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Hiding in Plain Sight: The YouTubers' Crowdfunding Piracy (engadget.com)

Some YouTube channels are publishing full-length episodes of TV shows, rights of which they obviously do not own, and on top of this, they are trying to crowdfund their piracy efforts by asking viewers to donate some cash. From a report: YouTube creators asking for money is nothing new, be it through the site's built-in membership features or third-party services such as Patreon. But trying to profit off someone else's intellectual property isn't the same as asking for support on an original video they've created. The person who runs the Kitchen Nightmares Hotel Hell and Hell's Kitchen channel did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Engadget, but their Patreon page (named YoIUploadShows) isn't coy.

"Hey! It's not as easy as you might think to make my content, I have to look for the best quality episodes I can find, download them, convert them, edit them, render them and upload them," YoIUploadShows' Patreon page reads. "This can sometimes take at least a few hours. Especially because the downloads are usually slow and the rendering itself can take a couple hours, because I started making all my uploads in HD instead of 480p to give them a little extra clarity." It's not easy, folks, so for that he or she "would really appreciate the extra support if you have any money to spare :)"

12 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. If I started my own channel... by magusxxx · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...where I take this yutz's content and ask you to hit the "Click to Give" link at...

    https://thehungersite.greaterg... ...would that be wrong?

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
  2. Re: It's arguably a public service what they're do by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 2

    Yeah. Its free. That is the best part.
    Second best thing, easier to find things on the pirate sites.

    --
    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
  3. Re:Sounds like they do more than cable by jamesborr · · Score: 2

    Because the cable companies are actually paying the content owners, this entity -- I suspect not so much...

  4. Re:Sounds like they do more than cable by jythie · · Score: 2

    Something I always found fascinating was that when content was available both via piracy and legitimate sources, the pirated content was less likely to be mislabeled or out of order, while the legitimate sources did not seem to put any effort into making sure they got anything right.

  5. Re:It's arguably a public service what they're doi by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Informative

    Do the crime.
    When you "pirate" Bladerunner, you're not hurting RIdley Scott or Harrison Ford.
    You're not hurting the head makeup artist, the best boy or the gaffer.
    You are hurting the media megacorp, who's trickle-down model is a ripoff for everyone.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  6. The Copyright Holder's Cycle of Stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Movie Studios c. 1970s: We can't let TV stations broadcast our movies - then nobody would go to the theaters anymore and we'd loose money! .... studios start licensing movies like The Wizard of Oz to be broadcast on TV and raking in cash...

    Movie Studios c. 1980s: We can't let people rent movies on VHS - then nobody would go to the theaters anymore and we'd loose money! .... studios start selling VHS versions of movies for $80, raking in cash....

    Movie Studios c. 1990s: We can't let people buy cheap movies on VHS - we have to make them expensive so people will rent them! .... studio sells Jurassic Park for $20 on release day, rakes in tons of cash...

    Movie Studios c. 2000s: Digital copying is going to kill off movies! We're loosing our shirts! .... studios start selling DVDs for $10 as duplication prices come down, raking in even more money than VHS sales....

    Movie Studios c. 2010s: We can't STREAM movies! We make all our money on....

    It's almost as if the easier and cheaper you make it for people to buy your stuff, MORE PEOPLE WILL BUY YOUR STUFF.

  7. Download them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So let me guess, they're not just pirating content, they're using someone else's pirated content as the starting point to make their pirated content. And they expect people to give them money for that, when the bulk of the effort was time a computer spent chugging away unattended? Might as well mine Bitcoin if that's so much of a burden. Damn GoFundMe generation expects people to throw money at them for doing practically nothing except breaking laws and violating rules.

  8. Good lord ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "This can sometimes take at least a few hours. Especially because the downloads are usually slow and the rendering itself can take a couple hours, because I started making all my uploads in HD instead of 480p to give them a little extra clarity." It's not easy, folks, so for that he or she "would really appreciate the extra support if you have any money to spare :)"

    Wow, so basically this person is more or less admitting they're engaging in copyright infringement for monetary gain by indicating they wish to be compensated for their time pirating someone else's work? Damn!

    I don't see this ending well for that person, this is about as blatant as you can get.

    Pretty much YouTube and Patreon are going to have to hand over anything and everything they have when a lawyer comes knocking.

    And if punishment is based on per infringement, the view counts are going to make this even bigger ... if they've got even a few hundred thousand views, they're fucked.

    Cue the hordes of shrieking lawyers.

    I want to hear how this plays out, asking for people to crowd fund you pretty much tips you into the scary end of the reaming you're gonna get for this. This is now literally someone the content owner is going want to make an example of, and in a hard way.

    Good lord, this is not going to end well.

  9. Workload seems exagerated by Bobrick · · Score: 3, Informative

    Bullshit. What is there to edit? You download the episode off Bittorrent at about 5 minutes per episode on a decent connection, upload that file to YouTube. Be honest and just say you want us to pay your connection bills + as much extra cash as you can get out of this, but don't bullshit us or seriously rethink your workflow.

  10. Re:It's arguably a public service what they're doi by mi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're not hurting the head makeup artist, the best boy or the gaffer.

    Of course, you do hurt them all. Their jobs depend on their employer's being able to sell the fruits of their labors — and profiting from it. Diminishing the profit diminishes the pay. For everyone.

    You are hurting the media megacorp

    So theft is Ok, if you really hate the victim? How about rape? Is it Ok to rape a CEO of a "megacorp who's [sic] trickle-down model is a ripoff for everyone"? How about murder? No? Why not?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  11. Re:It's arguably a public service what they're doi by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

    You're not hurting the head makeup artist, the best boy or the gaffer.

    Of course, you do hurt them all. Their jobs depend on their employer's being able to sell the fruits of their labors — and profiting from it. Diminishing the profit diminishes the pay. For everyone.

    I think he's saying that you are not hurting the head makeup artist, the best boy or the gaffer who actually worked on BladeRunner.

    Now, as you point out, if rampant copying is tolerated (well, if it is tolerated for all content, not just for decades old content), then you will hurt current and future workers, as it will become difficult for the movie industry to make money.

    But that's a subtler point and more difficult for many to grasp.

  12. Re: It's arguably a public service what they're do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    Copyright infringement = theft = rape...nice strawman and giant false analogy.

    No, crime = crime = crime. Sure some crimes are more severe than others, but it is neither strawman nor false analogy to ask where the cutoff is between crime that is acceptable and crime that is unacceptable. It is simply a question, nothing more, nothing less.