9 ms·

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that h

by funkah 15y ago

I was surprised that he revealed yesterday in the reddit thing that he has never owned a home or had real financial security. I'm enough of a fan to know that he is definitely not rich from comedy, but I somehow figured he had made enough to own a home outright at least. FTA: "And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thing ever. ... They're saying, 'I bought something today. I paid for it. And I didn't steal it. I'm the greatest person alive.'" I've noticed this attitude as well. It's really, really annoying.

tptacek 15y ago
I've seen him live a couple times, and he's gotten up on stage and joked about how much more money he has than everyone in the entire room. I don't think he's hurting.
- ramy_d 15y ago
  he's also done the opposite the "I don't even have 'no money'" routine.
  - jrockway 15y ago
    He also tried to buy a 22 million dollar house in Louie, and succeeded despite his accountant's insistence that he could not afford the $70,000 a month payment. So there you go. Both at the same time.
    - bherms 15y ago
      Succeeded? I don't think he did. He ended up just getting a different apartment I thought.
      - jrockway 15y ago
        I'm a little fuzzy, but wasn't he painting his kids' rooms in that house at the end of that episode?
        yan 15y ago
        He was repainting the living room of the apartment he was already living in. I took it to mean that he made the best of what he had.
  - tptacek 15y ago
    When, and what was the bit? Also: you've seen him live, right? How much did you pay for the tickets? Both times for me, the face was over $30, and both times the house was packed. Do the math on how many shows he does. He tours constantly; a new one every year. I don't think he's hurting. I think he's "only serious" when he jokes about having more money than everyone in the whole audience.
    - ddw 15y ago
      That specific "no money" bit was a long time ago, way before you saw him and before his "Lucky Louie" show. So yes it's possible that at one point he had "no money." He's not the type of comedian that keeps doing a funny bit even if it isn't true.
    - libraryatnight 15y ago
      I saw him on the most recent tour and he mentioned something about flying first class, and then apologized but assured the audience that he probably won't be doing that long, he'll mess it up lol extreme paraphrasing, but I'm sure you all understand.
      - StavrosK 15y ago
        It's on the video he's selling now, he says he flies first class because he has more money than the audience, and that this has been going on for eight months and will only go on for another year.
    - JL2010 15y ago
      being broke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0rSXjVuJVg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0rSXjVuJVg and if he were rich: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO9PwbtlOIU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO9PwbtlOIU These were a while ago.
  - malvim 15y ago
    This is one of the BEST bits I've seen him do. "I have NEGATIVE five dollars. That means if something is free, I can't afford it!" Heheh, love his shows.
    - StavrosK 15y ago
      That's the bit about the bank charging you for not having enough money, no?
- malvim 15y ago
  I understand where you're coming from, but we sometimes seem to forget that pretty much everything these guys say on stage is made-up material. Of course, some might be based on fact, but let's not assume whatever he says happened to him did happen to him, or even happen at all! Did you watch that interview about his "everything is amazing and nobody's happy" bit? He said that the bitchy guy "sitting next to him" in the plane was actually him!
  - tptacek 15y ago
    This whole subthread is based on "things Louis CK said". Regardless: it's doubtful, given how well his tours seem to do, than Louis CK is anything less than "pretty wealthy".
    - drumdance 15y ago
      It's all relative, just like in the tech startup world. We all envy him. Meanwhile he envies Jerry Seinfeld. (I use "envy" as hyperbole.)
- JonnieCache 15y ago
  >joked about how much more money he has than everyone in the entire room When comedians say things like this, it's almost always about manipulating their perceived status relative to the audience. That's why you'll see him say the opposite in other situations. It's all just playing games with status. To make different bits work, comedians either need to be perceived as higher or lower status than their audience, to garner the sympathy/revulsion needed to make the surrounding material come off properly. EDIT: came up with a better way to state this: sometimes you need to be the underdog, sometimes you need to be an alpha-asshole. Here is the superb Stewart Lee talking about this issue in a recent interview about his new series, which is mostly his standup: What was Chris Morris's input as script editor? "He really helped fix a particular problem. I noticed reviews saying that I was arrogant and condescending. I thought, 'That's interesting because it doesn't feel like that live'. In the room I'm able to fabricate some kind of struggle whereby the gig isn't quite working. I'm a lower-status character, so when you criticise someone you don't do it from a position of authority or strength - it doesn't seem arrogant." How did Chris fix that on screen? "I wanted some sort of device that would lower my status or make me appear to be under pressure. I spent days on end talking to Chris about different ideas to get that to work. We ended up with Armando Iannucci interviewing me throughout the series in a hostile way - criticising all the material and my role in the programme. That's cut in with all the stand-up and it works really well." Here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2-qqtvsNDI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2-qqtvsNDI Very few people can manipulate a room like Stewart Lee.
