wedding dvd;s
 

After just doing a wedding before xmas the bride said that she would order some more dvds for her friends, just bumped in to her and she said that she didn't want any more has she had got her friend to copy more on there computer,

As most of you know re-orders are the cream on the cake! is there any way you can stop people copying them.

Re-orders aren't the cream on my cake. I try to give them as many as they want. I don't try to increase my profit with sales on extra copies. The way I see it- extra copies are cheap- and if anything- it's free marketing. Just my 2 cents.

No iam not trying cream every penny from my customers, its just that i don't charge as much as some of my competitors and a few re-dvd orders comes in useful

I really don't know how secure any dvd is. There's software to rip Hollywood dvd's so I don't believe that anything on a local level is going to stand up to it.

I also don't like seeing this happen. It's not about the money, it would be nice if they returned to you and asked for some copies. That's all. But clients have the ability to make the copies so the trend will surely continue.

I hate to say this but I believe that we just need to make our money on the production work and allow the copies to go.

Ben Lynn

As most of you know re-orders are the cream on the cake!

No they are not. Assume you won't get ANY and be happy with the few you do.


is there any way you can stop people copying them.

No.

The technical solution isn't your only option.

In your signed agreement with the customer you can specify that they are not allowed to copy the disc directly and must buy them from you. This does not stop them from doing it, but helps your cause a bit.

This doesn't have to be onerous for them either. You can explain that your rates are low and that part of the reason you can do that is because you can recover some of the difference this way - which actually shifts some of the costs from the marriage party to the friends that want copies. You can tell them outright that you know that they could make copies if they tried, denying you your due, but that you always act in good faith and hope that they will do the same. Then they can steal from you or not, but you have a better chance of getting paid then.

Actually it can really help to also tell them honestly that you prefer this solution to just raising your rates across the board, but that if they want to have unlimited copies of the DVD you can do that, but at a higher rate for the actual production.

This is not poor customer service in any way or sense. This is getting justly paid for your valuable time, in the business model that you think best serves both you and the client.

Photographers has held the rights to negatives forever, requiring people to come back to them for prints. This is part of their business model. You will not be the first doing something like this.

Good luck and stand up for your rights.

[Speaking of rights... you would want to get contract language somewhere that showed that you kept rights to your raw footage and the completed product, but that it was licensed to them per disc. It is pretty standard language... I can't help with the UK legalese though.]

Thanks for your input, it looks like i will need to up my rates to make it up

Thanks again.

I'm not sure what software your working with but I think it is pretty standard to have DVD copy protection options when you write the disc. Of course you can get around that, but for many people, that will be a big enough deterrant.

For my clients, we keep the DVDs as cheap as possible about 10US with the full printed label and cover and tell them that we price them that way to encourage them to buy them from us rather than copying them by themselves. As Glenn said, this is our advertising, and when you explain it to your clients like that and be honest with them, I have found that most come back to me.

Good luck

<<<-- Originally posted by Patrick Moreau : I'm not sure what software your working with but I think it is pretty standard to have DVD copy protection options when you write the disc. Of course you can get around that, but for many people, that will be a big enough deterrant. -->>>

While most DVD Authoring programs have the ability to set the proper flags, these ONLY come into play if you have the DVD's replicated. They don't apply to burned discs.

Hi Ian,

You really will save yourself a lot of headaches if you just charge up front for your production and forget about selling copies. Then you can market to your clients that you put no copy restrictions on the DVD and that they can make as many copies as possible.

I honestly prefer it that way. It allows me to concentrate on the wedding at hand and not have to go back and reprint discs, inserts, and burn.

-C