Info/Analysis of downloading films frm torrents

well incase if one might suggest me to search in the forum, i wanted to update i got a link

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=12090&highlight=illegal+downloading

but thats not what i earlier found on the forum. At that time the people were actually talking on the topic of marketing (not very sure) and a guy who had personally gathered some info regarding downloading of films via torrent posted the info.
Still searching for more info.

NOTE FOR ADMIN: I dont know weather i have posted my thread in right forum or not. If not than apologies in advance

I heard that something like 37% of software on computers is unlicensed. That hurts business. Downloading movies hurts DVD sales / rentals too.
25 million people sounds like a gross exaggeration for any indie film. Any indie film that has more than 10 leechers and seeders is doing "well".

If you want to market a movie, then do what has worked for decades... create and release a TRAILER. If someone complains that the movie doesn't look 1/2 as good as the trailer then who cares! As long as you get paid then you're happy.

Anyone who tells you that you should GIVE your movie away on bitTorrent sites is misguided. People who download off P*rateBay don't want to pay for anything. I know these people because some of them are my friends and acquaintances.

Blade Jones well thanks for your contribution

well cant comment on the number given by that guy..buy surely it looks too much exaggerated. Actually that analysis was really interesting given by the person on this forum. I know giving up a movie at any torrent is not a move. But i had few things in mind and for that i wanted to know more and more about films getting downloaded via torrents.

Thanks for the info.

Still anyone there to contribute??

I supposed the torrent sites themselves and the owners of the sites would have some sort of stats, but I don't know of a public source. It's most likely just an exaggeration in an attempt to build "hype" directed at the torrent audience.

I think too many filmmakers are overlooking what piracy really is... it's the market, forcing evolution on the distribution methods. The only reason everyone is bitching is because they don't know how to compete with them yet. I'm not going to bother trying to figure out a solution for the studos, but on an indie level, I think it's a powerful marketing tool.

Well here's what you do.

1. Make a shitty bootleg of the film and make it a torrent
2. Hope your movie is good enough and you can reach a base-audience to seed the film
3. Send a press release to the media denouncing piracy and saying how much it hurt your film to get buzz
4. If a percentage of the "pirates" end up buying the higher quality DVD, then you WIN!
5. If the pirate tells their friends about the movie and it results in a purchase, you WIN
6. But most importantly - if a "FAN" is born, that's a double-WIN

I mean, let's get real. Most filmmakers who bitch about piracy aren't making any real money anyway because they lack exposure and big marketing budgets. And on the other hand James Cameron is probably more concerned with real pirates as he drinks panda blood on his whale-hunting yatch, so while the figure "lost" may be higher, a bootleg can't replace the experience of going to the theater... the movie just has to be worth seeing- Avatar created that allure. Like it was said, most of the people who use torrents wouldn't have paid for it anyway- so have you really lost anything?

I think the way to go is to build an audience that is a "loyal fanbase", really. Better for the filmmaker's self esteem anyway, to have a group of supporters who will buy all their films because they love them. There are sites that monetize videos out there... but in my opinion, until the big studios and networks figure out a way to compete, it's hard to make money online anyway, so why not take advantage of the exposure?

Well i personally think torrent can be used in some way to promote the movie ..... The only thing unanswered till now is "HOW" but surely there will be a way. At the moment the only things is to gather more and more info and i am doing that