  - tptacek 15y ago
    That's why the bit worked (but, let's leave the frog gently steamed instead of boiled). But I'm saying, I don't think he was making that up. I think he was able to sell the bit because everyone, himself included, believes it to be fundamentally true. Which very simple math corroborates. The first Louis CK show I saw was at the Vic, a tiny theater, which sold out 1000 seats at $35+/ticket on a two-show night. The second show I saw sold out the Chicago Theater on another two-show night.
    - JonnieCache 15y ago
      * Booking the venue * Paying the venue staff * Producing marketing materials * Doing the actual marketing * Transport * Hotel * Transport for the support acts * Hotel for the support acts * Fee for the support acts * Fee for the support acts' agents * Insurance * Agency fees It adds up. Obviously I don't know anything about his finances, maybe he is actually stinking rich, all I'm saying is tours like that aren't necessarily as profitable as they might first appear. Then of course the money he does take might have to support him and his family through months of zero income while he writes new stuff.
- nostromo 15y ago
  A little Googling led me here (http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/richest-comedians/louis-ck-net-worth/ http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/richest...) which estimates he's worth about $6.5mm. Who knows if it's accurate. The "It's Always Sunny" guys as a comparison (also FX) do quite well, despite being obscure. As Louis does more seasons, I suspect he'll also become quite wealthy -- he's the only real 'talent' on the show that he stars in, writes, and directs -- which brings his share of the proceeds up dramatically. He's really a shrewd businessman, despite the jokes about being poor (which are based on his personal experiences, so I wouldn't call them dishonest).
  - antidaily 15y ago
    He hasn't had this kind of exposure ever. A lot of people didn't know who he was until about a year ago. So I can imagine things are really starting to pick up. If he was struggling, he's not now.
    - tptacek 15y ago
      I saw him over a year ago and he packed the Chicago Theater. I saw him in 2008 and he packed the Vic. He had an hour-long HBO special in 2007. Lucky Louie was 2006. That's a top-billed HBO show built around Louis CK. He's only just now getting "Dane Cook Famous", sure, but he's been spectacularly successful on the scale of "performing artists" for awhile now.
  - AgentConundrum 15y ago
    > only real 'talent' on the show that he stars in, writes, and directs And edits. In his AMA on reddit yesterday, he revealed[1] that he cuts Louie himself. In season one, there was a second person that helped him, but season two was apparently all him. He could be oversimplifying, and presumably other people at least watch his cut to smooth any rough edges, but it seemed like there was minimal involvement of others in the process. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/n9tef/hi_im_louis_ck_and_this_is_a_thing/c37ec9f?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/n9tef/hi_im_louis_ck_a...
ff0066mote 15y ago
I agree that the attitude which some torrent users have (feeling good when they actually pay for things) is annoying. However, nobody can deny that computers and the internet have irreversibly changed the game. It is simply no longer default that one must purchase information. Information doesn't want to be free, it just is free (for better or for worse).
- ceol 15y ago
  I don't believe it was ever default that one must purchase information.
  - MrMan 15y ago
    books, sheet music, information used to be more expensive by far than it is now.
    - pavel_lishin 15y ago
      Hell, the ability to read meant you were upper class much more than a fleet of private jets towed by gold-plated BMWs.
AgentConundrum 15y ago
Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude? I'll admit I've pirated things, and I'll admit that I did feel good about myself for buying this video. The good feeling, in my mind, had nothing to do with having paid rather than pirated. I liked that he was bucking convention, and trying his own distribution model, and the lack of DRM and just eliminating all, or as many barriers as possible. I wanted to support the effort. He gave the public a clean product, priced it very reasonably (even cheaply), and he made a profit on it. Now, in this case the business model was 'Be Louis C.K.', and it probably wouldn't work for some up and comer, but I was actually surprised to find in this article that he had already made a profit (he said on reddit that he had yet to really push the marketing for this, so I'm assuming there will be additional profit to come for a while). I'd absolutely love to see Louis leverage the infrastructure he's built for this experiment into something more substantial - licensing other artists to release their works themselves through his site, rolling the profits into new development, and see where it goes. Maybe I'm just deluding myself, and I'm just masking an "I'm the greatest for not pirating this" attitude behind a veneer of "supporting new media". I don't know. I just know that torrenting this video never even occurred to me. I had heard of this experiment, and thought it was a cool idea. Then, a friend told that he'd really enjoyed it, so I gave in and threw $5 at it and laughed my ass off at the video (if you haven't seen it, I do recommend it).
- evan_ 15y ago
  > Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude? Yes. I belong to a number of private trackers and out of curiosity I checked to see if it had been torrented. One has an all-out flamewar between people who bought it and people who didn't. Over a thousand downloads.
  - dudurocha 15y ago
    I saw this yesterday in demonoid, and was kind of funny to see that. And some people felt more awesome, because they have bought and download the torrent "to save the site bandwith".
OverlordXenu 15y ago
Nah, there's no way this is true. He has a Leica MP: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Dc4zH72zP78J:www.louisck.net/2009/03/uso-tour-weblog-kuwait-iraq-af.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Dc4zH72...), a 50mm Summilux, and a 35mm ASPH summicron. The MP is $5000, the 50mm is $3700 and the 35mm is $3000. Edit: Damn it, no markdown!?
- lallysingh 15y ago
  Neither is a house or a savings account. I know quite a few students with no savings and SLR cameras.
andrewfelix 15y ago
I bought it because it was convenient. I also torrent because it is convenient. Price is not the issue for me. I'm in Australia, which means I typically have to wait for something to come out on DVD before I can watch it legally. I can't purchase through amazon, and Australian distributors don't get American shows until months(sometimes years) after they're released in the States. I feel good because I got it when it was released, and it was legal. EDIT: PS. I love NPR
- bhrgunatha 15y ago
  I think this is a legitimate concern amd something that needs to be addressed. The internet and instant global news and information means that we are aware of the output of the entertainment industry immediately - and any attempt to stop that is just going to fail. There is no end to the technical arms race. I remember vividly discovering that my PC's DVD-ROM drive was region-locked and that to watch anything from another region I had to allow the region to be changed and that there are was a limit to how many times I could change it. I discovered this, being unaware of the region-locking mechanism, after buying several DVDs while travelling. It made me disproportionately angry and since then I've seen and noticed the situation getting worse and worse.
- nodata 15y ago
  Me: I want to watch the film DVD: No. You will first watch the adverts.
cbs 15y ago
I've noticed this attitude as well. It's really, really annoying. Annoying or not, as someone who only has a job because of copyright law, its fucking really important that we're reaching these people. I'm glad that people are saying this. Its great if you can afford to support artists all the time, but a lot of people can't or don't. This shows that people are willing to pay, but only for a product that they want. Piracy is one thing, but a matter of practicality is another. I never pirate, but other than cable TV and netflix I hardly buy any copywritten works. When I do buy something that is copywritten I do it explicitly to support the person making the art. Its good material, at good price, without DRM, yes fucking please, I like that, want to support that and is finally on terms that I can support that. I don't care if you want to scoff at people living up to what you consider their obligations after pirating, it is a big deal to the pirate that they paid money, and its should be a big deal to the entertainment industries. Someone who steals and steals and steals but buys this special is voting with their wallet, we need to pay attention to this demographic. If they'll support Louis C. K., who else do they would support if we offered a good product at a good price? We can never get ALL the pirates to come over to the paying side, but given the way we currently enforce copyright, we could convert a good number of them into paying customers.
joshmaker 15y ago
From this statement by Louis CK: https://buy.louisck.net/statement https://buy.louisck.net/statement "Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000... This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show..." If he can get over 200k for show, he may not be mega-rich by television celebrity standards, but he is doing pretty well for himself. edit: to be clear, I don't begrudge him his success or think that he isn't entitled to sell his material for $5 a pop. I just think that making him out to be a starving artist is a mischaracterization.

