Effectiveness of the Knock-Off Nigel campaign

edited December 2008 in Chit chat
Anybody seen the Knock-Off Nigel anti-piracy campaign?

Two adverts:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4TbqBPmInjQ&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GlhdK5Yl8u0

Does anybody really think these adverts are going to stop die hard pirates from downloading films?

I doubt it myself.
Post edited by BigBadMick on
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Comments

  • edited December 2008
    it wouldn't stop me if I still did it, but I don't even bother doing it now I've got on demand cable.


    p.s "they" do seem to have realised that it is a bunch of geeks and nigels and kevins downloading and distributing moviez for free to all and sundry, rather than some international cartel of terrorists linked to people trafficing, drugs, lord lucan and al-qaeda selling them.
  • edited December 2008
    BigBadMick wrote: »
    Anybody seen the Knock-Off Nigel anti-piracy campaign?

    Here's one problem they have:-

    Many people who grab everything off the Internet or disks from friends to watch, don't particularly watch TV anymore, or at least very little of it.

    I'm not saying that's me in particular :D but it just so happens that due to other interests (including the speccy), I have not watched any TV at home for about four months now.

    I did catch the "advert" though - it was on in the "tea room" at work, where the TV is always on and I can't really avoid it.

    Seems like a straight forward psycological tactic of applying a stigma to something that probably more than 50% of people do in order to make it appear socially unacceptable.

    Can't say it'd worry anyone too much, particularly some of the people I know are more likely amused by it. :)
  • edited December 2008
    This website, connected to the campaign, disguises itself as a knock-off nigel embarrassment site.

    http://www.knockoffornot.com/

    I mean, is anybody stupid enough to supply the people behind the website with all of their knock-off nigel friends email addresses? Is anybody stupid enough to believe that whoever set up the website isn't going to use the information supplied to trace pirates?
  • edited December 2008
    Anti-piracy campaigns are historically pretty dire though - it's traditional!

    Who could forget the abysmal "Don't copy that floppy?"
  • edited December 2008
    Here's one person that the campaign has definitely reached out to:

  • edited December 2008
    Load of bollocks really, I'm sure they started doing those ads while I was still in England, and I thought it was crap then.

    I generally think it's not going to stop anyone from downloading things at all.

    I'd personally download a movie, game or something "knock off", if all those people in an office (usually the largest hive of knock off goods) would stand around me and sing that at me.

    Do you know why? Because I'd be the one safe in the knowledge that I didn't look like a complete dick :D
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited December 2008
    Na, Nigel's the Man!
  • edited December 2008
    I just can't read the name "Nigel" without thinking of "We're only making plans for Nigel" by XTC.

    That's the definitive "Nigel" song, surely!
  • edited December 2008
    To make it worse, they've started putting 'NICE ONE!' leaflets inside DVD cases, with a thumbs up picture.

    The text underneath says 'Thanks for buying this genuine DVD. We hope you enjoy it. Obviously you're not a Knock-Off Nigel but rather the kind of person who generally does the right thing. Good on you. Hats off. Caps doffed. The lot.'

    Er, no :p

    I'm the sort of person who wouldn't have paid full price for that copy of Deja Vu, and only bought it because it was only £3 in Tescos. Would I have downloaded it if it was still £10+ and I really wanted to watch it? Maybe. :wink:

    What a stupid, childish, patronising, campaign.
  • edited December 2008
    I've just joined the Facebook group, "Everytime You See that Knock Off Nigel Ad, Pirate Something":

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21039377542
  • edited December 2008
    I'd have downloaded anything if it was free.

    That's kind of the point of downloads, and downloads offer the wonderous try before you buy of the 90's that seems to have vanished altogether.

    I'll say if somebody genuinely likes something and thinks it's worth owning then they'll buy it.

    If there weren't so mant polished turds and rip-offs on the market maybe the whole downloading t thing would ease up a little, but in my experience if something looks OK, but may be shit. People will check it out first, be it by legal or dodgy means.

    ....and sometimes downloads are the only option to get that weird game or album that didn't get a release in you region.

    Either way I'm 50/50 on the whole DL/buy things caper.
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited December 2008
    BigBadMick wrote: »
    This website, connected to the campaign, disguises itself as a knock-off nigel embarrassment site.

    http://www.knockoffornot.com/

    That's utterly pathetic.

    The purpose of these adverts is to artificially create social prejudice against people who pirate films (it's sort of bastard cousin of "astroturfing" where businesses create fake "grassroots" consumer pressure groups) but it very very clearly isn't going to work. Ever. If even one person actually sent their mate a "knock off Nigel" "surprise" in any sort of sincerity I'd be very surprised.
  • edited December 2008
    It really is the sort of thing that causes irritation against the film industry more than anything and dare I say it, mass rebellion.

