Funding To Edit 200 Hours Of Pirate Bay Documentary Footage Raised In Just Three Days

from the but-pirates-want-everything-for-free!!!! dept

Wed, Sep 1st 2010 5:56am — Mike Masnick

A bunch of folks have been sending over the news that filmmaker Simon Klose was attempting to raise $25,000 in order to hire a professional editor to edit down over 200 hours of footage Simon had filmed of The Pirate Bay's founders over the period of the last couple of years. In his intro pitch, he pointed out that some thought it was strange that he was making a movie about an organization that many in the movie industry hated. But, Simon, of course, points out that such a response is silly. The industry and the market have changed, and there are new avenues to raising funds -- such as directly via a platform like Kickstarter. What's really impressive though is that it only took three days to raise the funds, and there are still over three more weeks to go, and the amount raised keeps going up.

In an interview about the fundraising process, Klose points out that it's not at all surprising that people who support things like The Pirate Bay would support his film, because he was offering them something they actually wanted to support:

I think it's natural that you support stuff you believe in. The people who support our movie obviously don't believe in the services that the movie and record industries are offering them. To me it's much more ironic that the corporations are claiming that the system used to be just and beneficial to artists before the internet came around. It never was.

And, of course, Klose fully intends to release the movie via The Pirate Bay (as well as by DVD). When asked about how he feels about people file sharing his movie, he notes:

Filesharing is great marketing, I don't mind people marketing my work.

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Filed Under: crowdfunding, documentary, movie, simon klose
Companies: the pirate bay

14 Comments

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paperbag (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 6:12am

and keeps growing....
1090 BACKERS
$32,036 PLEDGED OF $25,000 GOAL
26 DAYS TO GO
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The Infamous Joe (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 6:16am

Re: and keeps growing....
It's way too early to be yelling.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 6:17am

Re: and keeps growing....
And it'll grow even more, by at least one more person. I can't wait to get home, retrieve my credit card, and sign up to back this one. I literally can't WAIT to give this guy my money.
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Richard (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 6:29am

Of course
Of course this will only work for The Pirate Bay....
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cc (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 6:35am

Re: Of course
The people who frequent Kickstarter are probably people who know a thing or two about the internet, and are likely avid filesharers. It's the right audience.

BUT, if initiatives like Kickstarter catch on, and the old industry is put in check, people from all sorts of different backgrounds will take part.

Almost sounds too good to be true.
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Danny, 1 Sep 2010 @ 6:37am

Free marketing...
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Danny, 1 Sep 2010 @ 6:38am

Re: Free marketing...
Hit the Enter button too soon.

"Filesharing is great marketing, I don't mind people marketing my work. "

Well now it looks like this guy recognizes that the filesharers are doing some of his marketing for him and getting a copy of the movie in return...
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2010 @ 6:58am

I'll pirate then sponser..
If I enjoy this film then I'll support his next one (depending on subject).

Can't easily find other examples of his work so not willing to sponsor yet.
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Evostick, 1 Sep 2010 @ 7:12am

Re: I'll pirate then sponser..
Actually, there is this

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4284794/Sweet_Memories_Garden_Centre

A bit Swedish though.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2010 @ 7:57am

With more money these people are about to gain a ton more political influence as well. The incumbents should be very afraid, their lobbying is about to get a whole lot less effective.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2010 @ 8:45am

Anybody saw the kickstarter for the future decentralized facebook killer?

Those people asked for 20K and got 200K, or something like that.
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sumquy, 1 Sep 2010 @ 12:09pm

I think it's natural that you support stuff you believe in. The people who support our movie obviously don't believe in the services that the movie and record industries are offering them.

Wow! A film guy who actually understands? Isn't that one of the signs of the coming apocalypse? Hold on, I gotta go check my survival bunker!
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Bas Grasmayer, 1 Sep 2010 @ 2:11pm

Nice department name :)
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Jakon, 3 Sep 2010 @ 9:04am

Well, I guess he had to do this, after all, almost no-one in the intended audience would pay for it once it was made.
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