The days of downloads on CA are coming to an end. (Matter Resolved. Thread Closed).

[Jason Manley]

***Update: As of spring 2009 CA has solved the piracy problem in this community.

Due to the successful implementation of anti-piracy measures, this community is getting a whole new body, face, and a bunch more brains...and good souls. Watch and see. Very very very good things are happening. It is a bummer that many had to pay the price for pirating conceptart content and damaging artists rights, including their own. We are continuing with doing cool stuff and good things for the sole benefit of the art community.



Jason Manley


ConceptArt.Org will soon no longer be offering downloads of it's content.

All videos will be available in streaming fashion ONLY. The days of theft are coming to an end.

Such is life around these parts. I have found a fast enough service and one with reliable tech. We will be able to watch right here within CA. I am hopeful it is going to go well. CA needs the support right now. We are going to do some online education stuff, need some new server stuff, and offer some new CA subscription based services as well. CA as we all know it will continue to be free and open. Just got some good stuff cooking that cannot happen without funds. Opportunities not had here on the site ever and could potentially change peoples lives for the better.

So again, please support the site. Please do not download and share these videos. CA is doing them cheap enough so everyone can afford them right now and if the piracy continues we are going to have to look at other options.


Jason

[alesoun]

I'm terminally broke, Jason, but I've never pirated anything. I guess I work too hard for what I make to rob anybody of anything.

So, how will things work from now?

[OBX]

What will the purchase format look like in the future? Are you considering making premium memberships with access to the content or would it be a pay per use thing?

[Noah Bradley]

Noooooooo...



As a proudly legit CA supporter this really pains me. I understand where you guys are coming from--trying to put a stop to piracy (and rightfully so). But as the end user... well, it's a real bummer. Having the downloaded content on my computer has a greater feeling of ownership for me. I suppose it's more the fault of pirates then anything, but I'm still really sorry to hear this happening.

[FranciscoShreds]

This sucks... Jason, got any time frame as to when this will go into affect? I'd like to buy the ones I can get before then.

[kollatt]

this is bs. i've always paid for my downloads here..

and i don't mean your decision is bs. i mean it's ridiculous that people can't pay a lousy 15$ for the amazing content offered. thanks alot jackasses. will we at least have an opportunity to download some before the situation changes? or could you set up some kind of donation event to where we can all pitch in to make it worth everyone's while to keep the content downloadable or something?

[Kaffinated]

[Arshes Nei]

Ugh, I won't be able to get any further downloads then. I don't regularly use broadband so I am not gonna sit around to watch a download in public or a wi-fi...that's where I download to take home :/

[romance]

Sadly, the days of theft aren't coming to an end.

This still doesn't solve your piracy problem. Anybody can easily just use capture software and distribute the captured stream freely across the net. Then you're left in the same predicament as before.

Changing the formats from downloads to streaming will also lessen the quality of the videos (not quality of production, you do a fine job Aaron and team). Even watching a stream in HD of someone doing a PS tutorial makes it difficult to decipher what their brush opacity is at.

I wish you the best of luck on your campaign against piracy.

[cesmls]

Yep, it'll make it harder, but my hubby (a computer system designer) agrees with Romance - it won't really solve the problem. It will deter a "casual pirate" & people like Arshes Neil will be SOL, but it won't deter a determined pirate.

[Muz]

oh man.... you guys do realise that in aus we have crazy download caps and forced dynamic ip's? Its like $40 a month for 20 gb. So to have to stream this stuff is not good :/.

And a big f*** you to all the pirates out there.

[beastathon]

$40 a month for 20GB?!! I'm paying $100 for 25gb....

[Kaffinated]

oh man.... you guys do realise that in aus we have crazy download caps and forced dynamic ip's? Its like $40 a month for 20 gb. So to have to stream this stuff is not good :/.

And a big f*** you to all the pirates out there.

wtf? why do you have such restrictions?

[beastathon]

Didn't you hear? It's part of the governments initiative to make Australia have the worst internet in first world countries. Next up; mandatory censorship!

[Muz]

they arent really legal things, its called greedy companies. You are always given a dynamic ip and if you want a static one you apparently have to pay more....

[Kaffinated]

Didn't you hear? It's part of the governments initiative to make Australia have the worst internet in first world countries. Next up; mandatory censorship!

censorship doesn't work on the Internets.

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Reading this really broke my heart because despite being really really poor I'm happy to support this site by purchasing downloadable content. Unfortunately, both my internet at home and at work are too slow/unstable to make watching streaming content enjoyable, and I'm just not sure I'd be willing to spend money on watching "buffering" appear every couple of minutes.

I love this site, I love supporting this site, and I love that the artists make money on the videos they helped to create, but if the content is going to be streamed I'd rather just donate to the site directly, because quite frankly I agree with Romance that this unfortunately isn't going to stop piracy. Yes, I will sorely miss the awesome vids...but so will a lot of honest CA members like Arshes Nei.

