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Dealing with People Selling Fan Projects — Page 14

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 (Edited)

DVD-BOY said:

BuckNaked said:

I don’t know what kind of discs they are using other than their claim to be dual layered 50GB discs with a special water and scratch resistant coating. For me $20 per disc doesn’t seem egregious, but as I said, if a member here would like to spread some holiday cheer my way, my PM is open. 😉

What, you mean something like these from Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/PlexDisc-Resistant-Printable-Blu-ray-Spindle/dp/B016LTAX7I/ - $26 for 10?

All blurays are scratch resistant. And these guys are buying bigger bulk than a spindle on amazon. And it’s even cheaper for those getting discs pressed.

In bulk, costs are probably virtually nothing. These guys are making an insane amount of profit and it’s sad to see anyone defend them.

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towne32 said:
These guys are making an insane amount of profit and it’s sad to see anyone defend them.

I agree. I’m actually surprised these individuals haven’t been outed - I thought the internet was good at the whole ‘Pitchfork and Torches’ thing, but from the last couple of pages, it appears this topic should be renamed “Justifying People Selling Fan Projects”. This forum of all places, it just boggles the mind.

Save London’s Curzon Soho Cinema

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What makes me really upset is knowing at least some of these people have to be members here.

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Darth Lucas said:
What makes me really upset is knowing at least some of these people have to be members here.

…who probably also requested a MySpleen invite. Didn’t someone in another thread contact one of these scum, who then ‘gloated’ about having a MySpleen account where they downloaded all these projects from?

Save London’s Curzon Soho Cinema

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Darth Lucas said:
What makes me really upset is knowing at least some of these people have to be members here.

…who probably also requested a MySpleen invite. Didn’t someone in another thread contact one of these scum, who then ‘gloated’ about having a MySpleen account where they downloaded all these projects from?

Save London’s Curzon Soho Cinema

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I used to offer copies of fansub tapes I had. I charged, literally, what it cost me to buy the blanks and send them out (and I was open about those costs), and that was it. If there was any markup it was a rounding error, to the value of a few cents at most.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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towne32 said:

Took a look at Ebay to see how bad the Despecialized selling is at the moment, and was quite surprised. Only one item (an AVCHD with the nfo shamelessly copied from the forum. You’re famous, Catbus!) https://www.ebay.com/itm/star-wars-despecialized-edition-Trilogy/122871793458 (feel free to report)

I just saw this. Yay?

But seriously, this is always going to be an uphill battle. There’s a product out there that quite a lot of people want, and no legal means of buying it. As long as that disconnect exists, people will be selling fan projects. And buying them – I myself paid pretty good money for TR47 discs some decades ago, back before I knew better (based on a review on this site, actually, how quaint). In the dark times, before Cowclops 😉

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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 (Edited)

BuckNaked said:

Darth Lucas said:

The harm: Lucasfilm/Disney only leaves us alone because nobody is profiting and they don’t see us as a threat to their revenue. If they start to see people selling these projects, they may crack down on us harder. It’s also just morally messed up to profit off of other people’s hard work they are providing for free.

Skill: it’s not hard to do. Just need to take a few minutes to learn.

Equipment: really not expensive nowadays.

There may be members willing to do that, but again, I think it’s worth the time and small investment to learn to do it yourself.

I agree that it’s morally questionable for a third-party to profit off Harmy’s work. However, they are providing a service and/or product that’s not easily obtainable elsewhere. (I am specifically talking about LDS Entertainment here).

I don’t know how much their cost is for sourcing blank BD-50 discs, cases, ink, high quality paper, printers, disc authoring software, plus S&H. Maybe $60 for three discs is a bit high, but they do bear significant costs in creating the finished product. For me, a non-tekkie with an old B&W HP printer, I do see value in having a competent party author and press the discs for me with (somewhat professional) menus and artwork.

 

Edit by moderator.

This is going to be a big meme in the wake of TLJ, isn’t it 😉?

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Don’t know if this is much of a barometer, but hopefully it’s a good sign.

As of the minute of this post, searching “Despecialized” returns zero hits on eBay. Found this guy (and reported him) by searching google shopping, but it was the only active listing that shows up. And the closest thing that surfaced by searching “Harmy” via methods above was hits of this odd looking children’s book about an anthropomorphic harmonica.

Huh, who knew?

