Action Sports BitTorrent Tracker Draws Industry Ire
mike lewis
- October 07 2008
- 3,330 views
- 64 comments
The file sharing site ExtremeBits.org is a BitTorrent tracker that allows users to upload and share copyrighted action sports videos for free. The site is supported through member donations and exists behind some serious cloak and dagger server masking which allows them to remain anonymous. The stated goal of the site is ” to provide users a portal for sharing material and experiences related to extreme sports.”
Said sharing of materials has filmers up in arms about their work being distributed for free, often shortly after release. A recent post from “Java” on snowfilmer.com reads as follows:
Hey everyone,
Just and FYI. There is a bit torrent website out there at the moment called “extremebits.org”. They regularly take snowboard movies etc…and host them on their site just days after they have been released. There are others that do the same thing, which sucks, but extremebits, especially sucks because of the email I saw this morning from a good friend of mine who was venting to me. Here’s what it looked like:
From my friend:
“Hey there, I just found my film on your site, “** ******* ***” by **** **** ***********. We would really appreciate it if you take this
film down. We worked really hard on this snowboard film and really don’t
appreciate it being on here. I really don’t want to get into a debate
over the ethics of downloading movies, but as a film maker who has made
snowboard films for the last 10 years, I would really appreciate it if
our film which has been out for less than two weeks was taken down off
this site. It’s one thing to put up older films (even this I have a hard
time with) but how do you expect us as film makers to keep producing
quality work (something you guys obviously seem to like if you’re
willing to steal for it) if there is no way to make any kind of profit
(which isn’t a lot by the way)
Thanks a lot,
**** ** ***** ***********
Here is extremebits.org’s reply:
‘As you might have noticed, your account at ExtremeBits.org was banned. I
still feel you should get a response though.
I love how you say you dont want to get into a debate about the ethics
of downloading movies, and yet, you do exactly that when you inform us
how much of a hard time you morally have with it, and call it
“stealing”. What you really meant to say was that you have the right to
voice your opinion, but we for some reason should refrain from doing so.
If you need money so badly, maybe you should set up a donation-button on
your site, and people who dont want to order a version pressed on a
plastic disc can donate whatever they feel the movie is worth. People
are not going to buy square wheels when there are round ones. If you
want profit, stick some ads in there, get some sponsors, what the fuck
do I know. Or maybe, you know, as they say “dont quit your day job”. As
far as Im concerned, if you dont think you have the best job editing
movies and snowboarding around all day, you can stop doing it. See if
100 kids with a laptop and a camera aren’t around to take your place.
I hate how you guys have become the new hollywood. Snowboarding used to
be about doing rad shit and sticking it to the man. For you its about
profit. You are the man and people are sticking it to you.
You should be proud people are excited about your film.
The ExtremeBits.org staff’”
The forum goes on to share some quality detective work on where ExtremeBits.org’s servers are hosted and the tracker experienced a distributed denial-of-service attack shortly thereafter. An error message on the site reads “Hi, we have experienced about 12 hours of downtime because of a DDoS attack on our DNS server. The DNS has been relocated, so some users might still have issues with accessing the site.”
Numerous BitTorrent trackers have faced raids and shutdowns due to claims of copyright infringement. However, this is often hard to prove as BitTorrent metafiles do not physically store copyrighted data, therefore, it has been claimed that BitTorrent trackers, which only store and track the metafiles, should be legal since the data they store is not technically copyrighted. Despite this claim, there has been massive legal pressure, usually on behalf of the MPAA & RIAA’ s around the world to shut down BitTorrent trackers.
Many governments around the world are cracking down on BitTorrent site hosts, and in Latvia the largest hosting server was shut down in August and all of the administrators were arrested. The UK and Finland have also shut down sites and arrested admins and owners, recently, but it is proving difficult to get convictions due to a lack of stored copyrighted material. There have also been numerous arrests and at least one conviction of registered BitTorrent users who actually uploaded copyrighted materials. This neo-Napster type software, which is specifically designed to transfer large files such as movies, has resulted in arrests of its users in the UK, Finland, Latvia, and Hong Kong to name a few. The first conviction for this type of infringement took place in Hong Kong in 2005 where a man received a four-year sentence for uploading three movies.
