BronyDoc Pirating · 4:40pm Feb 7th, 2013
I woke up this morning to this:
Part of me wants to be like...
...but then the other part of me wants to be like...
...because if you think about it, it's actually kind of hilarious, in a dark way. The fandom exists because of piracy. I would have never seen the show if someone hadn't ripped it and put it on YouTube. I wouldn't follow the show today if not for the same thing, because I don't want to give Apple my money for each episode. (Hasbro, you wanna hook a brother up with HD DRM-free files of each episode, I'll pay you that $1.99 direct, babe.) I've paid back Hasbro in other ways, by buying official merch and so forth, so my conscience is clean. Even if I hadn't bought their products, I still wouldn't feel much guilt over it - they make hundreds of millions of dollars off little girls' parents, no one's not gonna eat because I watched their episodes for free online.
I wasn't a backer for the documentary on Kickstarter; it was clear they didn't need my help by the time I found out about it, and I wasn't in the best financial shape at the time. But when the documentary came out and I wanted to watch it, I paid the $13. The documentary wasn't put together by a multinational conglomerate, by a crew wearing thousand-dollar suits. It was spearheaded by a guy who thought bronies had gotten an undeserved bad rap in mainstream media, so he got together a crew and spent something like 8 months working on it without any compensation. They were even cool enough to put it out DRM-free, in multiple formats, to make sure anyone could watch it anywhere without being inconvenienced. Sure, I'll throw the cost of a pizza his way, to show my thanks and support. The funny part is, I still haven't watched it. I will at some point, but even if I never get around to it, it won't feel like money wasted to me.
That being said... it's 2013. The documentary guys of all people should know that there are a lot of different kinds of bronies, including trolls - trolls who aren't going to give a damn about your polite request to not upload the doc to YouTube or filesharing sites. They had to have known it was going to happen, just a matter of time. Now, I have no idea how much money they took in from bronies over at Scrnland - maybe I'm the only brony who felt the need to pay for it, though I sincerely hope not - but de Lancie's tweet makes it sound like they found out it was on BitTorrent and quit in a pouty huff. I hope I'm wrong, because that just feels... silly. It's the wrong way to look at things, in a post-BitTorrent world. Don't look at the people who gave away your work and think, "We're losing so much money" - 99% of those people would have just gone without watching it. Look at the people who actually did purchase your work, and be happy with that - and with the knowledge that some (small) percentage of the pirates will end up going and buying your work, if they think it's worth it.
I'm a little upset, because from what I could tell, they were going to release a lot more content as time went on. I read somewhere that they had 8 hours of interview footage with Faust alone. I would have loved to see that, and I guess now I won't be able to. Maybe they'll do another Kickstarter with the goal of raising enough funds to make the rest of the stuff they planned, since their pay-by-download plan didn't seem to have worked.
UPDATE: Exactly as I feared. No new content will be released due to piracy. I see from the comments, however, that I'm not the only one who suggested the idea of a second Kickstarter designed to get us those bonus materials, so maybe they'll go for it.
What is the BronyDoc?
Thank you!
804681
I... but... really?
Last year John de Lancie ran a Kickstarter to fund a documentary about bronies, because he was tired of places like Fox News making fun of us. He and a production crew went around to a couple cons, followed a couple bronies' lives for a little while, and they edited it together into a 2-ish hour documentary, with the intent to submit it to film festivals, online video services, etc.
804689 Nope. Never heard of it.
I know bronies are awesome. I don't need to be told that by someone else.
You have to remember that another reason that they didn't want people viewing it for free, whether on Youtube or piracy, was because then it would lose worth and have less of a chance of getting into any film festivals.
804691
The documentary is intended for your parents, not you - people who might not understand the idea of bronies, or who haven't even heard of us.
804689 Your not the only one who paid for it.
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804709 Gotcha.
Well, good. I personally adore John de Lancie, and I'm glad he went to that trouble in order to paint a better picture of bronies.
804713
This is your pic of the day, isn't it?