I’m cautiously optimistic, but really, none of that reliably indicates anything.

Anybody have any ideas about how to gauge if bootleg sales might hopefully actually be down?

The NJVC Custom Bluray Set of Harmy’s Despecialized Editions is available on Mega.

Go to this thread

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So someone’s selling Ady’s Empire Revisited. Just thought I’d share it here seeing as how it’s one of the first things to come up in Ebay’s VHS Tapes section.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Wars-THE-EMPIRE-STRIKES-BACK-REVISITED-ADYWAN-EDIT-DVD-case-and-artwork/253311956298?hash=item3afa91b54a:g:MZwAAOSwEaBaMiDJ

Luke astro-projects himself to Salt Lake Planet, gets shot at by gorilla walkers, has a non-lightsaber duel with Darth Millennial, then dies of a broken heart, inspiring broom boys throughout the galaxy to get creative with their sweeping. - DuracellEnergizer

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 (Edited)

J0E said:

So someone’s selling Ady’s Empire Revisited. Just thought I’d share it here seeing as how it’s one of the first things to come up in Ebay’s VHS Tapes section.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Wars-THE-EMPIRE-STRIKES-BACK-REVISITED-ADYWAN-EDIT-DVD-case-and-artwork/253311956298?hash=item3afa91b54a:g:MZwAAOSwEaBaMiDJ

Lmao his reasoning “I’m selling a case and artwork and the DVD is a bonus therefore I think I’m avoiding legal trouble”

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lehmike said:

Harmy, I was trying to find a way to download this amazing piece of work, and someone on youtube is burning these to blu rays and charging $45 for them. *** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIbM_uS8aA&t=71s

Personally, as just a member here, I’d encourage everyone to downvote that video.

If it puts anyone off buying from them it’ll be worth it.

And also carry on reporting any Despecialized items they see for sale on ebay too.

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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oojason said:

lehmike said:

Harmy, I was trying to find a way to download this amazing piece of work, and someone on youtube is burning these to blu rays and charging $45 for them. LDS Entertainment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIbM_uS8aA&t=71s

Personally, as just a member here, I’d encourage everyone to downvote that video.

If it puts anyone off buying from them it’ll be worth it.

And also carry on reporting any Despecialized items they see for sale on ebay too.

Just putting it out there, but there are websites that offer up / downvoting of youtube videos in bulk - google returns a number of hits. I’m sure if a bunch of people through in a few $$ we could get some ‘social media engineering’ going on.

Save London’s Curzon Soho Cinema

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 (Edited)

DVD-BOY said:

oojason said:

lehmike said:

Harmy, I was trying to find a way to download this amazing piece of work, and someone on youtube is burning these to blu rays and charging $45 for them. LDS Entertainment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIbM_uS8aA&t=71s

Personally, as just a member here, I’d encourage everyone to downvote that video.

If it puts anyone off buying from them it’ll be worth it.

And also carry on reporting any Despecialized items they see for sale on ebay too.

Just putting it out there, but there are websites that offer up / downvoting of youtube videos in bulk - google returns a number of hits. I’m sure if a bunch of people through in a few $$ we could get some ‘social media engineering’ going on.

It’s a decent idea that mate - though likely *** will take down that video if they get so many negative comments or downvotes - and then they’ll start again with a new video a week or so later.

In fact I’d be surprised if they didn’t delete some of the comments on there before too long.

Thinking about it, personally, I’d advocate against going down the path of a bulk negative down vote tool - they already have more downvotes than upvotes - and that’s from real people giving their opinion on it. Let’s keep it that way.

Plus, I wouldn’t waste money on these leeches.

 

(and if anyone does have a few spare $s, consider sending Adywan or poita a donation to help them with their superb projects)

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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Time

nickyd47 said:

J0E said:

So someone’s selling Ady’s Empire Revisited. Just thought I’d share it here seeing as how it’s one of the first things to come up in Ebay’s VHS Tapes section.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Wars-THE-EMPIRE-STRIKES-BACK-REVISITED-ADYWAN-EDIT-DVD-case-and-artwork/253311956298?hash=item3afa91b54a:g:MZwAAOSwEaBaMiDJ

Lmao his reasoning “I’m selling a case and artwork and the DVD is a bonus therefore I think I’m avoiding legal trouble”

Yeah that gave me a good chuckle. I’m just baffled as to why it was like the 3rd thing in the VHS tapes section.