by funkah 15y ago

tptacek 15y ago

I've seen him live a couple times, and he's gotten up on stage and joked about how much more money he has than everyone in the entire room. I don't think he's hurting.

ramy_d 15y ago
he's also done the opposite the "I don't even have 'no money'" routine.
- jrockway 15y ago
  He also tried to buy a 22 million dollar house in Louie, and succeeded despite his accountant's insistence that he could not afford the $70,000 a month payment. So there you go. Both at the same time.
  - bherms 15y ago
    Succeeded? I don't think he did. He ended up just getting a different apartment I thought.
    - jrockway 15y ago
      I'm a little fuzzy, but wasn't he painting his kids' rooms in that house at the end of that episode?
      - yan 15y ago
        He was repainting the living room of the apartment he was already living in. I took it to mean that he made the best of what he had.
- tptacek 15y ago
  When, and what was the bit? Also: you've seen him live, right? How much did you pay for the tickets? Both times for me, the face was over $30, and both times the house was packed. Do the math on how many shows he does. He tours constantly; a new one every year. I don't think he's hurting. I think he's "only serious" when he jokes about having more money than everyone in the whole audience.
  - ddw 15y ago
    That specific "no money" bit was a long time ago, way before you saw him and before his "Lucky Louie" show. So yes it's possible that at one point he had "no money." He's not the type of comedian that keeps doing a funny bit even if it isn't true.
  - libraryatnight 15y ago
    I saw him on the most recent tour and he mentioned something about flying first class, and then apologized but assured the audience that he probably won't be doing that long, he'll mess it up lol extreme paraphrasing, but I'm sure you all understand.
    - StavrosK 15y ago
      It's on the video he's selling now, he says he flies first class because he has more money than the audience, and that this has been going on for eight months and will only go on for another year.
  - JL2010 15y ago
    being broke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0rSXjVuJVg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0rSXjVuJVg and if he were rich: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO9PwbtlOIU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO9PwbtlOIU These were a while ago.
- malvim 15y ago
  This is one of the BEST bits I've seen him do. "I have NEGATIVE five dollars. That means if something is free, I can't afford it!" Heheh, love his shows.
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    That's the bit about the bank charging you for not having enough money, no?
malvim 15y ago
I understand where you're coming from, but we sometimes seem to forget that pretty much everything these guys say on stage is made-up material. Of course, some might be based on fact, but let's not assume whatever he says happened to him did happen to him, or even happen at all! Did you watch that interview about his "everything is amazing and nobody's happy" bit? He said that the bitchy guy "sitting next to him" in the plane was actually him!
- tptacek 15y ago
  This whole subthread is based on "things Louis CK said". Regardless: it's doubtful, given how well his tours seem to do, than Louis CK is anything less than "pretty wealthy".
  - drumdance 15y ago
    It's all relative, just like in the tech startup world. We all envy him. Meanwhile he envies Jerry Seinfeld. (I use "envy" as hyperbole.)
JonnieCache 15y ago
>joked about how much more money he has than everyone in the entire room When comedians say things like this, it's almost always about manipulating their perceived status relative to the audience. That's why you'll see him say the opposite in other situations. It's all just playing games with status. To make different bits work, comedians either need to be perceived as higher or lower status than their audience, to garner the sympathy/revulsion needed to make the surrounding material come off properly. EDIT: came up with a better way to state this: sometimes you need to be the underdog, sometimes you need to be an alpha-asshole. Here is the superb Stewart Lee talking about this issue in a