Expendables Producers Decide To Demand Cash From Fans Who Downloaded

from the how-to-lose-fans dept

Wed, Jan 5th 2011 4:23pm — Mike Masnick

Most of the movie producers who have jumped onto the "pre-settlement" letter bandwagon, whereby they simply demand cash from people, who might have downloaded the film, in exchange for not suing them, have been either small time producers or porn producers. The one exception, so far, had been the producers of Hurt Locker, who suggested that anyone who suggested this move might backfire was naturally a "moron and a thief." Others in Hollywood had seemed to recognize that suing people, who downloaded your movie and demanding that they pay thousands of dollars to avoid a lawsuit, might lead to a serious backlash. But, apparently that's not true of everyone. The producers of the "let's get together a bunch of has-been actors and make a film" action flick, The Expendables, have apparently signed up to be the next big name movie to extort money from fans. Even though these types of threats and lawsuits haven't been shown to work all that well so far and often lead to a massive backlash among fans.

In related news, US Copyright Group is now insisting that it really, really (no really!) is planning to start suing people in a variety of different jurisdictions. They've promised this for a while, but there have been some doubts. I'm sure that some lawsuits will definitely be filed, but I'm guessing that the number won't be nearly as big as has been suggested in the past.

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Filed Under: copyright, expendables, pre-settlement
Companies: us copyright group

21 Comments

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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 5 Jan 2011 @ 4:36pm

Damn
I had no interest in seeing this movie, but now I feel compelled to pirate it.
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sehlat (profile), 5 Jan 2011 @ 4:46pm

Expendables is worth stealing?
That's the best review of the miserable thing I've heard yet!
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Jan 2011 @ 5:24pm

it was worth watching, but not paying for.
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abc gum, 5 Jan 2011 @ 5:30pm

I have not seen either movie and now will go out of my way to avoid ever seeing them.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Jan 2011 @ 5:37pm

I hope they abuse a lot of people, maybe then some of the others will notice that this copyright thing is not just ephemeral thing that only happens to "pirates".

The way those people collect data is just ripe for false positives to inundate the legal channels not to mention the anger it will generate towards those people.

You simpleton have the greatest power in the capitalist universe, you control the money. Just don't buy and they will be sorry very soon, while trying to rationalize that is piracy the responsible for their woes and when they wake up to the fact that people don't need them and are just choosing not to buy it may be to late.

Also I love the idea, people will just search for legal free alternatives, others will catter for that growing niche and the old guys will be left with the thoughts of "why this is happening to me?".
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The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 5 Jan 2011 @ 6:00pm

Re: Damn
It's not that bad so long as you don't expect it to be anything other than what it seems like at first glance. Worth what I paid to see it anyway.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 5 Jan 2011 @ 6:10pm

Re: Re: Damn
I felt owed reparations for sitting through the trailer, but if I must, I must.
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Derek, 5 Jan 2011 @ 6:26pm

New business model!
Next stop: "Pirated" copies, released via the producers indirectly, to drive the lawsuit revenue stream.

No need for distribution contracts, theaters, DVDs, or that Dolby stuff -- just seed a torrent and hire a grip of lawyers.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Jan 2011 @ 7:44pm

From the article.
"In a sure sign that USCG�s business plan is all about making money from piracy and not stopping or deterring it, THR quotes Dunlap as saying that USCG has been doing background checks on identities of BitTorrent users it has obtained to date and that those who live in �a $100,000 house� may be more appealing targets than those who live in a �$10,000 trailer�."

If this "crime" is the horrible scourge of the universe they claim it is to be, shouldn't they pursue everyone in an effort to combat it?

Why is the ability to pay what amounts to extortion of unsubstantiated claims, that have yet to meet any real test of being conclusive evidence, a criteria?

Oh that is right because piracy makes trillions of nonexistent dollars of loss. We have this study right here that our bought and paid for congress critters will point to to back our claims when even the Governments own investigation into the numbers proved they were bogus.

The low budget movies did it to turn a turkey into profits.
The porn companies did it to take advantage of the social stigma of you watch porn, so you won't fight us.
The misguided sue people for daring to deprive them of a dollar, missing the point of being known for suing consumers screws your market share.

If they stopped focusing on paying a company to hide dots in movies so they can find the responsible person and all of the other pipe dreams of keeping your movie secure, and just offered the people what they wanted at a reasonable price there would be no reason for people to fileshare. I'm not saying it would end filesharing, but it would increase overall sales.

Silly waiting periods, restrictions, forced trailers and all of the hoops just annoy people who now more than ever are aware they can click a couple buttons and get it now how they want it. But then iTunes is just a fluke, you can't possibly use that model for anything else.