Luke astro-projects himself to Salt Lake Planet, gets shot at by gorilla walkers, has a non-lightsaber duel with Darth Millennial, then dies of a broken heart, inspiring broom boys throughout the galaxy to get creative with their sweeping. - DuracellEnergizer

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Time

oojason said:

DVD-BOY said:

oojason said:

lehmike said:

Harmy, I was trying to find a way to download this amazing piece of work, and someone on youtube is burning these to blu rays and charging $45 for them. LDS Entertainment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIbM_uS8aA&t=71s

Personally, as just a member here, I’d encourage everyone to downvote that video.

If it puts anyone off buying from them it’ll be worth it.

And also carry on reporting any Despecialized items they see for sale on ebay too.

Just putting it out there, but there are websites that offer up / downvoting of youtube videos in bulk - google returns a number of hits. I’m sure if a bunch of people through in a few $$ we could get some ‘social media engineering’ going on.

It’s a decent idea that mate - though likely LDS will take down that video if they get so many negative comments or downvotes - and then they’ll start again with a new video a week or so later.

In fact I’d be surprised if they didn’t delete some of the comments on there before too long.

Thinking about it, personally, I’d advocate against going down the path of a bulk negative down vote tool - they already have more downvotes than upvotes - and that’s from real people giving their opinion on it. Let’s keep it that way.

Plus, I wouldn’t waste money on these leeches.

(and if anyone does have a few spare $s, consider sending Adywan or poita a donation to help them with their superb projects)

All good points. This social engineering angle has got me thinking. If the community were to create a series of ‘informational’ videos on YouTube, and apply the correct keywords surely we could push videos like this scumbag down the results, hopefully preventing sales and raising awareness.

It’s too risky to point ‘official’ videos on ‘This is where you download things from’, but videos which walk people through ‘I have a bunch of RAR files - what are they, and what do I do?’ or ‘How do I burn an ISO?’ or ‘I want to make cool box sets for my friends, what do I need, how much does it cost?’.

You’re not going to stop everyone, but if it means that ‘our’ videos hit the top of the results rather than his / theirs, it might prevent some people going down the dark path. It’s the same with Team Blu’s projects - you do a search for “Fright Night II” on YouTube, and if the video is talking about the TB release, it’ll be some copy bought off ebay which they are then providing a link to.

Save London’s Curzon Soho Cinema

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 (Edited)

maybe flagging the video with the “report” button? Just a matter of deciding what to flag it as.

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DVD-BOY said:

oojason said:

DVD-BOY said:

oojason said:

lehmike said:

Harmy, I was trying to find a way to download this amazing piece of work, and someone on youtube is burning these to blu rays and charging $45 for them. LDS Entertainment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIbM_uS8aA&t=71s

Personally, as just a member here, I’d encourage everyone to downvote that video.

If it puts anyone off buying from them it’ll be worth it.

And also carry on reporting any Despecialized items they see for sale on ebay too.

Just putting it out there, but there are websites that offer up / downvoting of youtube videos in bulk - google returns a number of hits. I’m sure if a bunch of people through in a few $$ we could get some ‘social media engineering’ going on.

It’s a decent idea that mate - though likely LDS will take down that video if they get so many negative comments or downvotes - and then they’ll start again with a new video a week or so later.

In fact I’d be surprised if they didn’t delete some of the comments on there before too long.

Thinking about it, personally, I’d advocate against going down the path of a bulk negative down vote tool - they already have more downvotes than upvotes - and that’s from real people giving their opinion on it. Let’s keep it that way.

Plus, I wouldn’t waste money on these leeches.

(and if anyone does have a few spare $s, consider sending Adywan or poita a donation to help them with their superb projects)

All good points. This social engineering angle has got me thinking. If the community were to create a series of ‘informational’ videos on YouTube, and apply the correct keywords surely we could push videos like this scumbag down the results, hopefully preventing sales and raising awareness.

It’s too risky to point ‘official’ videos on ‘This is where you download things from’, but videos which walk people through ‘I have a bunch of RAR files - what are they, and what do I do?’ or ‘How do I burn an ISO?’ or ‘I want to make cool box sets for my friends, what do I need, how much does it cost?’.

