
Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage - rb2k_
https://buy.louisck.net/purchase
======
turoczy
His description of why he did it:

To those who might wish to "torrent" this video: look, I don't really get the
whole "torrent" thing. I don't know enough about it to judge either way. But
I'd just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use
against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent
the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to
be easy for people to watch and enjoy this video in any way they want without
"corporate" restrictions.

Please bear in mind that I am not a company or a corporation. I'm just some
guy. I paid for the production and posting of this video with my own money. I
would like to be able to post more material to the fans in this way, which
makes it cheaper for the buyer and more pleasant for me. So, please help me
keep this being a good idea. I can't stop you from torrenting; all I can do is
politely ask you to pay your five little dollars, enjoy the video, and let
other people find it in the same way.

Sincerely, Louis C.K.

~~~
yangez
Wow. His simple tone belies the brilliance in his writing here. I seriously
doubt he just spent 5 minutes scribbling this out as an afterthought. He gets
a few key ideas across:

\- he doesn't understand torrenting and so is helpless against it

\- he cares about his viewers more than taking advice about DRM

\- the video is owned solely by him and not some soulless corporation, and
you're directly hurting him by torrenting

\- you'll destroy his faith in mankind if you torrent

\- five dollars is nothing compared to all that!

All of which combines to make you feel like a huge asshole for even
considering pirate bay - in the nicest possible way. This type of thing makes
a lot more sense than DRM in his case, and I bet it's a lot more effective
too.

~~~
Natsu
Damn, I would've bought it if not for requiring PayPal. I don't have an
account or want one.

~~~
phzbOx
Why is he down-voted?

He didn't want to join paypal, fair enough.

He didn't know he could pay with paypal without joining it, now he knows it.

Other HN-ers might see this post, realize they don't need paypal, and go back
to buy the video.

IMO this shouldn't be down-voted.

p.s. I know I could have just upvoted it instead of writing this useless post
(Which I'd understand if you downvote me by the way), but I thought my point
would be clearer with a message rather than a battle of upvote/downvote.

~~~
Natsu
It's not worth complaining about a couple of karma points when I have
thousands. And to be fair they downvoted me before I realized my mistake.

I'm not familiar with this artist, but I wanted to see it out of simple
curiosity because he seems to be an artist who puts fans ahead of profits.
People like that usually produce high-quality work.

~~~
phzbOx
Oh, it's not about the karma. Downvoting is more a message saying to everyone:
"This is not a good post".

------
danso
He also shoots and edits his own show (Louie, on FX) using a RED camera and
his own laptop. He famously fought for total editorial control of his show (to
the betterment of all of us viewers) and now he's not even taking a step back
when it comes to distribution. Good for him

[http://gizmodo.com/5658621/how-louis-ck-shoots-and-edits-
his...](http://gizmodo.com/5658621/how-louis-ck-shoots-and-edits-his-own-show)

~~~
cavilling_elite
I didn't know this! This is fantastic. I'm glad to see he is pushing the
envelope for both humor and distribution.

------
gruseom
Louis CK is an interesting example of an artist who has grown. His stuff from
20 years ago (that I've seen, at least) was really bad; it was timid and boxed
in by convention, which is death to comedy. Somewhere along the way he
obviously said fuck it and started telling the truth more directly and
provocatively. And that is how lead is transmuted into gold. Funniness is
almost a side effect.

Now he seems closer than anyone working in this area to Lenny Bruce and Bill
Hicks territory (if anybody's closer, I'd love to hear about them) with at
least a shot at equalling them, which would be amazing.

~~~
onewland
Greg Proops is fantastic, but not everybody will like him. But he definitely
ventures into less funny and more socially conscious territory with comfort
and without pretension (ok, maybe a little pretension).

~~~
hudibras
My three-year-old loves his work as Bob the Builder.

------
dantheman
I'm really glad he did this. I picked up a copy, and in fact am quite glad
when I can actually purchase DRM free content. I take a principled position
against intellectual property, but that doesn't mean I don't support artists -
I just don't endorse monopolies. Hopefully, overtime as more and more artists
release content themselves the middlemen will go out of business and we can
move towards a more free society.

------
davesims
The Marc Maron 2-part interview with Louis is one of the best podcasts ever
made. Louis goes into his production process, how he creates 2 hours of new
material every year, and why he brought in Jean Luc Godard's DP to film Pootie
Tang. Will definitely make you want to put up a measly 5 bucks for just about
anything Louis does.