Whether this ultimately turns out to be deemed illegal, the fact is that these sites are prevalent globally and allow huge volumes of movies to change hands without compensating the people behind them. A brief scan of the snow movies available on ExtremeBits.org turns up more than 325 features including “It’s Always Snowing Somewhere,” “No Correct Way,” and “Down with People.”Members of the action sports video industry are increasingly working to fine tune their business models in a digital age where sites like this are proliferating along with the number of films being released each year.
Stay tuned to Transworld Business for coverage of the state of the action sports video industry.
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October 7th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Does anyone else feel like Transworld Biz just burned the filmmakers even more by turning what was probably a pretty small operation into something that the whole industry now knows about?
October 7th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Everyone knows this is going on out there, reporting on it is not the problem. It will be interesting to see how the industry handles the growing online piracy
October 7th, 2008 at 11:43 am
There are tons of BitTorrent sites and there will just become more as technology advances and adapts. You can find snow flicks on any of the big ones. This one just happens to focus on action sports. Kids out there know the technology and ignoring the issue will not make it go away.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I didnt know about it. Thanks
October 7th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
It’s one thing when a company makes a free snowboard movie like Stepchild did with Downloaded and Action Horse is doing. Its another when these guys are out there traveling, buying equipment, fixing sleds,and trying to make a living doing something they love. I found it funny how he’s telling the guy to quit and let the kids do it, have you seen some of the shitty movies that are out there? The market is overly saturated and good movies are stuck in this mix and really great movies are few and far between.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
thanks for the tip on free movies!!!
October 7th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
This site is awseome, thanks for the tip off!
October 7th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I hope this site gets shut down but seems like the unfortunate direction. Who buys CD’s anymore?
October 7th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
If you didn’t know about ithis your probably out of touch, because the kids definitely do
October 7th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Some people don’t have access to these dvds because they don’t sell in their local store. also, $30 is expensive when the online alternative is free. how about selling the movies through itunes for $10 like volcom etc do… and maybe as an incentive for buying the hardcopy dvd film makers could include a voucher to be used to download another title from the online itunes store.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Some people don’t have access to these dvds because they don’t sell in their local store. also, $30 is expensive when the online alternative is free. how about selling the movies through itunes for $10 like volcom etc do… and maybe as an incentive for buying the hardcopy dvd filmmakers could include a voucher to be used to download another title from the online itunes store…
October 7th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I am all for this site.
There’s no way to stop this. Technology is changing. Adapt or gtfo.
Its just like the Music industry trying to go against other torrent sites.
The biggest one who seems to be taking them down is The Pirate Bay.org and their responses to cease and desist letters are hilarious.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Sweet. Thanks for the tip on free vids. I’m all for the filmakers to make a living doing what they love, but come on and get with the times and just put them on itunes for like $5-$10 and you may make even more scratch from your surf/skate/snow flicks.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Stealing videos, music, or any other copyrighted materials is jacked up! This needs to be illegal and enforced. Why is it that so many people are fine with stealing these kinds of formats, but if it was your brand’s clothing or boards being produced as knock offs, it’s gray market this and gray market that?
However, video makers do need to understand the world they do business in and figure out a model that works to keep high quality flicks rolling out and making it profitable for them. Those cats work hard year in, year out and we all profit from the exposure of our sports and the stoke.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:40 am
these filmers that are upset are the same people who download free music and porn.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:45 am
these assholes get mad at the film producers for wanting to make a profit off snowboarding but i bet he makes money off this site through ads. what a hypocritical bitch. so he hides behind his server that cant be found cause he knows he’ll get his ass kicked. what a pussy!
then he tell them to get a different job but if filmers stop making movies he wont have any material to steal and put on his site.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:48 am
i didn’t know about this.