You’re not going to stop everyone, but if it means that ‘our’ videos hit the top of the results rather than his / theirs, it might prevent some people going down the dark path. It’s the same with Team Blu’s projects - you do a search for “Fright Night II” on YouTube, and if the video is talking about the TB release, it’ll be some copy bought off ebay which they are then providing a link to.

A most intriguing idea - it’d require a fair bit of work and knowledge - yet could be a way to win out vs these leeches, and also help people who may be put off by the jargon used and knowledge required to burn such a set…

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

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Time

timemeddler said:

maybe flagging the video with the “report” button? Just a matter of deciding what to flag it as.

We could “Report” it under ‘Spam & Misleading’ from the options, then ‘Scams & Fraud’, and then under ‘provide additional details’ put something like…

“Harmy, the creator and author of the Despecialized Editions says ‘Despecialized Editions MUST NEVER BE BOUGHT OR SOLD!!! You can find all the info you need here: https://goo.gl/1WGHBA’ - https://www.facebook.com/despecialized/

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I think another ebayer (or likely the same ebayer as before - just with a different account) was doing the same before Christmas on there.

Reported.
 

I seemed to have more success in seeing these listings being taken down when choosing the ‘Copyright & Trademark’ option, then ‘Bootleg records or unauthorised media’, followed by ‘unauthorised copies of media (music, movies, television programs and books)’…

followed by in the ‘Brief Description’ box… ‘Harmy, the owner & author of this says they are only available for free - and NEVER to be sold.’

(^ it just about fits the number of characters allowed to be used in the ‘Brief Description’ box)

Of course, it may not have had any effect at all, but if it did… great 😃

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

DVD-BOY said:

oojason said:

DVD-BOY said:

oojason said:

lehmike said:

Harmy, I was trying to find a way to download this amazing piece of work, and someone on youtube is burning these to blu rays and charging $45 for them. LDS Entertainment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIbM_uS8aA&t=71s

Personally, as just a member here, I’d encourage everyone to downvote that video.

If it puts anyone off buying from them it’ll be worth it.

And also carry on reporting any Despecialized items they see for sale on ebay too.

Just putting it out there, but there are websites that offer up / downvoting of youtube videos in bulk - google returns a number of hits. I’m sure if a bunch of people through in a few $$ we could get some ‘social media engineering’ going on.

It’s a decent idea that mate - though likely *** will take down that video if they get so many negative comments or downvotes - and then they’ll start again with a new video a week or so later.

In fact I’d be surprised if they didn’t delete some of the comments on there before too long.

Thinking about it, personally, I’d advocate against going down the path of a bulk negative down vote tool - they already have more downvotes than upvotes - and that’s from real people giving their opinion on it. Let’s keep it that way.

Plus, I wouldn’t waste money on these leeches.

(and if anyone does have a few spare $s, consider sending Adywan or poita a donation to help them with their superb projects)

All good points. This social engineering angle has got me thinking. If the community were to create a series of ‘informational’ videos on YouTube, and apply the correct keywords surely we could push videos like this scumbag down the results, hopefully preventing sales and raising awareness.

It’s too risky to point ‘official’ videos on ‘This is where you download things from’, but videos which walk people through ‘I have a bunch of RAR files - what are they, and what do I do?’ or ‘How do I burn an ISO?’ or ‘I want to make cool box sets for my friends, what do I need, how much does it cost?’.

You’re not going to stop everyone, but if it means that ‘our’ videos hit the top of the results rather than his / theirs, it might prevent some people going down the dark path. It’s the same with Team Blu’s projects - you do a search for “Fright Night II” on YouTube, and if the video is talking about the TB release, it’ll be some copy bought off ebay which they are then providing a link to.

Before I ever had an account here, or was familiar with the site at all, I was referred to *** by a Star Wars fan that my Dad worked with when we were stationed overseas. I think bootlegging was considered less of an issue when you’re stationed in a desert somewhere. All that being said, he raved over the quality, so I picked up a set.
I like them, I really do. But I wish I knew more about the whole “fanedit dynamic” prior to acquiring them.
To this day, I really don’t know how to make DVDs and / or Blu-Rays, but I’m more aware of what fan projects are now.

All that being said, I’d really appreciate and benefit from a series of videos like what you’re talking about. And if I would benefit, I’d imagine your everyday joe would too.