<http://wtfpod.libsyn.com/episode-111-louis-ck-part-1>

~~~
ineedtosleep
Since I'm not willing to pay for an app just to listen to one podcast, the "2
hours of new material every year" bit (I'm assuming) is also explained in
Louis CK's speech about the late George Carlin.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R37zkizucPU>

~~~
davesims
WTF is the best comedy podcast out there, hands-down. The 2-part with Louis is
worth the price of admission alone, but there's many more that are as well. If
you like comedy at all and a contrarian, alternative point of view, I can't
recommend it highly enough.

~~~
flipp
Little bit off topic but WTF, while awesome, isn't really a comedy podcast
because it isn't funny. If you're looking for something like that check out
Comedy Bang Bang or something.

~~~
jonbro
Comedy is in the ear of the beholder. I have had far more meaningful laughs
(whatever the heck that means) at WTF then at comedy bang bang. I would say
download both of them, they are totally different things.

------
caiusdurling
I bought this purely to support him for being brave enough to release it DRM-
free. Currently watching it and trying not to snort my drink over my laptop
due to laughing too much.

Excellent way to discover a new comic I'd say.

~~~
leftnode
His show "Louie" is equal parts drama and comedy. It's really an amazing show
and he's easily the top comedian today, hands down.

~~~
trafficlight
Louie is a great show. He is the master of uncomfortable situations.

~~~
flyt
Louis C.K. is great and I agree with you, but nobody tops Larry David on Curb
for uncomfortable situations.

~~~
skore
I enjoyed Curb - I made it through one and a half seasons - but I couldn't
continue watching it. I may just have a low threshold for enduring discomfort,
but Curb just keeps pushing and pushing the cringe meter. For Louis CK, it's
about what happens WITH the discomfort. Curb, to me, is a DISPLAY of
discomfort that is funny to a point, but then just has very little redeeming
value beyond that.

Another example of the same dilemma would be Ricky Gervais - I really enjoy
his comedy specials and stand-up work, but I couldn't watch the original
Office or something like Extras. It's funny alright, but if I have to pause it
for the cringe to go away every other minute, it just looses focus to me.
Cringe->Funny is a proven vehicle these days, bit it's to a point where I find
it a little too simple, really.

Anyhow - Louis CK (and, to a point, Gervais in his stand-up) glances at the
cringe and then opens up a world of insight around it that is way funnier than
just having the cringe meter top off every thirty seconds.

~~~
po
I know exactly what you mean here. I also sometimes have trouble tolerating
cringe-comedy situations although seemingly not as bad as you.

I actually used to get very uncomfortable while watching some Shakespearian
comedy-of-errors plays. The type where the audience knows something that the
actors don't. Makes me want to shout at them which is I guess the point
however I feel like it is not an enjoyable type of anxiety.

Perhaps it is the engineer/nerdy part of us but I really don't enjoy watching
people make mistakes.

~~~
skore
Yes, I do think that is the case. I also just, very plainly, don't see that
much craft in drama-from-ignorance. Sure, "x knows something that y doesn't,
subsequently y runs into a number of cringeworthy encounters" does make for
drama, but if somebody saying "no y, actually, it's THIS" would destroy the
entire plot from thereon, I find the whole setup a bit stale.

Same goes for "x is a twat, situations involving x will make you cringe" shows
- there are only a few like that which I can tolerate and they make a huge
effort to assign enough other redeeming qualities to x to make up for it. For
Curb, I do like Larrys character, but after a while, it seemed like he existed
solely to feed the cringe.

And yes, I have it bad. The last episodes of Curb that I watched, I
permanently had my finger on the space bar. Sometimes, I would have to pause
it for periods of time that were longer than the show itself.

------
bobds
I've enjoyed much of Louis CK's content without a chance to put some money in
his pocket. So I've bought this.

$5 feels like a good price point. I don't think I would have paid $20,
especially if I knew that he would only be getting a small fraction of that.
Bonus points for making it a 1.2 GB h264 encode. I hope this works out great
for Louis and makes other people want to try it.

------
robert_mygengo
Best part of this for me is that I can now actually pay to watch something
outside of the US from an artist I like. If you don't live outside the US or
UK you probably don't realize how rare that is.

------
ck2
"Without DRM" should be in the title here. It's the critical part of the
experiment.

