To clarify, I’m not taking about the guys with a patch over their eye and a parrot on their shoulder, I’m taking about the people who Steal copyright material and spread it around the internet, post it to their personal sites, and share it with people. In the old days, when pirates were captured, they were hung or shot; today they are sued in court. When people first started stealing my videos and pictures, I would send out notices requesting them to remove it. But it started to get crazy after a while, that’s when I decided to hire a law firm to start prosecuting people who pirate my work and companies who host the videos and pictures. I’m happy to say, the average offender must pay me $2,500 per picture and $15,000 per video stolen. But that’s only when it is settled out of court.
Once it goes to court it gets really exciting, because it becomes criminal charge with fines up to $500,000 and up to 5 years in prison for the first offense and $1 million and up to 10 years in prison for any subsequent offense. Unfortunately everything has been handled out of court so far, which means I’m not a millionaire yet, but maybe someday.
I’m not trying to be an asshole, but this is not just stealing from me. After all, my videos and photos don’t appear magically on the web for free. I have to hire photographers, directors, editors, a webmaster, hosting companies, buy servers, pay for bandwidth, pay attorneys, have my content digitally fingerprinted for tracking and prosecuting proposes among other things. This costs thousands of dollars a month just to maintain. So when people decide to pirate my videos and pictures, they are not only stealing from me, but all of those people who work for me.
Listen, I want all of you to enjoy my site and watch my videos and look at my photos. I let you see free samples everyday on my blog. All I’m saying is don’t steal from me and my employees and their families, otherwise PeterFever will open a can a whoop-ass!
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I can’t agree with what yr says about what stealing is and what it isn’t. He says taking KFC recipe wouldn’t be stealing, but let’s write another example, one i can tell about. I’m studying a Master Degree in Mexico, my research is on Computer Vision and Neural Networks. Even thought I read from several books all the ins and outs of some concepts, i can’t just take the code from a book, i can’t even take a paragraph from there and publish a paper. That is stealing the intellectual property of the writer/researcher.
Nonetheless, myself having mastered some knowledge, I can write some code, and I can conduit some experiments, and this new work can be documented and published, but it takes lots of time and effort. And if someone, anywhere else is taking my work, and present it as his/hers or even using it to continue a later experiment without telling me before, that’s a violation of intellectual property.
There is a fine line here, but the hours you spent to do your work must have some respect.
I don’t know if he Peter spends thousands per month on protecting his work from piracy, but he has all the right to do it. And the people that get the photos / videos without paying for them, are stealing, there isn’t another word.
So I’m only writing just to see myself on your blog? Oh, wow! That’s some arrogance. If I cared about being on your blog, I would’ve made damn sure I got credit for it by posting under my real name. And I would’ve plugged my website while I was at it. I could always use more visitors to click on those affiliate links. That’s not what this was about. Even though I don’t share your views on piracy, I respect them. What I didn’t like is how you came off as a douche in this entry. Bragging about becoming rich and threatening to open a can of whoop-ass shows a lack of maturity on your part. But if you believe my comments are an attempt for attention, then feel free to remove them and don’t approve this one. Or is it that your ego won’t allow you to ignore someone who doesn’t agree with you?
I’m going to be the better person and apologize since it was mean to call you a liar. Although I still don’t believe people are paying you over $15,000 in a settlement. Not for a second. I’m not going to debate this any further. It’s just not worth it.
It was your choice to post as an anonymous person. And I didn’t call you a liar I only corrected you when you called me one. I also didn’t delete your comments because I don’t believe in censorship because someone disagrees with me. You apology is empty because you are still calling me a liar in the next sentence. I love how you say I’m arrogant and a douche because I defend myself on my own blog when you write a diatribe about me. Who cares what the fuck I brag about, these assholes cost me thousands of dollars each month in lost revenue and you are saying I shouldn’t rejoice when they are caught and punished? It has nothing to do with “lack of maturity” it has everything to do with “Reality”. Let’s step back a couple of steps and look at your arguments. You think that “piracy” is not a form of “stealing” when it means that I can’t pay my employees what they should be receiving. Then I’m an asshole for prosecuting people after I’ve given them the opportunity to remove my content they stole with total amnesty. I think your moral compass is pointed in the wrong direction. Disagree with me on a subject that makes sense, but your argument is nuts!
