A film production company has decided to approach online movie piracy in the most diplomatic way possible – by embracing it.
Double Edge Film, the makers of low-budget sci-fi flick Ink, have contacted their fans via email pointing out that their movie hit bit-torrent sites earlier this week and revealed that this is a good thing for the movie as it has raised the popularity of the film to unprecedented levels.
This is unlike the stance Paramount is taking on web pirates, who believes the arrival of better online technology "poses an immediate threat to the motion picture industry".
Ripped off
"Over the weekend something pretty extraordinary happened. Ink got ripped off. Someone bit torrented the movie (we knew this would happen) and they posted it on every pirate site out there," explained the email sent by writer/director Jamin Winans and producer Kiowa K Winans.
"What we didn't expect was that within 24 hours Ink would blow up. Ink became the number 1 most downloaded movie on several sites having been downloaded somewhere between 150,000 to 200,000."
Unprecedented exposure
The letter continues to say: "Knowing there's absolutely nothing we can do about it, we've embraced the piracy and are just happy Ink is getting unprecedented exposure."
Because of the leak, the movie is now number 16 on IMDB's 'movie meter'. Not bad for a film that was without distributor or advertising budget.
With Ink expected to hit iTunes and other download stores this week, it seems that this word of mouth buzz – brought on by piracy – has been nothing but positive for the movie.
Via TechDirt