October 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
If anyone finds out who is behind this torrent site please share, email, phone number, address all good info
October 8th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
why doesnt the ASR employ a group of computer programmers who launch DDoS attacks on websites like this? If the industry successfully shuts sites like this down every week people will stop going to them and they will die off.
Since no one wants to claim ownership of the site, no one will have a valid legal complaint for the denial of service attack.
October 8th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Here is the contact info for whomever designed this junk:
TEL +48 605 157 797
E-MAIL EATMEDA@GMAIL.COM
GG 7513019
these crazy europeans must be stopped!
October 8th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Hey brad……Eat a Dick
October 8th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
This site has been pretty low key until now. You just unleashed the beast by publishing this article.
Daily membership signup has doubled since you put this up.
Snowboarding is something that needs to be shared. Thats why I am all for this stuff. We spend hundreds (some thousands) a year on products. We have been pumping so much money into the companies that support the filmers and riders, that there is no way they can be hurting.
Sponsors will take care of the film companies. With torrents, there will be so many more people seeing their films, which is just more advertising for the board companies.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Downloading is like a try before you buy.
If the film rocks you buy it , if it doesn’t you delete it.
I’m not saying this is a good thing or bad thing its just the new thing.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:03 am
Q. What happens when a print publications circulation expands?
A. Ad rates go up. No ifs or buts.
Unlike music and hollywood films, action sports films feature paid product and logo placement so when circulation grows so too should “placment rates”.
Join the dots filmers…. your stock just went up.
2 years ago I would have argued against this, but times have changed. Clearly these guys are assholes, but like the guy says, get with the times, put a donate button on your site and reap the rewards.
Savvy bands like Radiohead and Bloc Party have seen the writing on the wall. They moved to a new model and reaped the benefits. And they can’t even charge a sponsor for their logo and teamriders appearance.
The only people who should be sweating over this are the sponsors as they clearly should be paying more for the wider distribution and brand awareness they get for every $ they pay to the filmers.
Adapt, respond, benefit. Lets hope to keep seeing some great filming sustained under a new model that benifits the filmers, the sponsors and the kids.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:06 am
If you’re producing amazing films your sales won’t be touched by torrents but your fame will only increase. So many more people will view your movie, tell their friends about it and be looking out for the next ones you make. Adapt your business to it and profit even more, because that’s what you’re in it for …the money, right?
October 9th, 2008 at 5:55 am
How many people really buy these movies anyway and how much profit is in it? Not many and not much. The cost of printing and pressing a DVD probably cost as much as it does to make the movie. Then you have to give it to a distributor who takes a healthy cut. So what are you left with? Not much. MDP saw the writing on the wall, but they choose to give up instead of changing their model. Give away the movies for free on your website and change the way brands sponsor movies. So their is an upfront sponsorship fee to help pay for the production, then put the movie for free on a website, then have an agreement with sponsors to pay based on the number of times the movie has be downloaded in month and have different rates for the amount of exposure said brand has in the film, with a cap of course. So you just eliminated your printing and pressing costs, increased your distribution, cut out the middle man, killed the torrents and gave you and your crew a steady income for the season. There you go I just save the action sports video star, Please send 1 dollar to Happy Dude at 742 Evergreen Terrace.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Oh and tour the crap out the films. Not just 5 dates in ski towns before the season even starts…
October 9th, 2008 at 6:04 am
Another idea is to have a donation, which was suggested, but offer 50% of the proceeds to a foundation like POW or Surfrider, so people will want to give you money.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:05 am
thanks for being oblivious. would you consider working your ass off and not getting paid? to suggest all these film makers are rich is fucking idiotic. get your head out of your ass.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:36 am
If everyone wants to watch crappy movies keep stealing from producers. Producers need to get the little money they can to produce anything of quality. This site and sites like it could kill good quality action sport films. Any good film maker will move on to other things if they cannot make a living. What is left? crappy am videos that will be produced by 100’s and no real action sport films. Keep stealing= see ya to any quality films
October 9th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Like music, these types of films which offer segments, are ripe for theft, and in some senses service the collective youth audience ADD or lack of greater attention span. But make no mistake, it is theft. It’s time for the bigger “change with the times”/try it before you buy it/I’ve bought the “delivery medium”-snowboard/apparel/travel-I SHOULD GET THE VISUALS FOR FREE bullshit argument to stop. Theft is theft. No other name for it.