Home taping is killing music, VHS is the boston strangler, home cooking is killing restaurants. Funny they aren't dead, they just had to adapt to survive.
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Manfred Manfriend, 5 Jan 2011 @ 8:38pm

Misread the article title.
I thought this was a case of a producer finally getting a clue and putting up a donations page for fans who have downloaded the movie. How silly of me. Imagine if there were a way to give money directly to the producers of a film without going through all the assorted middlemen...
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Perry K (profile), 5 Jan 2011 @ 8:44pm

worst movie seen in a while
I think a class action lawsuit demanding our money back for all who've seen this movie is more appropriate. That's a couple of hours of my life I'll never get back.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Jan 2011 @ 8:46pm

and remember folks
to list everyone invlved in these films and NEVER patronize any work they are involved in.

CAN YOU SAY FROM BURGER KING:
"You want fries with that?"
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Daemon_ZOGG (profile), 5 Jan 2011 @ 9:40pm

"Expendables Producers Decide To Demand Cash From Fans Who Downloaded"
With such a dumbass title like "Expendables", I wouldn't download this movie even if the producers paid ME. And I sure as hell DON'T want to see the movie, anyway. };P
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PaulT (profile), 5 Jan 2011 @ 11:54pm

Heh, surprised to see so much hate for The Expendables here. It's not high art, and doesn't make the most of its ensemble (Stallone and Statham are the main focus), but I enjoyed it for what it was - a deliberately silly throwback to 80s action movies. I laughed my ass off during Schwarzenegger's cameo, and was looking forward to the sequel (which I will now not pay to see).

That said, these producers have just talked themselves out of a sale. I'm going to visit my family in the UK in a couple of weeks, and while there I usually stock up on some DVDs and games (both are way, way too expensive - sometimes 4 or 5x the price - in my adopted country of Spain). One of the titles I had wanted to pick up was The Expendables. Now, I will not buy that movie, just as I will not buy The Hurt Locker (which I also enjoyed). Well done, idiots.
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The eejit (profile), 6 Jan 2011 @ 1:48am

Re:
This. A thousand times, THIS.

Expendable was never meant to be high art, like Avatar. It's meant as a scathing satire of 80's action flicks. And I won't buy it, even though I was looking for a present for my father's birthday.
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TPBer, 6 Jan 2011 @ 5:16am

Re: New business model!
I would suspect this has been going on for quite a while, with support from morons like web sheriff and media defender leading the way.

How else do they expect to get paid from this crap they produce, it's like an insurance policy. Probably part of the initial biz plan these days.
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Joe Action, 6 Jan 2011 @ 6:39am

Re: Re: Re: Damn
It's not that bad so long as you don't expect it to be anything other than what it seems like at first glance.

It really is a mash note to the action movies of the 80s - early 90s, if that's not your cup o' tea, then I would just avoid it.

I, on the other hand, love those movies. I came in expecting an awesome 80s action movie with extra cheese, and since that was exactly what I got, it was the most fun I had watching a movie in 2010. Again YMMV.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jan 2011 @ 8:08am

Well! The Expendables IS Stallone, while successful, he is not known for his brains.
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bdhoro (profile), 6 Jan 2011 @ 8:50am

Make money by making a better movie!
I saw The Expendables, and boy am I glad I saw a pirated copy and didn't waste a dime for that piece of garbage. As said in previous comments, the movie didn't even seem like it was supposed to be any good, and it was marketed that way too - like come see these old has been actors be has beens in a new mindless flic.

I say the best way to make money is to produce something that people actually want to pay for. The movie industry in general doesn't follow this idea though, they just look at things they may have worked in the past and try to copy them exactly.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 6 Jan 2011 @ 11:28am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Damn
I might actually enjoy it, then.

OK, now I'm curious.
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Joe Action, 6 Jan 2011 @ 12:39pm

Meeting expectations
To be honest, I actually thought it was one of the most honest trailers this year. Compared to most, it told me exactly what kind of movie to expect, and it delivered in a fun way.

Here's my take on the movie, from the admitted perspective of someone who liked it:

Only try this movie if you liked the actions movies from the 80s and early 90s, both A and B grade. Any negative criticisms that point out that The Expendables is a nostalgic throwback are kinda missing the point. It's like watching a Godzilla movie and complaining that the movie's about a guy in a rubber suit smashing a mini-Tokyo, and fighting weird space monsters.

IMO, the only crying shame about this movie is how the producers are going after people who either A) Wouldn't pay for this movie anyways. or B) Like the movie so much, they just can't get enough.
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