[Ian Miles]

I have few legit videos, and I´m coming to buy more, but this had left me very unhappy, there are a lot ppl out there Jason, who have paid for those videos. If you are going to make the videos free in streaming, the ppl who have paid, will be VERY dissapointed. Me too. There are a lot of video capture software out there to make the piracy explode when the streaming arrives. Maybe stronger wartermarks, or DRM or anything, but care about the rights of legit buyers will be the top priority here. Please Jason, consider this.

[Jason Manley]

The reality is..we change to streaming and hope the screen capturing stops. If not, we cannot keep this site free for all to participate in. These vids support this site, it's growth, and cover all the bandwidth costs. We transfer at least 5000 gigs a month. That does not come cheap here..nor do the entire mass of servers. I think those who see streaming as bandwidth heavy on these get the idea. Though a video is only two hundred megs or so....ca is five thousand gigs. Now maybe that helps show how I feel about this happening. Streaming will work. The software seems solid.

We already have nearly given away education at the given price point. I just do not understand why we cannot do a good thing without people taking advantage of it. One of the online schools doing education stuff has had NO torrents and their streaming classes are more than two hundred times what we sell these vids for. Life sure isn't fair huh?


jason

[Jason Manley]

We cannot give them away free. If we could, we would. But we have to support this site and keep the site free. We are using an online payment system.

[Jason Manley]

This sucks... Jason, got any time frame as to when this will go into affect? I'd like to buy the ones I can get before then.

Within two weeks is my guess.

[Barts]

[aefx]

Changing the formats from downloads to streaming will also lessen the quality of the videos (not quality of production, you do a fine job Aaron and team). Even watching a stream in HD of someone doing a PS tutorial makes it difficult to decipher what their brush opacity is at.

As an IT professional I have to agree with this sentiment. Many companies over time have tried various ways of restricting the rights of the users in order to prevent piracy and have failed, some miserably. It's so easy to capture streaming media that I can't believe it will be worth the effort.

Not only that, but as for myself, I've purchased a ton of videos from here but I won't purchase a single streaming vid. There's little use for me as I like to be able to go back over instructional videos for information that I missed before. I also like watching these videos when I am not online like on the train or in the studio etc... So in effect you've lost a paying customer here in an attempt to get people who were never going to pay anyways to subscribe... doesn't make sense.

[Form]

just a shot in the dark, but what if you had a coder create a small ap like 'steam' where you could download the vids to your HD (once only, so you nullify the personal bandwidth issue), but had to be logged in to watch the vid through the 'CA Player'? This way, you could even get the ap onto net enabled phones and pda's etc... and control piracy more acutely. In order to watch the vids you are logged into the ca ap which obv records your ip...

The upshot is you could then use this app to deliver new forms of content (perhaps using it as a newsletter distribution, downloading tutorials, a platform for users to sell their own material through etc?)

sounds like a lot more work, but thought it might spark an idea.

good luck whatever avenue you pursue, it will be a pity to see the downloads go!

[Form]

just in case anyone doesnt know what steam is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery)

[Kaffinated]

[Jason Manley]

It is of note that the price will be going up as well. We are looking at pricing the training vids 25+ USD from here on out (though that is still a bargain). We may go up from there. We will not be allowing the videos to be downloaded to the users computers any longer. Lesson learned. If some of you prefer to not do that, I am sorry. I have my hands tied here. It is either do this, or the entire site goes pay subscription. It will support itself. People upset about transferring 250 megs...man..i wish I had that problem. Just imagine if you had to transfer five TERABYTES of free data each month and then and then you look in the mailbox only to find out that the check has been stolen.

Now you know my reality.

[Muz]

When you put it that way, my whining is really insignificant :/.

Its a real shame that the prices will be going up, but i guess if its gotta happen then its gotta happen.

[Smarty]

Whats the percentage of people who payed for the videos comapred to those who got a pirated copy?

Basicly how many people are you stopping compared to how many people your putting off with the new system?

Is this more based on a stand for the right thing vs how much revenue this will create for CA. I know it sucks. I hope it works out.

[Theking78]

Ugh, I won't be able to get any further downloads then.

I quote this.... I've always been happy to pay for the MB downloads because they're great tutorials but I want to be free to carry them with me when I go away with my laptop to have the possibility to watch them wherever I want and whenever I want.
I absolutely don't want to pay a single dollar for a streaming video because it would mean that I'm paying for a thing that would never be mine and free for me to use whenever I want.
I prefer to pay a video a little bit more but have the download available or I prefer to have to pay an annual subscription to be able to download content.

I hope you'll think about this well before going in the streaming direction only.

Only last thing: I work on the Information Technology and if the only reason that you have for putting the files on streaming instead of downloads is to stop the piracy I want to inform you that streaming content can be easily recorded from the pc screen and then put into a torrent site as well....