The bigger question is through a selective chopping up of artist/bands/filmers works to give digestible bites to an increasingly indifferent consumer, are action sports films as a whole destined for the same kind of battering that the record business has been going through….selling one song at a time/segment/rider at a time.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:01 am
If somebody asked me if i wanted a job as a shoe cobbler I’d tell them to go fuck them selves, anybody who thinks they can continue to make a living selling Independent hard copy dvds is a fool. Yes It sucks but grow up, we all need to live in 2008-09 and not put our hands over our eyes and ears and pretend just because I could make money of doing X 10 years ago, means I can make money doing it now..
October 9th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Do film makers really profit from DVD sales? I thought the distributor got most of the $. I could care less if the distributor loses out, but lets not screw the guys who provide the content. Support the actual film makers not a bunch of scrubs with a website who are basically tech savvy thieves. Film makers need to provide their films at similar cost to the consumer via their own website or an industry collective site and these douchenozzles will disappear.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Oh and you can also get money coming in from putting banner ads on your site if it gets or you anticipate a lot of traffic depending on the caliber of your film. It will also be easier to see real time statistic on how well your film is doing. If your flick gets downloaded a million times, the next year you can go to same sponsors with hard facts and they will have a more tangible idea of the return on their investment and be more willing to give you money again and maybe even more then last time. You couldn’t make claims like this under the old paradigm. You can say you printed X number of copies but in reality you gave bunch of guys 100?s of promo copies of your film that they never gave to people and they sat in his office or his bedroom floor and you just wasted a crap load of money and you don?t even know it. And trust me I am sure that happens a lot.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
arguing that times have changed because people who pirate videos now do it online is stupid.
The people who make these videos have the right to choose how it is distributed. Do I have a right to come to your shop, steal a deck, then tell you it is your fault that I stole the deck? Now that I have it I can give it away if I want to?
Hell no. That logic does not stand up for any other industry, so why should it for the video or music folks.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
whoever argued that radiohead and blokparty saw the writing on the wall and changed their distribution model is an idiot.
Yes they did, but do you think they did it to stop people from pirating music? Hell no, they did it to cut out the music companies who were taking all the profits from CDs and treating the bands like crap. All the money is in touring and royalties, you dont need a label for that once you have reached a certain level of success and notariety.
that has nothing to do with action sports films
what, is mack dwag supposed to start a concert tour to show his videos?
October 9th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
lol, yes you have a right to choose a job path in a dying career… just makes you a moron.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
no they are supposed to wake up and realize oh shit, there isn’t a market for VHS tapes anymore, and get jobs shooting porn.
October 9th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Anonymous, you just proved my point.
Im not saying action sports filmers are going to stop piracy. Im saying that just like bloc party and radiohead, they can accept that piracy is here to stay (unfortunately), change their model and hopefully keep providing us with top quality films.
They need to quit trying to make money off the hard copy, sell some soft copies and charge sponsors for “per view” exposure.
I personally find torrent piracy dispicable but thats not going to stop it. These kids grew up with piracy not CD’s and vinyl. Its like being able to walk out of the store with free candy until your’e 12 then being told you have to pay for it all of a sudden. Not right, but understandable.
I do think they could tour their films more extensively too. I’d much rather pay $20 to see the latest MDP film on a big screen in HD, drink a few beers and then (hypothetically) get a free dowload from the site afterwards (which has been factored into the ticket price).
Or maybe they are all F’d and action sports films will be a thing of the past like dinosaurs and bush.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
This makes me sad.
