More Bandwidth and Revenue Needed

[ShadowOfTwilight]

*shrugs* It was just an idea. I personally wouldn't choose to argue that what is on this site fails to qualify as art... but hey, that's just one user's opinion. If I've offended you somehow, domo sumimasen.

You ended your post with a "So", and I do agree that we shouldn't waste time on pointless ideas. I will donate what I can, when I can--which will hopefully be soon. In the meantime, I'm more than willing to do what is necessary to protect this site. What I'm trying to figure out is simply this: Until I'm in a financial position to donate, how can I help?

[7sigma]

Thanks for the clarification on donations, I shall get mine going.

On the legal issues of AMVing, though, I really know very little about how it works there, but in Brazil piracy is only punishable if you distribute pirated content for profit. So, if worse comes to worse, we could change the Org to brazilian soil However, server costs are pretty high here, notably for large sites such as ours... last time I checked, around 3 times higher There are probably other countries with loose anti-piracy legislations and better server costs. Could be worth checking. This would clear the way (at least legally) to advertising on the org.

About advertising, I think it could be done without harm. GameFAQs has a nica layout for dealing with ads without getting in content's way. Furthermore, otakus are known for buying goods (the members of this site, added together, ought to buy thousands of dollars in DVDs alone), and the traffic we put together is pretty awesome. Could work.

[trythil]

*shrugs* It was just an idea. I personally wouldn't choose to argue that what is on this site fails to qualify as art... but hey, that's just one user's opinion. If I've offended you somehow, domo sumimasen.

My argument is not based on what is and what is not art, nor did you offend any of my personal sensibilities.

My argument is based on the extreme difficulty of using "it's art" as a defense against copyright infringement, why that effectively makes it a useless defense, and why it has major implications for what the .org can and cannot do.

[celibi87]

*shrugs* It was just an idea. I personally wouldn't choose to argue that what is on this site fails to qualify as art... but hey, that's just one user's opinion. If I've offended you somehow, domo sumimasen.

My argument is not based on what is and what is not art, nor did you offend any of my personal sensibilities.

My argument is based on the extreme difficulty of using "it's art" as a defense against copyright infringement, why that effectively makes it a useless defense, and why it has major implications for what the .org can and cannot do.

if they were gonna get us for copyright infringment then they would have done it by now. hell you type in anime music videos in the search engine and what do u get? this site. i dont think they are worried about us making amvs cause most (cough)pirates(cough) of us do get it off dvds just to make it more legal. i know i have downloaded (off my limewire pro) anime episodes. so there is no way of knowing what wil happen. if the movie or the song industry gets a wild hair then i guess we will just have to find an alternative to posting amvs. simple as that.

[BasharOfTheAges]

if they were gonna get us for copyright infringment then they would have done it by now. hell you type in anime music videos in the search engine and what do u get? this site. i dont think they are worried about us making amvs cause most (cough)pirates(cough) of us do get it off dvds just to make it more legal. i know i have downloaded (off my limewire pro) anime episodes. so there is no way of knowing what wil happen. if the movie or the song industry gets a wild hair then i guess we will just have to find an alternative to posting amvs. simple as that.

This is why i feel it's far more likely that if Phade was ever served, he'd be far more likely to be asked for member records. Spicifically for the info regarding contributers who are financially backing illegal activities. Since that may figure into the reasoning behind some people not donating, i'd like to hear his stance on that.

By donating money you could be implicated and even if it's a bogus charge, it all goes back to the question: will you settle, or give up everything you have to fight it legally?

[trythil]

if they were gonna get us for copyright infringment then they would have done it by now.

This is a strawman, and I have no idea why people keep bringing it up. Whether or not you get sued has no bearing on illegality.

[carotenuto]

This thread is getting pretty long so I didn't read it all, but here's my idea.

You can safely say that most of us know someone who thnks AMV's are cool as all heck but don't have the resources available to download/view on their own. So they end up coming to those of us that do to see the latest vids on our computers. Maybe they're technically illiterate , or they can't get highspeed, or some other bizarre excuse. The usual answer to this is we burn them a CD or DVD and give it to them to peruse at home - no hassles, no bells and whistles, just "here's your stuff, now go home and one day, get a better computer/net skills, etc. and stop bothering me"

I recall at the last AX that I went to, the AMV winner received a rather large case of DVD's of every AMV made that year(or maybe just for that contest).

And I thought to myself "Self....that would be really cool to have"

And my Self said " Moron....we don't have a DVD burner and it would take us 2 months steady to download that many videos"

So I replied " but we don't need to get ALL of them just the ones we like"

So disturbing conversation aside, my idea is this:

Offer a service wherein a member (anyone) may request of the ORG a DVD (playable anywhere) with certain videos on it, and must pay $X for base cost (DVD, shipping, etc.) and then a donate fee of $Y per video burned. All wrapped up in a shiny spiffy case (bells, whistles, weee)

Hence saving those lazy, technologically impaired, peoples from themselves, and us. And also allowing for more varied donations without the stupid names attached to those that donate and those that leech. because those titles really do make it feel like you don't care if I only want to donate $1 a month, and that you only want those with disposable income in your hallowed halls (whatever the intentions may be).

Of course this has drawbacks. So maybe instead of a choose-your-own-adventure styling. Maybe instead make them available via the convetion/contest they were part of, aka a DVD of the ORG's Viewers-choice contest winners/runner-ups. Or AX, NDK whatever.

You could even sell them from Convention sites post-con, or at least offer the link.

That's my idea

[Coderjo]

Offer a service wherein a member (anyone) may request of the ORG a DVD (playable anywhere) with certain videos on it, and must pay $X for base cost (DVD, shipping, etc.) and then a donate fee of $Y per video burned. All wrapped up in a shiny spiffy case (bells, whistles, weee)

Again, exchange of money for AMVs, which is bad. the X cost may be acceptable, as long as it just covers materials and shipping, but your forced donation of Y per video is very bad.

[carotenuto]

No matter what way you look at it. Those of us that donate are already paying a Y per video, based upon the fact that if we don't the ORG might not be here. At least we currently get to choose to donate or not. And those that donate obviously appreciate the efforts here enough to attempt to ensure future success.

My idea was based around still allowing that "choice" to continue, but at the same time increasing the ORG's ability to receive donations. Right now we only get the choice "to donate or not to donate". This at least gives an additional option, especially to those who can't use or acess the ORG.

No matter what additional plan they come up with, it's going to amount to the same thing: those who give less will probably receive less and those who give more will get more.

I'm not saying remove the current program, merely add another way of allowing donations.

You could also try getting some artists to donate some videos to auction - the artist could donate a cd/dvd 1 or many and we could bid, if interested. All proceeds going to the ORG.

Or we could try convincing the conventions to attempt to collect donations during AMV showings. They do benefit from the very existence of AMV's as it is.

Like it or not, there will be no perfect plan.

[batmanMG]

You can safely say that most of us know someone who thnks AMV's are cool as all heck but don't have the resources available to download/view on their own. So they end up coming to those of us that do to see the latest vids on our computers. Maybe they're technically illiterate , or they can't get highspeed, or some other bizarre excuse.

easier solution if you haven't donated yet, and even if you have... you and how ever many of those friends can stick your hands in your pockets and pull out all the spare change in them... pool it all together and donate it to org. They should be more than willing to give up a few quarters. Especially if you've burned a cd or dvd for them before.