Throwing caution to the wind, as we’ve already noted the power of Mark’s weblog, but the point should still be made.
Mark Evanier has a lot to say about the piracy busts at the Motor City Comic Convention:
There have been busts like this at other cons but if the accounts e-mailed to me are accurate, this one was scary in its scope and seriousness — enough to perhaps finally end the selling of pirated videos at conventions.
For those of you who don’t get to cons: There’s a thriving industry out there in video piracy…people who mass-produce videotapes and DVDs of copyrighted material in which they do not hold any copyright. Sometimes, it’s a matter of just replicating commercial video releases and selling them cheaper…or selling copies of tapes and DVDs that are now out of print. There are also those who have pirated copies of new movies not yet available on video but more often lately, the bootleggers are producing videos of old TV shows or movies taped off the air or transferred from 16mm prints. While they sometimes find and offer very rare material, the fact remains that the material is still stolen.
I’ve had a few conversations at cons with folks who traffic in this area and have been amazed at the rationales for theft. Sometimes, the defense is just that they’re not making a lot of money off these videos… which may be true but, you know, stealing small is still stealing. Sometimes, one hears the notion that it’s not ignoble to rip off Time-Warner or Disney because, let’s face it, those companies make skillions and perhaps are not always 100% honest in their pursuit of profits. Above and beyond the obvious flaw in that argument is the fact that the video pirates rarely spare the small producer or filmmaker… and that even a Disney bootleg cheats “little guys” like writers and voice actors who don’t receive their contracted residuals.
The most frequent alibi is that the sellers aren’t really doing it for the money…or at least, doing it just for the money. They’re doing it as a public service since the folks who own the material in question are selfishly or thoughtlessly withholding it from the public. This is another way of saying the rights holders haven’t gotten around yet to issuing the show or movie on home video but still, it almost sounds like a valid point. Doesn’t change the fact that we’re talking here about copyright violations but it sounds good….
I guess in a very small way, I feel sorry for some of the guys who got busted yesterday. They all seem to think they’re creating product, not filching someone else’s — or if they’re stealing, they’re stealing from someone else’s bootlegs. Some of them have even put a lot of work into their editing and art direction and take great pride in their handiwork. But I don’t feel sorry enough to not think they should have known this was going to happen…and that it’s about time it was stopped.
I quote all this to point out that Mark’s argument would be a lot stronger to me if he hadn’t been putting “Today’s Video Link” on his weblog since March– like this one that he put up the day after his post from the Howdy Doody show. Or this one from the Batman tv show. Or this Abbott and Costello routine. Or this from the At Last, the 1948 Show. Or even this, redistributed without the express written consent of Major League Baseball.
Every argument Mark uses against the hawkers of videos at cons can also be made about the online files he links to. And he’s making money from it as well.
Understand: I like and respect Mark. And I happen to agree that retailers should know better than to violate copyright (I’m looking at you, Midtown Comics) and that Mark’s usage is certainly closer to fair use than what was seized by the RIAA. But I also think that when desired material is known to exist– like the JLA and Global Frequency pilots, the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie, and the original version of Aladdin with the uncensored lyrics– and not made available except via dodgy methods, then this will happen.
And I also reiterate one of my old economic rules: a black market only pops up when the market notes a major imbalance in either price vs. perceived cost, or availability.