The days of the QUALITY snowboard film will come to a quick end of crap sites like this are allowed to continue.
The filmers / producers / etc. make movies as a way of making money and having a life / job.
Stealing from them (buy putting movies on line with out their permission) is no different than going into a store and stealing.
And for all those of you that think this is okay . . . wait until someone, someday steals from you - - then you will understand.
October 9th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Actionhorse Films is moving in the right direction. They are releasing their movie Pony Tale online for FREE and they have a donation button if people would wanna pay anything. This makes sense! http://www.actionhorsefilms.com
You can also get better quality online then on a DVD.
People in the snowboard film industry are living in the 90´s. The technology is changing, so should the products. The people who don’t realize this will suffer.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Check out Seshn.com. We support all the film co’s out there by hyping their teasers and building awareness. It’s a great thing… check it t http://snowboardteasers.seshn.com
we would never rob the dedicated film artists that work their asses off at what they do. Its tough out there, and when you are stealing shit from established industry heads that are already ‘in the family’, I am sorry, but you just aren’t going to win.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Download Actionhorses Ponytail and donate! That way they will have a larger budget next year and make an even better movie than the companies who only sell their flick on DVD. That might wake those medieval producers up. They haven’t figured out one of the basics of economy: you can’t profit from sales from something that everyone has access to anyway. They are just trying to swim upstream. Go Actionhorse!!!
October 10th, 2008 at 7:52 am
or worse the promo copy ends up in the hands of a Pirate.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:06 am
One reason why the shred flick genre is having such a difficult time is over saturation of the marketplace. The solution to this lies with the industry ceasing to sponsor shitty videos and shops not carrying them. VAS is part of the problem as well by not using more discretion when determining which videos they will distribute. Not sure how much you all know about these distribution companies but they push the videos that they get the best margins on not the best product necessarily. To get a foothold the smaller companies get smaller royalties and in turn get pushed.
When there were 5 film companies in the 90’s the videos all sold numbers that totally eclipse todays figures. Interesting considering how much larger the sport is now. Furthermore the quality of the videos was much better as only the top riders and cameramen were given the nod and locations weren’t as blown out.
If a film company can’t get sponsorship then they can’t survive. Less film companies translates into larger market share for those who survive and ideally those would be the best films.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I think part of the problem is sponsors not paying up the way they should. These videos likely (anyone done focus groups/studies on them?) have a HUGE impact on what people (especially younger riders) buy for the upcoming season. I’m sure they help drive opinion leaders to buy more hard and softgoods than they otherwise would. In turn, casual riders see these opinion leaders at their local hill with whatever fresh gear and go to the shops to check it out (and probably pay full retail).
Sponsors should covering the entire budget AND a small profit margin to keep the high end film companies (Mack Dawg, Standard, Absinthe etc) in business.
Re: Free video with donation. Sorry, but some amateur video with a budget of a few thousand bucks does not compare to what Absinthe/MDP/Brain Farm are doing up in Alaska, cable cams, booms etc.
I think Red Bull should be on the hook for more. Yes, they support the industry, but their entire marketing strategy is through core sports appeal. You don’t see many Red Bull commercials on TV, but you see the top riders pushing the product in films. I mean, it’s enough to drive nerds to try to buy fake Red Bull gear on eBay, obviously it’s giving the brand credibility.
Re: The piracy thing, the solution is to offer a DRM free NON-APPLE, open source HD download the day the movie is released so people can pay say $15 directly to the film company (and not VAS etc) for a high quality HD download and not wait for shipping or be tempted to pirate a DVD rip or something.
That’s my rant.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I can’t believe that torrent site’s response…
I’ll find where those servers are and go to town on them with a baseball bat. Then I’m switching over to the owner’s dome.
The fact that this idiot is sitting there acting innocent. He’s offering videos up for nothing and on top of it he asks for donations?
Homie didn’t do jack to earn any money at all but be a thieving, whiny little bitch… if anything we should all go rob that sucker blind as compensation.