I'm curious to see what happens, hope he gives an update of some kind.

------
rb2k_
I'd LOVE to see more content producers distributing their own content rather
than giving money to middlemen. I am not sure if this would also work for
people that DON'T have their own TV show but just start doing things. Maybe
something akin to "openers" on concerts would work. Bundling less known
content in a "pay what you want" basis.

~~~
city41
Although I agree, I'm not sure this distribution method scales as is. I just
sent Louis 5 bucks, downloaded the video, copied it to a USB drive, and then
hooked it up to my Roku. I'm fine doing that ad hoc process occasionally, but
if I got most of my media this way it'd get old very fast.

Surely there is a better way to distribute this stuff such that it doesn't
take away the nice advantages and gives most/all the money to the artist too?

~~~
Fluxx
It's pretty close to that now. I have an RSS feed hooked up to µTorrent that
automatically downloads new items I add to my RSS feed (in this case it's TV
shows from a private tracker website) or newly available ones from my existing
list of favorites. The downloaded files get stored to a folder on my Drobo
which I could hypothetically have Plex scan and add to my media library.
Instead, because I'm anal about my media sorting, I manually move them to
folders by movie/show/season/artist/etc that Plex scans. But that's overkill.
Plex then makes my media available on my big TV through my Mini, my bedroom TV
through my jailbroke AppleTV and on my mobile devices through the Plex iOS
apps.

If the market ever allows for a consumer-level product to achieve this (my
solution is very geeky) and it works well, it will be successful.

------
jronkone
I think there's a huge pent-up demand for software that makes it easy for
artists to publish their own content on their own websites _easily_ and also
makes making and collecting payments as easy as downloading torrents.

Probably something like that already exists, but the fact is that most of the
content seems to be aggregated in different kinds of services that the artists
don't really control themselves.

~~~
sahillavingia
This is exactly what I'm trying to do with Gumroad: <http://gumroad.com>

(I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback)

~~~
heyitsnick
agree with sibling comment - what exactly happens when i sign up? so i get a
link to send people, what does the user see? how do they pay? etc. these are
the first questions i have and should be answered on the landing page, maybe
with a video demo.

Another bit of feedback - imo remove the end bit of this sentence, in your FAQ
re. pricing: "Simple. It's 5% + $0.30 for each transaction. We're working hard
to get this lower.". You have just put the idea in my head that 5% + 0.3 is
too much. now i have doubts. maybe now i should shop around? or roll my own?
or wait for prices to go down? no need to sow this seed. 5% + 0.3, and you are
covering transaction costs? total bargain

~~~
sahillavingia
Great feedback (from all of you)! I'll add more information and a demo link to
the home page this weekend. And I agree with that too, removing now.

------
resnamen
Excellent. I gave him my $5.

Louis CK is a media maverick and I wish him good luck. His only condition for
the network when he created his TV series was "you don't screw with my
writing". And he chases opportunities like this because he just thinks in his
gut that it might be the better way forward. Most personalities are too in
thrall to meddling PR overlords to take principled stands like these.

------
tfb
I bought this not only because Louis CK is both awesome and hilarious, but
because I really, really want his "method" to become more widespread. I know
it's a long shot, but I hope so many people buy this because of how he's
released it that it garners some serious attention towards the issue and
proves that restrictions like DRM are actually hurting the applicable
industries.

------
jgeralnik
Just bought it. While I'm really happy to support DRM free content, I must say
I am somewhat disappointed that you can only download it twice.

"PLEASE NOTE that you can only stream the film twice AND you can download the
film twice. Once you start a stream of the film, your stream will be active
for 8 hours. Once you have exceeded your streaming and download limits, you
will need to purchase the film again to stream or download it again. However
once you have fully downloaded the film, you are of course free to watch it as
many times as you like. "

~~~
icey
How much bandwidth do you think $5 buys?

~~~
bobds
I think it's on AWS. So whatever that buys you on Amazon.

The 2 download limit made me worry about disconnecting or restarting the
download. I also can't make my download manager open more than one connection,
in case that locks me out of the content I just bought. I think it should be
higher, but I understand that he can't give away too much bandwidth without
cutting into his profits.

~~~
Apfel
You really don't need to worry too much about disconnects.

I disconnected twice while downloading and emailed the customer support
address and they just replenished my downloads.

