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I need an alternative perspective.

I've been pirating media for quite a while now and it's always brought my family pleasure having the comfortability of watching a film or television show whenever they want it (or in my case, Xbox 360 backups). However, a friend of mine recently referred a buddy to me that was looking for the complete seasons of Seinfeld. He'd heard that I do this kind of stuff and asked a price. One thing led to another and he's coming to pick up his lute next week for 100 dollars. It seemed like easy money at first but here are the problems I'm faced with:

• From what I've heard, it's relatively dangerous to be selling pirated media. Almost everyone downloads for their own convenience, heck, even my professor made us watch a movie in class and I caught a glimpse of the 'aXXo' in the filename before he ran it. But this is one step above convenience. I'm talking about the illegal reproduction and redistribution of copyrighted material. I know there are already tons of people that do it but should I be ready to make that much of a risk assessment? From users that do, is it as dangerous as it is perceived to be?
  
• Secondly, when I make my movies, I don't go all out. As long as the media is viewable and of decent quality, it satisfies my thirst. What I'm debating at the moment is whether or not I should up my standards when providing copies to others. For instance, should I make DVD covers for the cases I'm going to supply? Should I stick DVD labels onto the disks themselves? I don't even know how to make a DVD menu. What about the quality? How do I know what's good for me is good for my customer?
  

I'm only going to be selling to friends and possibly friends of friends if I decide to go through with this which is why I'm looking for advice before I commit to it. If I'm going to need to up my standards, it's going to be quite expensive and frankly, not worth the revenue. I mean, if I'm going to need DVD covers, labels, cases (I use my USB into my Xbox 360), that's going to cost money to replace my ink cartridges every so often, not to mention no ISP in my area offers unlimited bandwidth so the downloads are going to be using up my allowance. How much should I sell for? A DVD for 5 bucks? A season for I don't know, 15? Tally up all the expenses and time needed to make the labels, what's it all worth?

I need some advise, preferably from someone that's been supplying for quite some time now. Should I go through with this or not? It's easy money. And if I do, how far is reasonable for my clientèle?

This is what I can do so far;


And on a lighter note, I apologize for having published this topic in this particular graphic section. I couldn't find a more suited forum and given the fact that I may need help creating labels, I found this section to be the most reasonable.

Hmm...selling to one friend is silly. If it's a random guy you can sell to him but if you know him just do it for free.

But let's assume it is a stranger and you sell it, it's fine if you do it once...but you're planning to start a business. I do not recommend that and you will probably regret it.

That's illegal and not allowed here.
First, that's a good movie : the blind side.
My friend did nearly the same thing but he never made the dvd or covers. He bought them super cheap of ebay already made and sold them for more.
He made a good amount but was nothing big.
Personnaly I wouldn't do this.

(01-03-2011, 06:19 PM)Laugh Wrote: [ -> ]Hmm...selling to one friend is silly. If it's a random guy you can sell to him but if you know him just do it for free.

But let's assume it is a stranger and you sell it, it's fine if you do it once...but you're planning to start a business. I do not recommend that and you will probably regret it.

Listen. He asked me for the complete season. That's 30 GB's worth of media. My bandwidth is not unlimited therefore I need to charge. My family uses my allowance too so I don't want to be stuck. The guy is a friend and I may have considered doing it for free if he were asking for one film but not for nine seasons. That's just ridiculous.

And lastly, I'm not talking about starting a business. I'm a one-man-show. I was referring to just supplying friends when they want a copy. Nothing big but still worth what they'd be paying for it. And I wouldn't sell to someone I don't know. I wouldn't feel comfortable.

I feel like a dick charging friends but I need to make something from this. Not because of the time I'm putting into it but because of the cost of my resources; DVDs, cases, labels, bandwidth. etc.

Personally you can do it but only to friends and family. Not to strangers who you don't trust. I am sure there are plenty websites out there to watch the series or movies streaming in those quality. Chances of getting caught is relatively low unless you create a business. Other than that your good. Just burn the disc and nothing else. I am sure anyone would be able to spot a illegal reproduced copy from a mile away. Leave it as how it is as a blank look-alike disc. Nothing fancy. The more you try to imitate an original than your trying to make it professional.

(01-03-2011, 07:16 PM)Death Trap™ Wrote: [ -> ]Leave it as how it is as a blank look-alike disc. Nothing fancy. The more you try to imitate an original than your trying to make it professional.

That thought never occurred to me before.

(01-03-2011, 07:21 PM)Solidify Wrote: [ -> ]That thought never occurred to me before.

Yup. This way you will help save ink, paper, and dvd cover.

I agree with Death. Just download, burn, sell.

Be warned of the consequences, though.

(01-03-2011, 07:47 PM)Laugh Wrote: [ -> ]I agree with Death. Just download, burn, sell.

Be warned of the consequences, though.

I'm not so worried about the consequences anymore given the fact that sales will remain strictly between friends. Rather, it's delivering something of significance that is worrying me. By that I mean, I don't want to charge this guy 100 dollars and then hand him several DVD cases with no cover artwork and just a marking on the disk for it's contents. If feels low-quality on my behalf and I don't want people thinking "What the hell? I gave him 100 bucks and doesn't even have the courtesy of making me a standard DVD with a title menu and cover artwork?"

From what I believe, you reside in Canada. Laws against "piracy" is not as strict as the United States. I doubt that they'll waste their time for such small crimes, as for the USA, they have "Anti-Piracy" groups, such as the RIAA and MPAA. However, I strongly discourage Piracy.