October 10th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I don’t understand why people (like the siteop) can’t just admit to what they are doing. The argument of “it’s not a lost sale/profit because I wouldn’t have bought it anyway” is a rational fallacy (obviously the good has utility if you used it, it’s not the consumers right to set price etc). If you are going to steal, at least be able to admit it to yourself.
On the flipside, yes the industry will have to adopt (see my post above about HD downloads, timing etc).
October 10th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
funny, i voice my opinion trying to help the snowboarders and the filmmakers here. Myself, also a snowboarder, a film school grad, i make my money in the skate industry, and someone tells me to eat a dick because i post contact info for that site. what a bunch of whiny little bitches you are. Either support the industry, or get out of the way…sesh…. downloading copyrighted material is illegal.
October 10th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
extreme bits .org rules.. i download a lot off that site, and most of the shit i download i already own, on dvd, or will definitely be buying as soon as i can. so what if ppl are dling your movies, all the more likely that if they enjoy it, they will go out and support you, and buy a higher quality version to watch on a tv, idiots…
October 11th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
The internet has allowed consumers to cut out the middle man and go straight to the media source; and why wouldn’t film makers want to deal with their consumers directly.
1) Set up the traditional media distribution plan for the first or second film and measure distribution gaps.
2) If store sales are 10% but the film is featured on 4 torrent sites (and they can give you the metrics of how many times the film has been downloaded / shared) and calculated, this is worth 30% of possible sales it stands to reason that you’d revise the plan and create some sort of ‘pay to download’ alternative to claim back some of the lost sales.
3) Include into the distribution plan a content package for mobile phone carriers, HD TV channels and cable tv to drive main stream business to the film site for the download.
4) Utilise pod casting to give people a taste of the film -cause if your consumers are included in the process they are more likely to purchase.
5) Consider not giving it all away up front in the DVD. Hold off key moments of the film and onsell it as an exclusive package for a limited time. Mayb for ‘members only’ of the film site and recoup film $$ through site membership.
Basically instead of trying to score $30 for 1 DVD look securing $10 for each saleable part.
Yes thats the iTunes retail model and it defies the old adage “the whole is greater than the some of its parts”. It does this because you can add a margin to each of the parts which will out value the original product in its entirety.
But the value in this model is that if a film maker applies it to their product it gives the creator greater control over both the distribution and the content allowing them to deal directly with the consumer.
This will not stop torrents from appearing but increasing the number of channels in which a films content appears ,thus increasing supply, will reduce demand from alternative content suppliers.
Cause at present consumers get one annual action sports DVD. Which is ususally a limited release / distribution and is often globally isolated (e.g US only). So consumers outside of those traditional sales channels will look for another source = torrents.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
allright now, I hate people like the staff on the torrent site, I say go get a male hooker to fuck yourself. What a dick, seriously, he thinks he has the right to pirate shit he didn’t make, and then blame the producer for it. It’s like somebody robbing your house, and suing you because the door was locked. I mean seriously, WTF!!! What a lazy ass sitting on his ass all day pirating other peoples stuff. Douchebag. Besides, he says to stop making movies, thats the entire problem! Like said before, there is only a handfull of good movie producers out there. I mean, you can go on YouTube and find snowboard movies, but 95% of them are amatuer, and suck. Anybody can push a button and point a camera, but it doesn’t count for anything if it sucks.
Anyway, on a lighter note, I have to agree, take out the middle man, and put a donation button on it, like actionhorse films. The industry is taking a turn, and it will be for the worse for all of us if the producers don’t realize that.
Sorry for the rant, but this really gets in my ass
October 14th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
BOMBOCLOT.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:06 am
the torrent dudes are def some douchejerks but the filmers are sorta hypocrits with the fact that they prob didnt pay for music rights that are in their ipods or in their movie soundtracks, complaining wont do too much unless u know how to hack….i think the solution is to adapt….more premieres, people pay for those and more screenings at movie theaters during the season would make money…its like bands they gotta make money by putting on shows….either way its a mess.
