Who’s playing poker? Characters who are drawing attention to pirate websites. We’ve asked them to make “guest appearances” on these humorous detour pages to raise awareness about the damage caused by pirating creative works. .film ensures that their domain serves the entertainment community by protecting their content and their rights.
Type in the name of many pirate websites with the .film extension, and you’ll end up here. Check out all of our detour pages below!
We made CreativeFuture.org/really to raise awareness about the damage caused by stealing creative works. If you type in the name of many pirate websites with the .film extension, you’ll end up here.
Why are you doing this?
CreativeFuture’s mission is to empower the creative community to speak with a collective voice – advancing a positive, dynamic vision of a digital future that better serves audiences and artists alike.
Websites like The Pirate Bay, Putlocker, MoviesHub, and others are for-profit criminal enterprises that make money from the online distribution of stolen work. When people visit these websites they are often bombarded by advertisements, asked to sign up for a membership, or even asked to pay for access, with none of the profits ever reaching the countless individuals who actually produced and created the work.
We have produced these pages to raise awareness about piracy in general. In the event some people actually visit some .film sites in search of illegitimate content, these pages are meant to provide a friendly reminder that piracy is not harmless. Links included in our humorous pages point to informational materials where people can find legitimate ways to watch (WhereToWatch) and also learn more about how piracy affects the livelihood of millions of creatives and supports criminal activity.
How did I get here?
One of two ways:
- Someone thought CreativeFuture’s tongue-in-cheek taglines and cartoons concerning the for-profit theft of creative works would be something you’d be interested in and sent you the link to the detour page.
- You were looking for illegitimate content yourself within the .film domain and you were rerouted to one of CreativeFuture’s detour pages so you could learn more about piracy – the ill-effects it has on hard-working creatives and where to watch legally.
Aren’t you tricking people?
We’re reminding people to the do the right thing. Websites that host illegitimate content often trick users by loading malware into their computers, redirecting them toward irrelevant partner websites, and some even steal credit card information. Moreover, the use of these websites to view illegitimate content is a crime. We hope that we are appealing to people’s sense of right and wrong.
Doesn’t this violate free speech rights?
No, these pages do not violate anyone’s right to free speech. For example, we’re using our own free speech rights to stand up for the creative community’s right to not have their work stolen.
Raising awareness about illegitimate businesses that illegally profit from the hard work of others is not a violation of free speech.
What about fair use? Isn’t that all pirate sites are doing?
CreativeFuture is for the established principles of fair use, which is a fundamental part of the law that ensures copyright lives up to its original mandate – to promote the production and dissemination of expressive works that enhance and advance culture. Unfortunately, many “free and open” internet advocates have taken the inherent ambiguity in fair use cases to advance their agenda of weakening copyright protections for creatives.
There is the mistaken impression that if you are “for” strengthening copyright protections to keep pace with advancing technologies, then you are necessarily “against” fair use rights. This is simply not true. In fact, creatives who rely on copyright themselves very often make fair uses of works in the creation of their own, new works.
What is CreativeFuture?
CreativeFuture promotes the value of creativity in today’s digital age. We embrace expanded audience access to content in ways that reward creativity and hard work. We are united in opposition to for-profit theft of creative works, which jeopardizes the rights of all creative individuals, puts jobs at risk, and undermines new business models and distribution platforms. Our mission is to empower the creative community to speak with one collective and powerful voice – advancing a positive, dynamic vision of a digital future that better serves audiences and artists alike.
What is .film?
.film is a top-level domain similar to more common domains like .com, .net, or .org. As the internet has grown in size, specialized top-level domains like .gov for government websites or .edu for educational institutions became available. Recently, other top-level domains like .biz or .tv became available along with others like .film. The .film domain is primarily used for filmmakers to establish an online home for their projects where they can easily be catalogued by search engines and found by fans. Further, the domain space offers consumers a trusted environment to engage directly with authoritative content. CreativeFuture, along with our partners, is committed to making sure that the .film domain stays as clean and safe as possible.
To learn more about why protecting creative works is important, click here.
If you would like to see more of CreativeFuture’s detour page cartoons, refresh this page.
If you want to download your favorite movie, TV show, song, or book for free, click here.