------
aboodman

      <meta name="author" content="versionindustries.com" />
    

I would love to know more about how this was produced. Like what level of
decision Louis himself was involved in.

The writing is great and the design is clean. I want to believe he
micromanaged everything. Or even that he made this site himself and that this
line was a paste-o that he forgot to remove.

 _Edit:_ Nuts: "their company (that built the site) is called Version
Industries". gotta tweet that shit."

------
Timothee
I recommend reading his explanation of why he did it the way he did (meaning
DRM-free and based on trust), even though he's been advised not to.

It's very earnest and has a feel of "listen, I created this. You're likely to
like it. If you give me a bit of money, I'll give you access to it. You can do
whatever you want with it, but just keep in mind that I worked and paid for it
being made."

a.k.a what Louis CK would probably sum up as "just don't be an asshole, ok?"

------
mladenkovacevic
I hope he pulls it off and if anyone can it's someone with as much credibility
and talent as Louis CK.

I feel like I'm getting a bargain at $5, knowing how much enjoyment I'll get
from his material. That couldn't be said for the majority of studio-
supported/produced mind-numbing crap out there. Sa-da-tay!

------
deepkut
Add that to the list of how awesome this guy is.

------
jonbro
A small point, but something that is really nice. At the end of the form where
you enter your email address, the sign up to his mailing list is checked no by
default. I switched it to yes partially because of that.

------
brentvatne
Happy to support this with my five dollars! Hopefully this model catches on.

~~~
masklinn
> Hopefully this model catches on.

If the success of NiN's "Ghosts I-IV" was not sufficient, I doubt that one
will be. It's a long walk, uphill, on a 10G planet, of a slope the size of
Olympus Mons.

~~~
khuey
Olympus Mons actually has a low slope (about 5 degrees). It gets to be the
tallest volcano in the solar system by being 400 miles wide.

~~~
masklinn
> Olympus Mons actually has a low slope (about 5 degrees)

By size I meant length, not angle (and completely forgot to talk about angle
on the way). Sorry 'bout that.

'though at 10G planet, 200 miles at 5˚ should be plenty fun to walk.

~~~
saturn
on a 10G planet, 200 miles at 0˚ would be plenty fun to walk..

------
kisstheblade
Well DRM helps nothing to stop a video from being torrented, so why bother
with it. I think Louis CK is smart enough to understand this, and with this
personal appeal will probably sell better than using the usual methods.

I bought a copy because of this. It's nice to support the artist directly
especially when the video file finally is as good as the versions you usually
find only on torrent sites (no "you criminal" warnings eg. like on store
bought DVD:s. Nice way to thank those that have actually paid for the
content...).

------
avar
When you buy it you get directed to a page linking to:

    
    
        https://buy.louisck.net/account/download
    

Which is a redirect to:

    
    
        http://download.aws.louisck.net/Louis_CK_Beacon_1280x720.mp4?Expires=<unix timestamp>&Signature=<long string>&Key-Pair-Id=<an id>
    

Which can be downloaded e.g. with wget and is a:

    
    
        $ file Louis_CK_Beacon_1280x720.mp4 
        Louis_CK_Beacon_1280x720.mp4: ISO Media, MPEG v4 system, version 2

~~~
jarin
I'm still going to pay the 5 bucks, because far be it from me to take
advantage of an honest comedian's technological incompetence.

~~~
avar
Oh that's not how I meant it. I've paid my $5 for it and downloaded it, and
that link I posted will return a 403 without the right authorization.

I posted it because I was worried that I couldn't download it with wget before
I bought it, I'm on a 3G connection through my phone and I wanted to download
it to my server so I could download it later from a more capable connection.

I sent the below E-Mail to their support address (support@louisck.net) and I'd
encourage others who bought this to send something similar do the same. I
think it's important to tell artists that this sort of distribution is
appreciated:

    
    
        Thanks for making this show available in non-DRM format. I haven't
        watched it yet, but I bought it and downloaded it already.
        
        My friends and I have been following your work for a while, I've
        watched both your HBO TV shows and downloaded a bunch of your
        standups. But since I don't live in the US and don't want to buy DRM
        content I haven't paid you for any of this.
        
        However I'm happy to be able to when you offer something in this
        format. I can pay for it even if I don't live in the US, and I don't
        have to buy something like a DVD or subscribe to something like iTunes
        where I'll effectively be getting a worse service by locking the media
        I buy into some corporation's proprietary distribution platform.
        