October 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Wrong. If you look at movies they go through people to get the rights to every song they use. It’s common for songs not to be on movies. I’ve met the guy who does them for a lot of skate movies and a few snowboard movies. It’s interesting that some songs do get turned down.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:33 am
questions about “artistry” and full albums vs. single tracks aside, I think in the niche of “action sports films” the segment-by-segment model would be perfect. the reason I think so is because of my first hand experience with a particular porn site: videobox *dot* com
you don’t have to pay for porn. it’s all over the internet for free. there’s free torrents of every porn made, just like with hollywood movies and (apparently) ski movies. but after using videobox you’ll never want to fart around trying to find good torrents with seeds, waiting for them to download, skipping past the parts you don’t like when it’s done, etc.
for the (reasonable) flat monthly fee they break up the movies into segments and you can browse by type (jibbing, hucking, boarding, skiing, Alaskan spines, etc), performer (Tanner Hall, Shaun White, etc) and studio (TGR, Matchstick, etc), preview it, select WHICH PART of the segment you want, and either watch it online or download it in various different qualities.
I would love to log on to a site, plug in Seth Morrison and Cliff Inverts, and download all his huck segs in Hi-Def. I would pay for that.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:41 am
the thing about it is… theft isn’t just theft, as some of you are saying. if I stole a ski movie DVD from my buddy… he wouldn’t have it any more and would be pissed. THAT’S theft. but if I copy the movie then he *still* has it, and isn’t pissed. it’s just not the same kind of theft. sadly, there’s no other name for it than “theft” because our laws and the revenue streams of the media production companies are built around the idea that it *is* the same kind of theft.
whatever are we to do??
I don’t know, but I do like the idea of sponsor funding. companies that make hard goods, like ski and board gear, will always make money because I can’t go online and download a new set of planks. they will always need publicity too, so that I choose to buy *their* planks and not some others, and “action sports films” are a pretty rad form of publicity it seems to me. I’ve seen some fun free videos online put out by hard-good companies… not TGR quality, but the wave of the future?
the film premier touring thing seems solid also. maybe it costs more than I think to do a tour, but here in Bozeman the premiers are packed full and I gladly pay my $10 to get in on the stoke-fest. which is funny, because I’ve never ponied up the cash to buy a DVD, $25 seeming ludicrous for one hour of footage. the world is a twisted place.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
HAHAHHAHAHA EXTEMEBITS OWNS YOU
November 6th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I disagree on the more product placement and sponsors in videos. Case in point I watched Warren Miller and it was 10 minutes of crap for every 1 good second of riding/skiing. The whole film was product placement, from Jeep to Corona to every other sponsor that helped pay for it.
It wasn’t about the skiing or riding anymore, it was making sure each sponsor had their time and their logo everywhere. I would hate to see snowboard films go that way and it was disappointing to watch a film to be just like a magazine…tons of crap between the good stuff.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Extremebits owns and why? Because we can download and see all the snowboardmovies that exist. If you could not download snowboard movies where could you see them? Yes the new ones you can order online. Not all but the wellknow ones. But if i wanna se a old movie how could i get it? And atm you can download them all and enjoy snowboarding rather than buy one or two and only see those…Not everyone lives in a big capital city that show them at a release party…
If i could buy my favs i would. But for example where can i found a dvd copy of the robotfoods for example??? Not in sweden anyway…
November 11th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Here’s some industry comedy,
someone using the IP/hostname gw.globeintltd.com is currently downloading “That’s It That’s All” DVDR from Brain Farm (new Travis Rice snowboard movie) on extremebits.org
globeintltd.com is Globe’s corporate website, so someone at the corporate office is using extremebits.org to pirate industry related material.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Thats rediculous. Anyone who is for this website is wrong.
February 15th, 2009 at 3:23 am
TORRENTS ARE GREAT. VIDEOS ARE FREE.