Saturday, March 10, 2007

Best Motoring on Youtube



Best Motoring is all over Youtube. This is a fact. There is no way we can completely avoid this and this is just part of what the internet is all about. But I am not afraid to say it loud and clear that what is happening is illegal.
I am writing this because recently we received one disturbing e-mail. It was from some guy complaining to us that we are demanding Youtube to take down our video clips. Which is true, once in a while we send a letter to Youtube claiming to take down pirated video clips. As a content rights holder we have that right and it is our duty to protect our interest. We have no right to be bitched at for doing this. But realistically there is simply no way for us to police this 100% and we just let most of it go. We need a full team to keep up with the clips that are being uploaded every day. That won't make sense.

Many people mistake us as being some huge conglomerate Japanese media company and none of these free clips on Youtube would actually dent our multibillion dollar revenue and we could go on our way without even flinching. That is a wrong perception.
First go on Youtube and search "best motoring". There are HUNDREDS of videos up. Secondly, we are not a multibillion dollar media company that has a tree that grows $. Thirdly some people think that the internet has nothing to do with decline of DVD sales. It's just an excuse. Hello everyone, why do you think CD sales have continued to slump since the introduction of file sharing on the net? Why are DVDs going down the same path? Because of the internet! Duh!
Many people don't know that Japanese media companies formed a consortium to ban their content on Youtube and request thousands of clips to be deleted.
Oh wait a second, Youtube is for the people and internet is free flow of content. So content holders should give out their stuff free because it belongs to the people that want it. Not.
You want to share everything with everybody and have everything for free? Try giving away all of your stuff for free.
As long as production companies make money selling their content, free flow of content hurts the producers, the actors, the hair dressers and even the prop guy. Because the rule of capitalism is that you gotta pay for good stuff. It has always been that way.
TV looks like it is fee. But it's not. Companies like Coke, Ford and Verizon all pay to have American Idol brought to you. They pay all the bills. On the other hand, Youtube delivers content, puts up ads and takes all the money for themselves. Somethin is wrong here.
If we got a penny for every Best Motoring clip they showed for free, I wouldn't be writing this now. We'd be on a beach sipping pina coladas and discussing which Veyron we should crash test in our next program.
Ok, there are some benefits of having our stuff up there to some extent. But now we have no control over what goes up. Guys are posting full length DVDs. And you want us not to claim this? It hurts us more than anyone because the core business of Best Motoring videos is selling DVDs. If Best Motoring was a TV show, the advertising sales would somewhat cover minimal costs but our first line of sales is selling DVDs.
It's the internet so should we just shut the f+ck up and stop bitching? No way Jose. I'm not going down like some encyclopedia company that couldn't keep up with the times!
Why should small/mid sized content producer continue to produce content when we can no longer monetize from our hard work? It's a bad spiral and I hope they really find a way to give incentives to the producers. Because right now their policy is content producers get free promotion and Youtube keeps the ad sales.
The reality is that you have to break the law to make it big in the internet and sell the company for 1.65 Billion? Just my 2 cents...

5 comments:

Eric said...

That was some rant. I agree. I'd rather have the actual DVD because I can put it in my collection and watch it in high quality. I never really get to buying the DVDs because I have to pick out which one I really want to see so sometimes, the youtube clips help, if only they were labeled better. I hope that's what you're aiming to do with the videos section of the GT Channel. It IS a lot easier with the BMI store now so I'll probably buy some more soon.

Taro said...

Hi Eric,
Thanks for our comment. It was quite a rant. : )

You know Viacom/MTV just sued Youtube/Google. We're not the only people that are not happy about them.

Ok, it's useful and I agree to an extent that it helps people find the content they want so they can go buy the real high quality product. And you know I look at stuff on it and I know it's a good service.
I was just pissed off that we got a complaint calling us a pussy for demanding Youtube to take down our stuff. That is so wrong.
Yes but that is what we are aiming with GT Channel. We show clips from BMI, HVI and new stuff we shoot. We will also offer high res down loads on GTChannel. But even with the free clips we offer, we insert ads so we have a chance to earn some money for offering the clips for free.
Anyway GT Channel Version1.0 is currently now in the works. The current site is still in the beta stage. Thanks for supporting.

Chris said...

I have to say i agree fully. Unfortunatly i dont think enough 'hardcore' fans will agree with us.

I don't mind watch a small preview of the upcoming or past dvds say on a internet shop, then go on to purchase the dvd, but the uploading of FULL BM dvd's etc i think is just as your say Piracy! I don't mind You Tube showing other random videos say, what people record at local race events etc, thats what it should be for, but copyrighted material, available on dvd from a company should be remmoved! Good luck guys!

Chris BM fan, in Ireland!

Taro said...

Thanks Chris.
Yes we don't mind if people post a little clip here and there. Like posting a short clip of a cool car from BM they saw so they can start a discussion about the car or something. Still technially that also is illegal but we don't want to be that strict. I want our fans to be involved in the content as much as possible and if short clips will help bring a better motoring lifestyle we don't care.
It is not fair to upload entire segments from start to finish and expect us to look the other way.
You can't eat the cow and complain you have no milk tomorrow.

People just don't understand that it costs money to plan, shoot and edit this stuff. If we have to concentrate on protecting our videos we can't focus on making cool car videos for the fans.

Each fan has to have a conscience that every rip of a DVD or uploading of our videos is taking food off of Keiichi's plate, stealing video equipment and draining gasoline from our cars...
Now how can we continue that way?
Thanks for your support!!!

TurboMan said...

Hello everybody. im 23 yrs old student and im from slovenia. first of all, i would like to say, that im big fan of best motoring and especially keiichi tsuchiya. he is a living legend. i think BM is the best auto show on earth. top gear sucks:P

taro, i completely agree with you. problems your company is having becaouse of illegal performing on youtube and elsewhere, are well known to many others media companys. the solution to your problem i think would be to focus on distribuing the best motoring not by making dvd's but selling it to the TV houses for airing it on their program.

the thing with best motoring here in europe is that it is almost impossible to get it. if u have any plans for europe, please let me know:)

have a nice day,

turbo