Copyguard your dvds or not!! Catch 22

[ajm]

Hi All

Here is a situation.

Been filming a dance school over the past 10 years.

Every show I have sold between 60 and 80 dvd copies without a copyguard.

I filmed a show in december 2010 for the school and this time I put a copyguard on the DVDs and initialy sold 65 copies.
The customers were not told about the copyguard and No extra orders were asked for which was very unusual.The school was over the moon with the job and also thought they would sell more copies.

Anyway filmed another show in May for the school. Waited for 30 days as usual for the school to get in the orders.

BUT GUESS WHAT. Only 11 copies ordered. Luckily the school signed a contract where they have to buy a minimum.
Now all I`m guessing is that the school which has over 250 pupils in the show were probably ordering one copy then making copies to give relatives etc., but now they have realised they can now longer copy them they have not ordered.

Could I be wrong....

Does anyone think putting a copyguard on your DVDs is a good or bad option?
Cheers

[Zero]

We used to rely on the trust aspect, but quickly realised that the school geek was copying them for peanuts and we found ordered copies reducing year on year.At one school the show organiser was found to be responsible as the company that was asked to duplicate rang us. Result? - no further coverage sorry. Now no-one gets to see the DVD of their particular shows.
Nowadays, we always add copy protection. It costs a few £ss, but we always recoup that with extra orders. Our unit cost is £16 with a £1 reduction for orders over 100 etc.
It may be that in your area the recession is biting harder than others and parents are really tightening their belts.

[steslat]

Thats interesting and I dont think theres any real way to monitor whether its worth protecting the DVD's. I have had a similiar situation in the past and protected a batch but didnt notice any increase in orders. Its also not cheap to protect so I tend not to do it now basing the viability of doing a show on year on year sales. I think most protection can be overcome anyway without to much difficuilty.

Steve

[ajm]

I hope it is just the recession causing the poor dvd order but i do feel it could be more to it.

As Zero has just said, most protection can be overcome and it only needs one geek at the school to crack it and there goes all the profits.

I do feel sometimes that the video business is slowly going down in pan in some respect. It can be very hard, and when you need to make a crust selling dvds you sometimes feel its a pretty useless venture.

Is there many videographers here doing video full time like myself who are seeing a drop in business,be it events or corporate?

[Zero]

I've never regretted copy protecting. Yes, it can be overcome, but they need to be very serious geeks to overcome patronis. We always advise the school that we cannot cover the show without a minimum order of 40 dvds. If they recognise that dvds are being copied, they too will clamp down for fear that next year's show will not be covered.

[ajm]

Im similar..Minimum order 40 copies.

Lets hope all the schools are honest. If their not they will may use a different video company for each show and that would be a nightmare for all of us.

[Zero]

Lets hope all the schools are honest. If their not they will may use a different video company for each show and that would be a nightmare for all of us.

As full time professionals we can afford to make our DVDs that little bit more special, so they have, as they've always had, the choice of a poorly filmed, cheap DVD from multiple companies or a premium product. They keep coming back to us!

[mkkid28]

I've not found any good copy protection that can't be cracked easily.

Off topic, Zero, I see your based in Yorkshire, If you need a extra Camera Operator anytime, get in touch,

[Zero]

Sure, most can be cracked . . . by video geeks, but 99% of the pupils are just chancers who put one in the top DVD and one in the bottom and try to copy. If it fails . . They buy one. The xtra cost is always outweighed by extra copies.
Extra cam operators? pm me your details and I can probably put some work your way.