While the conundrum facing the film industry over Internet piracy heats up, one producer of an independent low-budget film has taken matters into his own hands...
The day after the DVD release (11/13/07) of his film Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth, producer Eric D. Wilkinson took the groundbreaking step to directly address peer-to-peer file sharing constituents. On the blog rlslog.net he thanked the "pirates" for downloading his film. He also requested that they spread the word, buy the DVD and donate money for their viewing to the film at www.manfromearth.com.
While Wilkinson, a home entertainment business veteran and Southern New Jersey native, hardly condones illegal downloading, he realized that the genie was already out of the bottle. Wilkinson figured it was better to embrace the phenomenon than try to fight it. "Am I upset... surprisingly no", Wilkinson commented to www.rlslog.net. "Thanks to everyone who has downloaded this torrent and watched the film, our awareness level is through the roof. For that I say, 'Thank You'!" His posting has since spread to numerous blogs and websites and has inspired hundreds of responses from around the globe.
The film became available on peer-to-peer file sharing sites in the week before it was released on DVD. Reaction and enthusiasm for the film was fantastic. Between November 5th and 7th the www.manfromearth.com website saw traffic increase by over 3,000%. On the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) the film's MovieMeter ranking - which gauges awareness of a title by measuring traffic to its IMDb entry - rose from #11,235 on October 28th to #144 on November 4th, peaking at #6 by November 11th. It is currently ranked as the 14th best Science-Fiction film ever.
Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth DVD is available through retailers and online. For more information about the film and its creators please visit www.manfromearth.com.