804718 Yep! Yesterday's was this:
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So.....
cdn.derpiboo.ru/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTMvMDIvMDUvMjNfNDFfNTFfOTkxXzIzNDYyOF9fVU5PUFRfX3NhZmVfcHJpbmNlc3NfbHVuYV9pbWFnZV9tYWNyb19ncmlsbGVkX2NoZWVzZV81MTExOThiYzdmMTIzYmU2NjkwMDA2MDMuanBlZy5qcGVnIl1d/234628__safe_princess-luna_image-macro_grilled-cheese_511198bc7f123be669000603.jpeg.jpeg
Did they honestly expect anything else?
Pfft, that is why I am a cynic. Always expect the worst to happen.
Good riddance if you ask me. Never be the wide eye idealist.
804707
That's true, but that doesn't seem to be the implication of his tweet. Production on the original doc is already complete; it's in the process of being submitted to festivals, etc.
This fandom has had such a run of relative good fortune with regard to its relationship with the creators, it was always too good to last. Part of me knew this day was coming, but I always thought it would be because of something really scandalous (like, Nicole Oliver discovering a certain tumblr -- you know the one).
But no, it's just simple piracy. You're right about the irony of it. But really, the whole thing was always built on shaky ground. Here you had two vastly different cultures, Real Life and the Internet, trying to get along harmoniously. And while two very different people can be friends, whole cultures are usually better off keeping a respectful distance from one another.
Can the situation recover? We'll see, but I'm not holding my breath.
Paid copy here. Same boat. Haven't watched it yet because I honestly don't see the need in me myself watching because I already know how I became one, I know the artists the musicians and all that 'darkside' of the fandom-something this doc doesn't really acknowledge- so, why do I need to watch this? I don't. Not yet. I payed my 13 yesterday after a friend let me download a legit copy he had since you get 3 downloads per account. Reason why I payed for it, though it was given to me for free two days before?
Because he wanted to fight for you and show mainstream media that bronies aren't all sick cloppers that stay with their parents!
Sadly, it isn't looking like we'll see Netflix or even a PBS special at this rate about the doc, and why? Because no sponsor is going to want to invest on something people already have access to since it's been shared by torrent to such a degree that it's impossible to really make anything off of it. This leads to no media exposure like an interview with 20/20 or whatever bs. Point is, the idea to get this moving past the fandom itself, and receive compensation for their 8 months of hard work, is now a slap to the face by the very community too ignorant and raised to the belief that torrenting in any media that is illegally uploaded as being the norm. That was a rather dumb question to have asked De Lancie.
On that note however, I'm no hypocrite, I use torrents too, but I at least donate to what I believe is deserving of them. I love indie companies. I love the show. If you want a character to appear more? Buy their toys to show Hasbro the only thing they look at, NUMBERS. I am disappointed only in the fact that the he of all people actually took to the fandom and believed in it so much that he actually thought him and the others that haven't been paid, would get compensated to continue and get enough money to go into talks with big names like iTunes and Netflix and maybe even TV. Hell, the HUB could of even aired it perhaps one day. WHO KNOWS what could of happened.
Missed opportunity I supposed. More leechers than seeders are per the norm :P
Little of column A, little of column B. There's not a lot of chance it wasn't going to be pirated.
My Kickstarter physical copy better still be coming, though, or I'm going to be pissed off and not at the pirates.
805185
Looks like they sent out an update to you backers about the Blu-ray release; you should be good. Cover looks nice.
Wonderful <sarcasm/>
I would alter that second meme slightly into "Forgot internet was a bitch, huh?"
I heard some mixed reviews about the documentary itself. Some people liked it, some didn't. I decided to give it a go myself. The first thing that came to mind were, of course, torrents.
Yep, constant exposure to Internet does that to a mind. 
I guess I will just check it out and throw the team those 13$ if it's worth it (and I highly doubt I will find it unworthy of such a measly sum).
805324 Yeah, saw that update a little bit after I commented.
I read it.
