Vivid Entertainment to Sell Adult DVDs Using Download and Burn Technology

EZTakes (http://www.eztakes.com) has been offering a movie downloads to DVD service for months.

Hi Andrew,

Check out EZTakes at http://www.eztakes.com. We have been running live with a movie downloads to DVD service for months.

Best Regards,
Jim Flynn
CEO, EZTakes

Hey Jim, thanks for the note. I wasn’t aware of the service. I’d be interested to read more about your perspectives on the subject and the recent announcements regarding download movie services. Also, do the DVD’s downloaded from eztakes have any encryption (i.e., CSS)? It would seem the major studios would want some protection, even if easily circumvented, to prevent casual sharing.

Thanks again.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

I have lots to say about CSS, copy protection and so on. Unfortunatly, I don’t have to time to post a detailed response. If you lilke, I’d be happy to speak with you on the phone. Our main number is (413) 529-0870.

Best Regards,
Jim Flynn
CEO, EZTakes

Hey Jim, thanks for the commerical advertisment… As if I don’t already get enought spam.

If you aren’t willing to comment in an open forum, please don’t post. Otherwise, what is the point?

Don

Hi Don,

You’re half right. My posting was motivated, at least in part, by commercial interest. But since it was clearly relevant to the article, it was not spam. I understand why you might want people to post in an open forum. More content attracts more readers, which might help some sites sell more advertising. I just didn’t have the time to answer Andrew this morning. At any rate, I respect anyone’s right to make a living, even if you have an odd objection to me making a living while also taking the time to post a highly-relevant comment on your site.

My answer to Andrew is that EZTakes marks every DVD with the customer’s name from their credit card (via a first paly splash screen) and an ID. This reminds them of that the movie is for personal non-commerical use. We don’t copy protect the DVDs because copy protection does not stop piracy. Andrew was right to state that copy protection prevents casual sharing. That’s all it can prevent. But casual sharing does little or no monetary damage to rights holders, and might even help them. The people that damage rights holders are the ones that make and sell tens of thousands of bootleg DVDs months before movies even hit theaters, or put content on file shares to be downloaded by millions of users. No amount of copy protection is going to stop that. That’s because one digital copy in the clear can be perfectly duplicated an unlimited number of times and copied anywhere in the word at the speed of light. And one copy will always get out in the clear, even if the copy protection is never broken. Copy protection also adds cost and complexity for paying customers. Because of that, most DRM and copy protection is much more likely to induce piracy than prevent it.

Jim Flynn
CEO, EZTakes Movie Downloads

Hey Jim,

Thanks for the reply. I am against you making a living, no way. But please lets be clear. What was relevant about your first three (3) posts? I quote them here:

#1

EZTakes (http://www.eztakes.com) has been offering a movie downloads to DVD service for months.

#2

Hi Andrew,

Check out EZTakes at http://www.eztakes.com. We have been running live with a movie downloads to DVD service for months.

Best Regards,
Jim Flynn
CEO, EZTakes

#3

Hi Andrew,

I have lots to say about CSS, copy protection and so on. Unfortunatly, I don’t have to time to post a detailed response. If you lilke, I’d be happy to speak with you on the phone. Our main number is (413) 529-0870.

Best Regards,
Jim Flynn
CEO, EZTakes

The way I read it is: Hey look we’re here too, but I don’t have time to write a full reply! Three replies, three links to your website (two in one post), that’s it. Nonetheless, you did have time to reply to my comment. If you had just posted that comment (your last one) in the first place we wouldn’t even be having this exchange. Seriously, I wish you the best of luck. I’m not in the home tecnhology field per se, but I do understand it can be a very difficult business. Just don’t come in, drop links to your website and expect people to thank you for it. This is just one persons opinion, so don’t take it so personal.

Jeez, I didn’t even get a “Best Regards,” like you other posts! :D

Don

My 1st Comment

The article was about an unavailable DVD movie download service. My comment let your readers know about the only live DVD movie download service (for standard, playable DVDs that is). A more relevant comment is not possible.

My 2nd Comment

The user interface of the Web page made me think that I was sending a private message (email, as opposed to a post) directly to the Andrew. I only realized when it was too late that it would also be posted. It was an honest mistake.

My 3rd Comment…

You seem to suggest that I posted all three comments in succession. I didn’t. My third comment was a response to Andrew’s request for more info. I thought sending it was more polite than not answering at all, which was my only other possible choice. I don’t think many real spammers manually type comments that give their real names and phone numbers.

Sorry about putting in all the links to my movie downloads site, but I reckon that if I spend time typing in a comment that’s clearly relevant, then it’s justified (Since this is a response to you, I took a free-bee). It helps your readers find a great service. It also helps raise my company’s search engine rank, which helps me feed my family. :)

You have a nice site. Please keep up the good work.

With Very Best Regards,
Jim Flynn
EZTakes (d.b.a. Blood Sucking Spammers, Inc.)

Movie Downloads said: Hi Don,

You’re half right. My posting was motivated, at least in part, by commercial interest. But since it was clearly relevant to the article, it was not spam. I understand why you might want people to post in an open forum. More content attracts more readers, which might help some sites sell more advertising. I just didn’t have the time to answer Andrew this morning. At any rate, I respect anyone’s right to make a living, even if you have an odd objection to me making a living while also taking the time to post a highly-relevant comment on your site.

