1980s. No theatrical releases to date.