        But if you keep offering things in this way in the future I'll be sure
        to pay for them.
        
        It's not that I'm cheap. I make a very good living, and I'm happy to
        pay for things. I just think it's unethical to pay for media when part
        of the proceeds go to conglomerates like the MPAA which are actively
        working towards reducing freedom on the Internet.

------
ddw
All of his copy is awesome:

Hi

Thanks for subscribing to the Louis C.K. email list. I swear to Christ* I will
not bother you now that I have your email.

To complete your subscription, you need to confirm you got this email. To do
so, please click the link below: ...

*(of course I mean Bill Christ, who owns a Fiat dealership in Ronkonkoma, NY and has diabetes)

Which makes me think - why does anyone write boring standard auto emails? But
I guess no one is as funny as him and we don't need more Groupon copy in the
world.

Can't say enough about this guy.

------
lgeek
Chromium crashed during my first attempt to download the show and then I ran
out of free disk space the second time (yeah, SSDs are a bit too small).

Anyway, my point is that starting a download and then only getting a couple of
MBs shouldn't really count as using a download slot. On the other hand, I
don't know if it's possible to check how much data has been transferred using
existing technology. He seems to be using Amazon CloudFront.

~~~
dantheman
Ideally it'd work where they generate a URL for you that works for 24 hours or
something like that, or they give you a one time url, but you can generate as
many as you'd like for 24 hours. If for instance they see someone generate 100
or 1000 or something they can then revoke their permissions.

------
postscapes1
I recently saw something similar for the film
<http://urbanizedfilm.com/stream/> that uses <http://distrify.com/> to handle
payment/streaming/affiliates all within the embed itself.

------
cavilling_elite
I bought it twice. Hopefully his next release will have a "pay what you want"
model with $5 minimum.

------
antimora
I checked out the sample video and noticed in the end louisck.COM was
mentioned and not lousck.NET. Both of the sites seem to look alike, except
.net version has more tweets.

------
thehodge
I wonder how much he makes after bandwidth + paypal fees, he limits it to 2
streams and 2 downloads but the file is still 1.2 gig so not a small one..

~~~
pkulak
Bandwidth is pretty crazy cheap these days. I can't imagine it costing more
than a quarter to send out a couple gigs.

~~~
dreamux
About 14 cents per download (streams are probably even smaller) on the lowest
tier of S3 (once you're over 10TB/mo it gets even cheaper).

------
john_b
I am downloading now. I'm glad he is willing to experiment here; this is what
the entertainment industry as a whole really needs.

------
tgrass
If this were the business model for airbnb, how far would they have gotten
with pg?

------
mhd
And I can buy it from any country, as long as I have a paypal account. Neat.

~~~
tednaleid
You don't have to have a paypal account, you just have to use paypal to pay.
Account creation is optional.

------
mlnowak
Truly fantastic approach. Just downloading the video, and happy to pay $5.

------
lukeholder
I bought it! supporting the non DRM, content producer/distributor model.

------
adgar
Protip: You can start playing the video in VLC/your favorite player as soon as
the download starts, if your download rate is fast enough to keep up.

------
freemarketteddy
This gives me so much hope....I think we are going to see a revolution in Art
and Media as more of these guys start getting "it"...The days of Big brother
and his army of douchebag MBA's is soon going to be over!

------
igorgue
And I thought Louis CK was awesome, this makes him more awesome :). I love his
show and specials.

------
ck2
Is anyone wondering how long until PayPal locks his account?

Not wishing for it to happen - but realize it's PayPal.

Now if we can just get him to be making jokes about PayPal, that I'd pay to
see.

~~~
dangrossman
> but realize it's PayPal.

Which several hundred million people use without having their accounts locked.

~~~
ck2
People use it for single small transactions.

Wait until paypal sees hundreds of thousands of $5 payments and a balance over
$100k

\- especially if his account is relatively new - unless his people were smart
enough to pre-empt this with them.

~~~
dangrossman
The worst that's likely to happen is they ask him to send a copy of ID and a
bill with his address on it, he faxes it over and the account is unlocked the
same business day. Does it seem unreasonable that a payment processor should
want some evidence of the account holder's identity (much like banks are
required by law to collect) once they're in a position to pay out tens of
thousands of dollars?

I don't see anything to poke fun at.

