Copyright Law

Comedian Louis CK Asks Mininova Uploader to Remove Content

By soulxtc

Says he has “no problem, personally, with file-sharing,” but that the uploaded material is part of a work in progress, and he’s simply making an “artistic and personal request” with which the uploader later complies.

A funny thing happened a little while back on BitTorrent tracker site Mininova which, by the way, just recorded its 8 billionth download.

Apparently on March 7th an uploader by the name of “econojon” uploaded a “hilarious” show by comedian Louis CK in Northampton, MA from the previous day. Several days later none other than the comedian himself wrote a comment on the torrent asking that it be removed to preserve the integrity of the show the material was being prepared for.

He writes:

HI. I’m Louis CK. Can you please take this down? This show is a work in progress and was not intended to be passed around the internet. I have absolutely no problem, personally, with file sharing, and if you take everythign [sic] I have on the market on DVD, CD, and put it up for free downloading, I don’t care. But this is an artistic and personal request. Please take this torrent down. thanks.

LCK

In response, a week later, on March 17th, econojon said he asked Mininova to remove the torrent for the show as requested, but asks “why, if he’s so pro file-sharing, would he not prefer to continue making the show available to his fans?”

Econojon replies:

Sorry Mr. CK,

I have taken down the direct downloads and asked Mininova and ViPeers to remove the torrent. I thought you would have preferred the reverse, your live concerts in ****ty audio quality would be ok, especially for what you said about NBC taking down your Late Night appearance, and your high quality DVDs and stuff wouldn’t be ok since you need ***** for that stuff. I sincerely apologize for the torrent and the misunderstanding.

-Econojon

So why Louis CK’s request? Because the material he used at the March 6th Northampton show was part of a work in progress, and by putting it out there ahead of time he feels that he’s being robbed of the opportunity, as an artist, to submit a finished work to his fans.

Louis CK then responded to econojon’s courteousness today by thanking him for complying with his request:

Hey, econojon,

No problem. Thanks so much for complying with my request. The difference between the NBC clip and this one is that the NBC clip was intended to be out there are recorded material. This was not. I just shot the special that his material was being honed for. When it comes out, and people see/hear it the way I intended, then as far as I’m concerned you can post the hell out of this show. I’m fine with it. Thank you again. I appreciate it.

LCK

Pretty decent guy right? Certainly. Far more decent than a number of other people have been when it comes to their material.

Econojon then comments about his realization that he was putting a guy’s unfinished work out there, and that in retrospect he was wrong:

Hi Mr. CK,

Yeah, in the process I thought I was doing something cool to actually help you, but yeah, I see that I didn’t think things through at all. I’m not doing that again. Anyways, both said they would remove the torrent, so, if you have any problems with it in the future, Mininova and VIPeers both have copyright policies and you can submit a take-down request to copyright (at) vipeers.com and copyright (at) mininova.org

-Econojon

So in the end what we have here is an artist making an honest plea that the integrity of his work be respected. It’s not about the money mind you, that he be assured that every viewer pays for the privilege of viewing his work, but rather that the public sees the show as he intends it.

Sadly the torrent for the show hasn’t been removed, and had 17 seeders when I tested it, but all in all I think the last torrent comment sums up what we’re all thinking by now.

“Seriously, how cool is Louie CK,” says Mininova user “jeffehobbs.”

Cool is right. And arguably so is econojon for understanding that Louis CK is just trying to make sure a quality show is what fans see.

[Hat Tip]

jared@zeropaid.com

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).