Mark Diestler, executive producer of horror-thriller "The Inner Room," is crossing his fingers that the film's recent posting on BitTorrent will spur satisfied downloaders to support the project with a legitimate purchase - or at least tell their non-pirating friends about it.
Speaking to Torrent Freak, Diestler proclaimed he would rather see the film shared freely on sites like BitTorrent than go unwatched or ignored. Then, at least those who enjoy it may end up buying a copy, he explained.
"In the end not everyone is going to hate it, some will like it and you would hope that a lot of people would enjoy it - and even more importantly talk about it," said Diestler. "That buzz would hopefully translate to additional sales of the film. People buy the DVD to see the bonus features or just to help support the filmmakers of a film that they really enjoyed."
Diestler added that he and the film's creators even pondered posting the film to BitTorrent themselves, but nixed the idea for several reasons, including technical ignorance.
"My first response was even [if] I wanted to, I wouldn't know how," he said. "I would have to hire someone to do it. In the end, we figured it would show up on BitTorrent regardless, so no need to post it ourselves."
The filmmaker's reasoning isn't so uncommon. Earlier this year, Distracted Media, the studio behind indie horror flick "The Tunnel," convinced Paramount to publish the title for free on BitTorrent the same day the DVD version hit retailers.
Authors have both willingly and unwillingly relied on piracy to help get the word out to people who may otherwise never read it.
Celebrated novelist Paulo Coelho has long voiced his belief that free downloads have actually helped him sell books. The writer even created the "Pirate Coehlo" blog to encourage new readers to try before they buy.
Adam Mansbach, author of the comedic children's book for sleep-deprived parents "Go the F*ck to Sleep," found his book topping sales charts after scans of it were leaked and shared online. And in Japan, manga artist Ken Akamatsu created a "file purification project" that asked pirates to voluntarily turn in out-of-print works, which would then be converted into print-worthy (and legal) form thanks to the addition of advertisements. (via Torrent Freak)
