Not one to poke fun at a fellow practitioner but these are the first 3 frames of a wedding DVD I recently saw :)

I tell couples that if they have the ability to duplicate my dvds to have at it. I don't make any money off of duplicating DVDs for a couple and hate nickel and diming them.

Well Peter, this is what we see with folks with limited business experience. Rightly or wrongly, I tell customers they can copy to their hearts content, and give them full rights. On the other hand, they usually are not able to print their own direct to disc images, and that is how I sell extra copies. I see extra copies as advertising, not a money maker. I have given up to ten copies at no charge, it's just good business, IMO. If you choose to sell them, it can be a revenue enhancement, for sure, and that's certainly cool, and I'm all for it.

The example above is bizarre, but new people in the biz just have strange ideas, don't they?

Well they have 30 years in the business apparently!

I agree with you guys - if people want to make copies then they can go for it.

I sell duplicates but price them only really to cover my cost and the little time it takes - I just like getting my work seen and my name around and about

Pete

Well put, Chris. I don't like to nickel and dime them either.

I'm with the rest of you. Why bother with warnings? Pretty much any DVD today can be ripped so whats the big deal. Hell if they want to make 100 copies and send them to all their friends and family great. I might pickup another 10 jobs out of it-even if it's only 1, it's one more than I had when I woke up.
Just don't sell them or I might want a cut! ;-)

Hi Guys

My brides love the fact that they can make as many copies of their wedding as they wish without any copyright issues!!! I have always done it that way ...there is no way I can make huge sales by insisting that I hold the copyright !! Brides are also starting to turn away photogs who have this weird "copyright disk" scheme where all you get is an album with proofs and when you have bought enough prints, they give you the original DVD.

I tell the brides, it's your wedding, your content and your copyright ..make a million copies if you want to!!!

Dunno about others but I find that making duplicates (especially if the bride wants just 2 copies) is hardly worth the amount you can charge them...for me it's more of a service than a profit line!!!

Chris

Yeah - I definitely don't make my money off of the copies. (I let them copy at will.)

But, it's funny -- they still do buy copies from me because they want the original covers, etc. Plus, lots of my clients are doing blu-ray and most people aren't doing blu-ray copying at home yet.

So, though I offer the option for them to copy at will, they still come to me often for it (but it's not a main stream of revenue for me).

What I would object to - if I was the client receiving the DVD with its warning - was the fact that the warning told lies. Why have a lie as your opening line?

My wedding video recording licence (for the music recorded at the time and used in the edit) covers the making of 5 copies. Of course the couple can duplicate my disc as many times as they like, but is it them who would face the music (ha!) when the MCPS came to call?

tom.

Really good point Tom. I can't begin imagine the mindset that would put such a statement out like that. And how stupid the videographer must look to anyone watching the video that knows anything.

Additionally, as a customer, I would not want to play anything on my computer or even my DVD player that had such a statement on it. In addition, when the videographer is asked about it by customers, he would have to verbally lie to them about it when explaining it to someone nervous about using it.

Brings to mind "What a tangled web, etc.," to mind.

My wedding video recording licence (for the music recorded at the time and used in the edit) covers the making of 5 copies. Of course the couple can duplicate my disc as many times as they like, but is it them who would face the music (ha!) when the MCPS came to call?Don't worry about the MCPS/PRS police knocking at your door. It's always whoever makes the infringing copy that is responsible for that act otherwise Amazon would be responsible when somebody ripped a DVD they had sold.

I personally put a message on the end of the movie but, most people ignore them and copy as many as they like. I just think about it as marketing (already have a couple of weddings just because the saw a "homade"copy of a previous work).

I tell couples that if they have the ability to duplicate my dvds to have at it

I do too, but some videographers are just possessed with the copyrights idea, I mean c'mon people this is a wedding video, nobody is going to make a show out of it, and sell tickets, and make millions:)
I don't make any money off of duplicating DVDs for a couple and hate nickel and diming them.
it depends on how you look at it, I also "don't make money" on a lot of things I give my clients, but when they compare packages from different companies, and they do, every little bit counts;
never happened to me, but i saw clients changing their wedding venders over a $50 dollars price difference.
I know, i don't want that kind of clients too, but I'm just saying that even if you don't actually charge any money for some extras you give your clients, it gives you credit in the decision making process, because if you think your unique video style is the reason they choose you - you're wrong :)

I must be dumber than the person who puts those frames in front of his wedding DVD product! If, as the OP states, these are the first three frames of the DVD (as opposed to the first three scenes), then I defy their customer to absorb the content being conveyed in them as they would each flash up for 1/25th of a second!

Too fast for my tiny little mind, that's for sure. I can't even watch the current crop of music videos because I don't have the attention span of a Hummingbird on amphetamines.

Cheers

Russ

OK - I think we all know I didn't mean 'frames' :)

"subliminal message", meant to subconsciusly scare the poop out of you so you'll never copy again... I hear it's all the rage <wink>!

some videographers are just possessed with the copyrights idea

Which I find hilarious, because 99% of wedding videographers flagrantly violate copyright law by including copyright music without a license in their videos (USA videographers, at least.)

Back when I shot wedding video, at our initial meeting I'd show the B&G a sample of what they'd receive (a nice watershield disc with a full color direct-printed face in a very nice case) for only $10 each, then show them a typical home-duplicated DVD with the B&G's name written with a Sharpie. I'd then ask, "What would you rather give to friends and family?" Almost invariably they'd pre-order a few extra copies from me.