I am not writing to support every aspect of the two pieces of legislation dealing with internet piracy, nor am I suggesting that better alternatives can't be found. But in the middle of this debate, it can be forgotten that what's at issue is theft of something that either has value or does not. I belong to the Writers Guild of America and The Directors Guild of America. In trying to stop piracy, we are not trying to get rid of ships or the free flow of goods. In trying to arrest the fence, we are not trying to get rid of the corner store.
A previous writer wrote, "At stake is everyone's democratic right to information." Perhaps, but in my case and the case of many others, what's also at stake is economic survival. And dignity. Someone has their hand in my pocket, my hands are shackled, and a lot of people seem to think this is just fine. Some even brag (right here on Huffington Post!) about how often they steal from those whose work they admire and enjoy.
I wrote and directed a movie called The Ledge. It took me seven years to get it made. It was in competition at Sundance last year and subsequently made a little money. Far, far less than it should have because if you search the internet for The Ledge Free Download you'll find many places where you can download it for nothing. If you do so, you are not just stealing from me, you are also (by making films less profitable), ultimately stealing from the production designer and his staff, the cinematographer and his crew, the composer, the editor, the actors, and the carpenters, grips, assistants, sound recordists, extras, drivers, all of whom gave their brains, their time, and their muscles to this risky "piece of work".
I don't say this "piece of art" because "art" somehow suggests an activity above commerce, or aside from it. This, of course, is bullshit. I've never met a professional "artist" or artisan who wasn't concerned about money in one way or another. Everyone has to pay rent, take care of their kids -- survive through work. But in this discussion our work is constantly devalued. If shipments of American TV sets, DVD players, and computers were being stolen from planes or ships so often and with such impunity that it was putting Americans out of work and jeopardizing whole industries, you can be damn sure we'd find a way to stop it.
So, do these devices have more intrinsic value than the products of the imagination that flow through them? From the tone of much of this debate it would seem so. This is a denigration of craft and craftsmen, of art and artists, and of the imagination itself. This is American anti-intellectualism at its worst. This is not just about defending the free flow of information, something I wholly support, this is also about workers in a strange and insecure business getting robbed by cowardly thieves made rich by inadvertent philistines.
Matthew Chapman is the director of The Ledge.
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I'm sorry if you sunk your heart and soul into it, but it sounds like a dull, preachy, "arty" morality tale with limited appeal. I'm surprised that anyone was even bothering to download it.
How can you possibly say how much money it "should" have made? That's not up to you, that's up to the public. I feel like I should be making a hundred bucks an hour for my work, but you can be damn sure that's not going to happen.
I also think that the entertainment industry has failed to evolve in ways that match how people use music and film -- and that is the result of the industry's poor planning.
You know, I guess one solution is to make the films completely analog, that way it would be extremely difficult to pirate off of the net.
Maybe 'film' will actually make a comeback?
The Internet has changed all of that. The behemoth labels missed the boat completely and their business model (selling 2-dimensional plastic discs at huge margins that don't seem to trickle down far enough to benefit the actual artist) has become functionally obsolete. But those of us who, by choice, create music and live hand to mouth on account of it, have had no choice but to adapt. Most of us are far too obscure to feel any impact of piracy and, instead, we tend to freely distribute as much as we can on the Internet to raise our profiles a bit and boost ticket sales (It works and we keep all the money)
I have a hard time feeling sorry for the big corporations who've failed to adapt, failed to understand the Internet and are now flipping out over it.
On the supply end, it used to be that a new artist could take demo records to local stations and possibly get air time. Now, almost everything has to go through the corporate system.
On the demand end, it used to be that they scrambled to figure out what the next popular songs and bands would be. Now they tell the public who and what they will like (even to the point of having songs debut at number one rather than work their way up through public opinion).
They understand the internet, and it scares them. They see years of hard work going out the window and they are not about to go down without a nasty fight. The new business model is storming the walls of their castle, and the internet is the weakest spot. Of course they'll rush to fix any cracks showing up there. They need control over the masses to maintain the lifestyle they have become so used to.
What's really simple in this equation is that mixed up with your own worries over protecting your content from online piracy is the potential for a small group of corporate concerns to control everyone's access to content, net-wide (and therefore worldwide). What is called for is not an overly simplistic and self-interested appeal to the American sense of justice in the market, but a recognition that this issue will radically change how every person in the world uses the internet, putting us all at the mercy of those concerns, and potentially disrupting access to what has been, until now, a relatively free and public resource that many in your own circle use to legally sell and advertise their product.
I'm sorry people steal from you. I wish they didn't. If there are better alternatives that avoid the bad stuff, I'd like to know what they are to determine if I can support them. I sure can't support them (SOPA, PIPA) in their present versions. Doesn't really sound like you do either.