I was a bit disappointed too.
I kept promising myself I wouldn't watch the documentary until it came out on DVD,But I sadly succumbed to temptation and watched it on YT after some num-nut put it on youtube.And now I feel worse that they had to shut down production,after they had worked so hard.
But then again..how did they not expect this?The internet ALWAYS pirates something even if someone asks no. Hopefully some of that bigger info will be released separately, but I do feel a bit disappointed.
I will buy the Doc once it comes out on DVD (If it comes out on a normal DVD, Because I'm not sure if de Lancie mentioned normal DVD release(since he and the others kept discussing Blu-Ray releases).
806316
AFAIK it is only being released on physical disc to folks who pre-ordered... I haven't seen any reference to it as anything except a digital download. Could be wrong though!
It's like you reached into my brain and put my thoughts into a blog post.
I think some people forget when Equestria Daily prominently featured links to download pirated episodes on its home page. Remember Ponyarchive?
Thinking on this a little more, it's probably a little disingenuous of them to blame pirating to quite the degree that they are. How exactly do they know how much pirating has gone on, and how exactly should that pirating have translated into lost sales? If there was no pirating at all, they certainly would have had more sales, but I seriously doubt it would be a particularly great transfer rate.
I suspect part of this is just sour grapes over lack of sales.
806418
Someone on the Kickstarter page made a very good point, that more than likely the vast majority of bronies who were interested enough in the documentary to support it financially had already done so... by backing the Kickstarter. There was probably only a smattering of folks like myself who cared enough at this point to pay for it who hadn't back then. The people who torrented it would have never paid for it even if it meant they couldn't see it.
806433 Oh absolutely. I never would have purchased another copy myself because I had already done so via the Kickstarter.
Taking a look at their page, there are something like a couple thousand backers who paid enough to have received a copy. That's only 26 grand at the $13 price point, but it's 26 grand they're never going to have seen regardless of piracy.
I just have this sort of shame thing going on that, no matter what the reason for it happening, makes me feel like we've let John down somehow.
806456
That keeps twinging for me too, TD.
However, it really seems like the documentary folks have been looking at the fandom through rose-colored glasses, though. From an interview with Michael Brockoff: "The brony-world is purported to be this area of the Internet where they interact with each other using a set of rules that are essentially learned from the show itself. It’s a moral compass without being a religious compass.”
No... not really how it works. We're the same as any other fandom or subculture, except most of us make a point of being nicer, and we like a show for little girls. But we still have all the same jerks and foibles as any other group. Guy's never been to /mlp/, obviously.
806465
Heh, neither have I. I think I'm better off for it, if a touch naive...
806499
I visit occasionally when I'm bored and morbidly curious, and always regret it.
806326
Noooo that was referring that people who pre-ordered it will get it before hand.
They are planning to distribute it on DVD thankfully.
Look, when you put up a kickstarter to a community like the bronies? Every person who is interested in the documentary and prepared to pay for it is going to buy it at kickstarter. Everyone who is not prepared to pay for it is going to pirate it. That enormous goal-smashing sum of money they got during the KS was the total amount the brony community was prepared to devote towards the project; anyone who did not chip in then either A) Has no money B) Does not care. Those people will pirate it if they feel like it but if it's a choice between buying or not buying they'll chose not buying.
Here's the thing: Those guys are not your customers and they never were and never will be. If you based any part of your business model on people with no money who don't care about your product then you've made a poor business decision.
I don't care about the ethics of the situation because it is utterly, utterly pointless to discuss the ethics of piracy. Moral, immoral, it doesn't matter and nobody cares. What piracy is is economically rational. Like the drug trade. You might be the sweetest, nicest corner shop in the world but if you're on the wrong side of economic rationality you're done, son.
It doesn't matter how bad you lament the death of traditional publishing or how spitefully you blame piracy because that genie is out of the bottle. You can either change with the times and focus on the new Reputation Economy or you can be miserable and go broke. Those are your only two choices.