Action Sports Torrents Raise Controversy
by Lorene Voskinarian | 09 Oct 2008
Transworld Business has a story about a BitTorrent tracker site for Action Sports movies and how it's affecting the snowboard film industry.
http://business.transworld.net/2008/10/07/action-sports-bittorrent-track...
Snowboard films have long been available to download, illegally, on the big tracker sites but now they are easier to find than ever. The past few seasons, money has been tight for filming companies as sponsorship dollars have dwindled. With the current economy it looks like it will get worse, and I think we'll see some operations shut down.
So what do you think? Is it ok to download or not? Should snowboard films be free?
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It’s an interesting one. I
It’s an interesting one. I think you’ve got a couple of classes of movie – you’ve got the team movies by big brands which are really showcases for their riders and gear (although often bloody good movies in their own right). It would make sense for the brands behind these to encourage their distribution as cheaply as possible (or free) – spreading the word about their brands and their riders.
However you’ve also got the independent film companies who often just scrape enough sponsorship money together to pay for the production of their movies and rely on sales to recoup back what they’ve spend and help fund the next project.
But paying £15 - £25 for a 40 minute film is out of the league of many kids you can see why they opt for illegal downloads – although I totally agree that it shouldn’t be happening.
Maybe these film makers could be looking at new distribution models – perhaps download sales which are windowed to only last a few days – or even just one play – with an equally affordable pricing model that could result in wider distribution, increased revenues and more recognition of their work.