recent interview about his new series, which is mostly his standup: What was Chris Morris's input as script editor? "He really helped fix a particular problem. I noticed reviews saying that I was arrogant and condescending. I thought, 'That's interesting because it doesn't feel like that live'. In the room I'm able to fabricate some kind of struggle whereby the gig isn't quite working. I'm a lower-status character, so when you criticise someone you don't do it from a position of authority or strength - it doesn't seem arrogant." How did Chris fix that on screen? "I wanted some sort of device that would lower my status or make me appear to be under pressure. I spent days on end talking to Chris about different ideas to get that to work. We ended up with Armando Iannucci interviewing me throughout the series in a hostile way - criticising all the material and my role in the programme. That's cut in with all the stand-up and it works really well." Here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2-qqtvsNDI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2-qqtvsNDI Very few people can manipulate a room like Stewart Lee.
- tptacek 15y ago
  That's why the bit worked (but, let's leave the frog gently steamed instead of boiled). But I'm saying, I don't think he was making that up. I think he was able to sell the bit because everyone, himself included, believes it to be fundamentally true. Which very simple math corroborates. The first Louis CK show I saw was at the Vic, a tiny theater, which sold out 1000 seats at $35+/ticket on a two-show night. The second show I saw sold out the Chicago Theater on another two-show night.
  - JonnieCache 15y ago
    * Booking the venue * Paying the venue staff * Producing marketing materials * Doing the actual marketing * Transport * Hotel * Transport for the support acts * Hotel for the support acts * Fee for the support acts * Fee for the support acts' agents * Insurance * Agency fees It adds up. Obviously I don't know anything about his finances, maybe he is actually stinking rich, all I'm saying is tours like that aren't necessarily as profitable as they might first appear. Then of course the money he does take might have to support him and his family through months of zero income while he writes new stuff.
nostromo 15y ago
A little Googling led me here (http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/richest-comedians/louis-ck-net-worth/ http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/richest...) which estimates he's worth about $6.5mm. Who knows if it's accurate. The "It's Always Sunny" guys as a comparison (also FX) do quite well, despite being obscure. As Louis does more seasons, I suspect he'll also become quite wealthy -- he's the only real 'talent' on the show that he stars in, writes, and directs -- which brings his share of the proceeds up dramatically. He's really a shrewd businessman, despite the jokes about being poor (which are based on his personal experiences, so I wouldn't call them dishonest).
- antidaily 15y ago
  He hasn't had this kind of exposure ever. A lot of people didn't know who he was until about a year ago. So I can imagine things are really starting to pick up. If he was struggling, he's not now.
  - tptacek 15y ago
    I saw him over a year ago and he packed the Chicago Theater. I saw him in 2008 and he packed the Vic. He had an hour-long HBO special in 2007. Lucky Louie was 2006. That's a top-billed HBO show built around Louis CK. He's only just now getting "Dane Cook Famous", sure, but he's been spectacularly successful on the scale of "performing artists" for awhile now.
- AgentConundrum 15y ago
  > only real 'talent' on the show that he stars in, writes, and directs And edits. In his AMA on reddit yesterday, he revealed[1] that he cuts Louie himself. In season one, there was a second person that helped him, but season two was apparently all him. He could be oversimplifying, and presumably other people at least watch his cut to smooth any rough edges, but it seemed like there was minimal involvement of others in the process. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/n9tef/hi_im_louis_ck_and_this_is_a_thing/c37ec9f?context=3 http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/n9tef/hi_im_louis_ck_a...

