King User:

No, I do not want you to think that YOU are stealing it. The actual theft of my movie will come on release night...or sooner if some insider at the studio gets at one of my test screenings or the premier night. P2P is not theft it is sharing. The theft occurs by the one person from the very start. After that, you are merely sharing information. Theft is an intentional act. Proving intent beyond point one is the mistake that many at my level make.

I certainly do not want the P2P users knowing that my campaign is planned. So, I will create teams and the teams will mimi the personalities most likely to occur in chat rooms with questions in tech...then the teams will eventually lead to music debates, and then to...hey did you see this....and secret blurry looking unseen images will be shared about my movie..covert stuff...with bundling links to offers from Team A which will be the corporate team and the p2p users will distrust this white collar crew..

the buzz....like it

Viral marketing. That's always tricky to get it started.

First thing is that you have to ensure that what you release on the P2P network is going to stay legal to transfer from user to user, even after the release. For example, trailers or scenes to which you have explicit rights to distribute (either by copyright, license, contract, etc). Granted, there's no guarantee that someone will *not* rip your movie and distribute it on P2P networks, however, that's a different aspect of what you are trying to accomplish.

When you want to encourage people to download a movie clip, you first need to entice them to download it. "Secretive" things work for one instance. Use filenames with "never released scenes", " 'stolen' outtakes", "bloopers they won't show you".

Sex,will "sell", especially in the age range you're looking at. Perhaps add a little "spice" to the filenames (and/or scenes). Like "movie star (almost) nude", "cut sex scene", "**** shown (blooper)".

They don't have to be 100% accurate in describing the content. Any person will exaggerate a bit to get his/her files to download. And once a person downloads it, and they share it, the cycle begins.

What kind of things should you show. Well, a theatrical trailer is indeed not a bad option. Cust scenes with some rave reviews are good too. Or perhaps, the first few minutes of the actual movie and then *bam*, it ends with "to see more, visit your local theatre coming August 2002!". Yeah, it'll get some annoyed. But when is someone not annoyed?

But you *do* have to keep in mind to keep it as honest as possible too. So you don't want to use descriptions for the movie clip that is *completely* false. People have a tendency to delete those from their system. And if they start seeing a pattern, they'll also start to figure which movie clips *not* to download in future.

You mentioned contest. Now, this is something you can add to entice P2P distribution. For example: "Find this movie clip on this P2P network, and get a chance to win $1,000!". Within that movie clip, it explains how you can enter to win. Since it is "easy" to find a movie clip on P2P networks, you'll know people will go for it. Obviously, by law, you are required to pay such prized ;-)

Just some ideas to run past you.

Thank You for the key input...

My client is a part of the movement to move to VOD. That is fine.

But, having launched 4 wonderful crazes in POG, Crazy Bones, Fingerboard, and a part of the Razor...not all...craze...it is a challenging task...

P2P is not going to stop ...the gates are open...so I believe that my promotions offline will be virally enhanced with online activity such as P2P...I mean really, when was the last time you heard a teen say: "Hey, did you see that great birdhouse skate design on the net...."...."Hey, did you see that cool Volcom shirt on MTV.com???..." The key is viral offline to viral online and reverse with incentives, tricks, clues, and just plain giving the feeling to all the target audience members that either corporate america is toying with them or they are toying with corporate america...as I said to my client the other day...we can join them now...win or lose in court later....let us explore this world and be a part of the movement ...

My thanks..if I can ever do anything for any of you please call...toys, games, movies, consumer products....

We will have a great time this Summer 2002...and I am sure we will continue to converse...I am new to this world of Gnutella as I have 4 kids....this came my way because he too plays P2P...can I attach files to these emails...I have no idea if I can...

Hey there!
I think King User and cultiv8r got some interesting point I agrre with. Only some thought from my point of view:

I think cutiv8r is right here. Just want to mention one thing. If none does know the movie they won't download 700MB from the web if the whole movie is found there. I think it is important to make the movie a name before it is shared on a P2P net.
Smaller trailers with "faked" names will be downloaded more often I guess, just because of their size. If you have to pay for your online time (many ppl in Europe do) it gets very expensive and you do not want to download something you don't know or like...
Probably it is also an idea to print somethink like "Now available in P2P networks (Gnutella, Napster,...)!" on the normal print media's adds. Together with your servents IP address? So people would know where to connect to and that they can download the file. So you get a coupling of print media adds and "adds" in a P2P network. If your target viewers are between 14-30 years old I guess this would work, at least they would know what you have been talking about The you can also publish trailers with real names.

If ppl like it they will also download the movie once it it released I am shure.


Faked names will of course leed to downloading the file and you will reach many ppl with it... but will you probably discourage from watching the movie since they always got that %$%&& movie traiuler when they tried to download something else? Also a serious image is better preserved when you use "real" file names.

I totaly agree. Though my 21'' monitor is great I 'd rather see a cool movie in the cinema ... Though one problem are upcoming "Home Movie Studios" with larger screens, dolby digital sound, etc at home... But in a ripped movie there is no dolby digital sound yet. So those "freek" might watch the film in cinema as well if you promise them "dolby digital sound experiance"

Yeah, I can't play DivX in my standalone DVD-Player on my big TV and also get no Surround Sound.
When converting DivX to SVCD, I gain crappy quality compared to DivX or DVD quality and still have no surround. So if you're a cineastic, you eigther visit your local cinema or buy DVDs... I do both. Perhaps we get DivX with Dolby Surround soon?

I have a home theatre, but my computer isn't in the same room. Plus, I totally forgot about the no surround sound thing. If you get the files out there they should just spread. I would recommend sharing on the FastTrack network too (Morpheous, Grokster, and Kazaa). I hate to admit it on this forum but I use Kazaa for movies because it autoresearches and resumes.

So are you saying that I'm not commiting any crime by downloading music or movies? It is obvious that if I rip them myself it's a crime, but what if I share movies or music that I downloaded.

There are several articles on that subject and the thing is noone knows ... an interesting article on the subject, that gives you an overview is in the German CT magazine from 12.3.2001 (6/2001) - a well know computer magazine.

I summarize the problems mentionend: In German law (and I guess it is pretty much the same everywhere) there is a duscussion wether downloading files protected by copyright is permitted or not. Pro-permitment ppl say that how can a downloader distinguish if the offered file is legaly distributed or not - e.g. the offering web-page has the right to distribute the file. Some band offer (some of) their songs for promotion purposes in the net, some labels prbably as well. So how can one decide?

The Cons say that illegaly offered copyright law protected material cannot be downloaded legally.

But offering files with copyright law protection in a file-sharing net is considered as illegal though there is usually no commercial intention in filesharing systems and the files are shared for private use. (In Germany it is allowed to make a copy from everything you bought for example as a backup-copy. Also those copies may be shared among "friends" - I say friends here not as a citation or a law term. But what your "friends" are and may be is not defined by law -> problem)

I just want to add that you literally pay for the right of making copies. Every CD/R burner, VCR and every CD, tape etc has an extra fee that will directly go to content industry and artists.

The argument for this extra fee ist that consumers will make copies, which must be paid to the copyright holder. So no matter if you copy your own material, make backups or copy music/videos you do pay for it.

Moak and Hermaf:

Thank you. Your insight is great. The goal for me is to raise awareness and create interest even if I know my movie is going to get ripped, I might as well raise awareness.

Thank you

Because there is no copyright notice posted on shared songs I should not be help responsible. There is nothing notifying me of the copyright so I assume that they aren’t copyrighted. The original rippers from the CD with a copyright notice should be the ones ultimately responsible for the subsequent sharing of the files.