Have you thought about a cash for amnesty campaign like the one Corbin Fisher did? It sounds like a win-win situation. You can read about it here:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/gay-porns-p2p-amnesty-cough-up-1000-and-you-wont-be-sued.ars
Yes I’m aware that some sites are using this and it is great when you pay the minimum monthly fees to have this company investigate these for you. As it is, I have to pay thousands to just have my content digitally fingerprinted so I can trace my work being downloaded around the world. So you need X amount of people pirating your work on a daily basis for this program to be cost effective for the studio. In my case it is normally a few dozens people a month that I decide to go after and my attorney fees are free. It is not like I just go out and sue people, I give them a chance to remove content without ANY fees. If they refuse, then I have the attorneys go after them. So my amnesty program is even better, take down my stuff and it doesn’t cost you a dime. Refuse and it will cost you a minimum of a few thousand.
When you steal something, you take the original. When you pirate copyrighted material, you take a copy of the file while the original is still in the owner’s possession. If I discovered the KFC recipe and decided to give away KFC chicken I made, that wouldn’t be stealing. Neither would the people who accepted the chicken.
And just because I’m not in the porn industry doesn’t mean I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. For the record, I am very familiar with Xbiz. If you want, I can send you a link to their article about Axel Braun having his case against porn pirates thrown out twice. Or the article about how Michael Lucas and his incompetent FUNimation lawyer have gotten nowhere with their extortion scheme against pirates.
True, some companies do win. But winning a case and actually managing to collect a judgment are two different things. Ask the RIAA if that single mom they sued ever gave them the million dollars they won.
You say “Who cares” if someone you sue ends up filing bankruptcy because they’ll end up in jail. Well, shouldn’t you care since that means you won’t be able to collect the award you were bragging about? And on top of that, you have lawyer fees. So you aren’t exactly becoming rich. You’re losing money.
I don’t want to fight. I actually like you and enjoy reading your blog. But I felt the need to speak up because I don’t agree with you on the subject of piracy or the way you presented yourself. While I understand the need to protect your content, you could’ve written this in a way that didn’t seem boastful and unattractive.
Well it is obvious we agree to disagree. You have no fucking clue what I have collected and not collected. Comparing the little effect the music industry had with collecting money and what the Porn industry has collected in the last 12 months is apples and oranges. Do you thing someone being exposed for downloading an mp3 cares whereas a married guy downloading and distributing Porn is the same? And lawyers fees can be expensive, that why I have lawyers as partners so they lose if someone “steals” from me. I don’t pay attorney fees because it would come out of their cut. And all settlements are sealed per the request of the people I have sued. And the legal definition of stealing and my definition of stealing may vary just like first degree murder and second degree, but a person is still dead.
So the reality is you really don’t know what you are talking about you are just writing because to see yourself on my blog. I don’t mind if people disagree with me but don’t say that I’m not telling the truth because you have absolutely zero clue what goes on in my companies.
No offense, but I don’t think you’re being completely honest. Also, I see this blog entry as nothing more than a bluff. There are companies out there with more money who have tried and failed at suing pirates. And the ones who do win never see a penny of the money they’re awarded because the defendant usually files for bankruptcy and the plaintiff actually loses money because of lawyer fees. Tell the truth. Are you really profiting from suing pirates? Because I think you’re lying through your teeth in order to scare people. One last thing. It is NOT stealing to share a file. It may be unauthorized sharing, but it’s not stealing.
You need to read Xbiz which is the point industry’s daily news magazine. Do a search for yourself and see what is happening. Your not in the porn world, so I wouldn’t expect you to know, but for the last 12 months, porn companies have been coming together and suing like crazy and winning. So you are totally wrong and it is STEALING! Who cares if they file bankruptcy, they can’t escape prison.
Good for you Peter. Continue to fight the good fight.
Good for you. It is sad that people do that stuff. I had someone steal some of my pics and used them on dating sites LOL must be deperate. That is why we are not able to right click and save some pictures on a lot of websites because of all these jack asses. Go get them Peter.
Actually Facebook takes down about 5 accounts a week that claim they are PeterFever or Peter Le and use my pictures. Those people get blacklisted from Facebook too; dumb.
AWESOME Get ’em Peter…he he…btw People get HANGED, Clothes get HUNG…so your “pirates” must be Hanged…did I say that you are Hung? 🙂
Thanks John for the correction. I only claimed to be a guy who is good at taking off his clothes on camera, not English. lol
Whoa, good idea. I wish it should make me rich :(I’m not just interesting into your videos or pictures. I love your creativity with pictures, and I practicably draw people’s anatomy bodies.
I decide to Bad Cop..
I miss Peter to death..
>>> Korea FAN ChangHeui-Lee <<<
Get it peter! Wishing you much success xo