ff0066mote 15y ago

I agree that the attitude which some torrent users have (feeling good when they actually pay for things) is annoying. However, nobody can deny that computers and the internet have irreversibly changed the game. It is simply no longer default that one must purchase information. Information doesn't want to be free, it just is free (for better or for worse).

ceol 15y ago
I don't believe it was ever default that one must purchase information.
- MrMan 15y ago
  books, sheet music, information used to be more expensive by far than it is now.
  - pavel_lishin 15y ago
    Hell, the ability to read meant you were upper class much more than a fleet of private jets towed by gold-plated BMWs.

AgentConundrum 15y ago

Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude? I'll admit I've pirated things, and I'll admit that I did feel good about myself for buying this video. The good feeling, in my mind, had nothing to do with having paid rather than pirated. I liked that he was bucking convention, and trying his own distribution model, and the lack of DRM and just eliminating all, or as many barriers as possible. I wanted to support the effort. He gave the public a clean product, priced it very reasonably (even cheaply), and he made a profit on it. Now, in this case the business model was 'Be Louis C.K.', and it probably wouldn't work for some up and comer, but I was actually surprised to find in this article that he had already made a profit (he said on reddit that he had yet to really push the marketing for this, so I'm assuming there will be additional profit to come for a while). I'd absolutely love to see Louis leverage the infrastructure he's built for this experiment into something more substantial - licensing other artists to release their works themselves through his site, rolling the profits into new development, and see where it goes. Maybe I'm just deluding myself, and I'm just masking an "I'm the greatest for not pirating this" attitude behind a veneer of "supporting new media". I don't know. I just know that torrenting this video never even occurred to me. I had heard of this experiment, and thought it was a cool idea. Then, a friend told that he'd really enjoyed it, so I gave in and threw $5 at it and laughed my ass off at the video (if you haven't seen it, I do recommend it).

evan_ 15y ago
> Has that really been the response that this Louis C.K. video has received though? The "I'm awesome because I didn't pirate this" attitude? Yes. I belong to a number of private trackers and out of curiosity I checked to see if it had been torrented. One has an all-out flamewar between people who bought it and people who didn't. Over a thousand downloads.
- dudurocha 15y ago
  I saw this yesterday in demonoid, and was kind of funny to see that. And some people felt more awesome, because they have bought and download the torrent "to save the site bandwith".

OverlordXenu 15y ago

Nah, there's no way this is true. He has a Leica MP: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Dc4zH72zP78J:www.louisck.net/2009/03/uso-tour-weblog-kuwait-iraq-af.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Dc4zH72...), a 50mm Summilux, and a 35mm ASPH summicron. The MP is $5000, the 50mm is $3700 and the 35mm is $3000. Edit: Damn it, no markdown!?

lallysingh 15y ago
Neither is a house or a savings account. I know quite a few students with no savings and SLR cameras.

andrewfelix 15y ago

I bought it because it was convenient. I also torrent because it is convenient. Price is not the issue for me. I'm in Australia, which means I typically have to wait for something to come out on DVD before I can watch it legally. I can't purchase through amazon, and Australian distributors don't get American shows until months(sometimes years) after they're released in the States. I feel good because I got it when it was released, and it was legal. EDIT: PS. I love NPR

bhrgunatha 15y ago
I think this is a legitimate concern amd something that needs to be addressed. The internet and instant global news and information means that we are aware of the output of the entertainment industry immediately - and any attempt to stop that is just going to fail. There is no end to the technical arms race. I remember vividly discovering that my PC's DVD-ROM drive was region-locked and that to watch anything from another region I had to allow the region to be changed and that there are was a limit to how many times I could change it. I discovered this, being unaware of the region-locking mechanism, after buying several DVDs while travelling. It made me disproportionately angry and since then I've seen and noticed the situation getting worse and worse.
nodata 15y ago
Me: I want to watch the film DVD: No. You will first watch the adverts.

cbs 15y ago

I've noticed this attitude as well. It's really, really annoying. Annoying or not, as someone who only has a job because of copyright law, its fucking really important that we're reaching these people. I'm glad that people are saying this. Its great if you can afford to support artists all the time, but a lot of people can't or don't. This shows that people are willing to pay, but only for a product that they want. Piracy is one thing, but a matter of practicality is another. I never pirate, but other than cable TV and netflix I hardly buy any copywritten works. When I do buy something that is copywritten I do it explicitly to support the person making the art. Its good material, at good price, without DRM, yes fucking please, I like that, want to support that and is finally on terms that I can support that. I don't care if you want to scoff at people living up to what you consider their obligations after pirating, it is a big deal to the pirate that they paid money, and its should be a big deal to the entertainment industries. Someone who steals and steals and steals but buys this special is voting with their wallet, we need to pay attention to this demographic. If they'll support Louis C. K., who else do they would support if we offered a good product at a good price? We can never get ALL the pirates to come over to the paying side, but given the way we currently enforce copyright, we could convert a good number of them into paying customers.

joshmaker 15y ago

From this statement by Louis CK: https://buy.louisck.net/statement https://buy.louisck.net/statement "Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000... This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show..." If he can get over 200k for show, he may not be mega-rich by television celebrity standards, but he is doing pretty well for himself. edit: to be clear, I don't begrudge him his success or think that he isn't entitled to sell his material for $5 a pop. I just think that making him out to be a starving artist is a mischaracterization.