My answer to Andrew is that EZTakes marks every DVD with the customer’s name from their credit card (via a first paly splash screen) and an ID. This reminds them of that the movie is for personal non-commerical use. We don’t copy protect the DVDs because copy protection does not stop piracy. Andrew was right to state that copy protection prevents casual sharing. That’s all it can prevent. But casual sharing does little or no monetary damage to rights holders, and might even help them. The people that damage rights holders are the ones that make and sell tens of thousands of bootleg DVDs months before movies even hit theaters, or put content on file shares to be downloaded by millions of users. No amount of copy protection is going to stop that. That’s because one digital copy in the clear can be perfectly duplicated an unlimited number of times and copied anywhere in the word at the speed of light. And one copy will always get out in the clear, even if the copy protection is never broken. Copy protection also adds cost and complexity for paying customers. Because of that, most DRM and copy protection is much more likely to induce piracy than prevent it.

Jim Flynn
CEO, EZTakes Movie Downloads

That “DRM doesn’t work attitude” is great and could just be very true. However, I don’t see a single title on your site I would want to watch or purchase. How is the “no DRM” goal working with getting partners that actually own decent content?

Chris

Hi Chris,

I am glad that you think that my “attitude” is great, even though I don’t know what on earth you meant by it. Perhaps my attitude is not the only one on display here.

I don’t have a “no DRM goal” and I am not sure how you came up with that either. My goal is to provide a technology that consumers can use, thus giving movie owners a way to make more money from a new distribution channel. If someone makes a DRM technology that doesn’t interfere with my primary goal, its possible that we’d use it. But if we had used any existing DRM technology in building EZTakes, we would have made a service that would be infinitely less usable for consumers, while not doing anything to protect movie owners from piracy. So we didn’t.

You made a fair point when you wrote that you couldn’t find anything you wanted on our site. Fortunately, many people do. Because we add 15 to 30 new titles a week, it’s only getting better. Since we’re selling downloads, movie owners are getting paid. Nothing recruits more movie owners than others that are getting paid. We just announced a new relationship with Troma Entertainment today.

The sheet music industry tried to kill the recording industry, which was later scared to death of radio. Some in the movie industry fought TV and the VCR. They even tried to get congresses and the courts to kill the VCR. That was before they made a pile of money off it. So, just because some people have silly notions and make false statements (like DRM will prevent piracy), doesn’t mean I have to (or should) go along with them. In my small way, I just keep building a service that can bring big benefits to both consumers and movie owners.

Best Regards,
Jim Flynn
CEO
EZTakes Movie Downloads

PS. You can sign up for our weekly mailing of new movies. That way, you’ll know when we publish something that interests you.

Thanks for replying Jim,

By attitude I mean that you said “DRM and copy protection is much more likely to induce piracy than prevent it”. Very true. DRM doesn’t seem to match up with the goal of service, all good and great, while I see the content that you are offering. :( Even adding 15 to 30 titles a week, there might be 1% of content that I have interest in. What I and most people want is content from the major studios, which you can’t offer without DRM. My point is while your goal is great, the chances of it actually being able to provide the kind of content I’m personally looking for is very slim. DRM doesn’t prevent piracy, but it’s the way to content that people want to purchase. :) Again introducing the problem that people don’t want protected content.

Good luck with your business, but I don’t think your current model will last the test of time.

Chris

Hi Chris,

I am glad to know that you think DRM is ineffective at preventing piracy. I am also happy that you MIGHT be interested in even 1% of my content. Since our plan is to have at least 1,000 titles on-line this year, perhaps I’ll even sell you a few downloads.

I had an Internet business during the dot.com bubble that I sold in 1999. Through either foresight or just dumb luck., I decided to keep all of my gains out of technology. People thought I was crazy and bragged about how well they were doing in techs. That changed in March 2000 when reality began to set in.

My point is that any market can defy gravity for a while; however, truth and logic takeover sooner or later. Most major media media organizations are also public companies. If they use something, which as you say, “doesn’t match with the goal,” then they will have to answer to their stockholders when the goal is not met. So, while you’re mostly right in the short term since most major media organizations are still looking for DRM, you’ll be wrong at some point. Admittedly, the greatest challenge for EZTakes is timing.

I wrote: “Copy protection also adds cost and complexity for paying customers. Because of that, most DRM and copy protection is much more likely to induce piracy than prevent it.” When you quoted me, you left out the context and the critical word “most.” My statement was an opinion, but well-reasoned and backed up by experience. You read in the attitude, which is a common peril of written communication.

Although I am not holding my breath, I honestly would be honored to have you has a customer, even if you only bought one of our $1.99 downloads. If you tell me what you like, I’ll make some recommendations.

Best Regards,
Jim Flynn
EZTakes

Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term that refers to access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers, publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. DRM is controversial and rightfully so, as consumers avoid it wherever and whenever it crops up.

Ez-takes and its constant insistance on DRM, is more of a hindrance for any filmmaker and producer. The people who would use download features are realistically not there: they download from p2p sites anyways. DRM does not actually exist, because any content can be downgraded to analog and then digitzed again; thus ez-takes’ claims of DRM are misleading, if mot false.

For independent producers other and better options such as filmbay ,brosmedia and xing are available. Their networking and distribution features are well beyond the standard fare, suggesting a web 3.0 notion. Indy producers need useful tools. Time will tell how things will pan out, but at least there are some good choices out there.

Dave Wakefield