    I'm not saying I condone outright piracy, but how come the positive effects of piracy are never discussed?

    Like for example people get messages from youtube that they can keep priated music/clips clips on there, but only on the condition that ads related to the pirated clip are placed on the page.

    Nice little earner!
  • edited December 2008
    I didn't click it but I wonder if they charge you when you try to DL the "Knock off Nigel" ringtone, if they do I'm sure there's a site you can get it from for free :D
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited December 2008
    Of course Richard Stallman even objects to the term "piracy" citing it as industry fuelled propaganda.

    I liked his quote - "The piracy rate in Paraguay must be 0%, since it is a landlocked country".
  • edited December 2008
    I think the entire campaign is going to be largely ineffective as it's seen by 99.9% of the populace as a victimless crime.

    However, the same was thought of with folks making bogus insurance claims a few years ago and look at how that has changed. The huge difference between the two is the insurance claims actually ended up costing *us* money, hence the social stigma nowadays. It's going to have to be a very persuasive argument to convince people the same with DVD's/games/music.
  • edited December 2008
    I've downloaded music/films from the net, when a film or album blows me away i always buy it. With my favourite groups i must admit i download it if it leaks a few months early but again i 100% buy it.

    If theres an album i've downloaded and i'm not keen on it, i simply delete it. Bit like going into a shop , listening to it a few times and thinking nahhhh.

    Would have bought a few songs off itunes etc but all this 'UK pays 99p a song, Europe 79p' or whatever it was put me off. We're always getting ripped off
  • edited December 2008
    There have been a few things changing my attitude to piracy.

    One is my discovery that, having bought and paid for two Rush albums (in WMA format), I then couldn't acquire the licences for two of the tracks, no matter how hard I tried -- also, Tesco restrict the rights of their WMAs so much, you're not even allowed to back up the licences! :o Hence, I've re-downloaded those two albums in MP3 format, and no longer purchase downloads -- and won't resume doing so until I find another pay-as-you-go supplier which provides tracks in MP3 (or other DRM-free) format.

    Another major irritation is that, for no good reason, the sixth Harry Potter movie has been put back from the November just past to next July! :o As people have already stated on another board I'm on, if that doesn't persuade people to download it instead of waiting, nothing will...

    Plus there's the irritating anti-piracy ads at the start of DVDs, as if the endless trailers for movies in which I have no interest aren't annoying enough. (It's like someone here has already stated; "How can we best fight against piracy? -- I know, let's get up the noses of the honest people who don't commit it.")

    (Note that, contrary to what has frequently been claimed over the past few months (especially by the infantile idiots on a certain IRC channel), I put up with a somewhat slow and often unstable connection because I don't go in for massive downloading -- not, as often claimed, vice-versa. I could (if I so desired) have a 3Gb or even 7Gb monthly cap, but I don't so desire as it's no use to me (I've used less than 400Mb transfer this past month). Plus, on the rare occasions I find something much larger than 50Mb or so to download, I can always nip out to one of the hundreds of nearby cybercaf?s; I downloaded the ISO of Open Office just the other month.

    It should also be self-evident that if there were anything I could do to improve my connection, I would already have done this (for instance, there's no point in getting a landline installed if you have no security of tenure, and thus no guarantee that you'll be around long enough to get any benefit from it). Maybe the guy who runs #speccy will eventually understand this, when he grows up -- if he ever does.)
    I never make misteaks mistrakes misyales errurs — oh, sod it.
  • edited December 2008
    The campaign has been a huge sucess at my place of work, the bloke who sells DVD's has now been re-nicknamed Nigel.
  • edited December 2008
    chop983 wrote: »
    The campaign has been a huge sucess at my place of work, the bloke who sells DVD's has now been re-nicknamed Nigel.

    And you're all making plans for him? :D
    I never make misteaks mistrakes misyales errurs — oh, sod it.
  • edited December 2008
    Like for example people get messages from youtube that they can keep priated music/clips clips on there, but only on the condition that ads related to the pirated clip are placed on the page.

    Nice little earner!

    I got one of those for the YSRnRY videos - I suspect their choice of response is, in their view, the lesser of all evils. It's more cost effective for them to do things that way and save the lawyers for the bigger fish.

    I've nothing against the Nigel ads - people who have vast collections of downloaded movies don't impress me either, especially when they boast about it.

    "You managed to keep a download going for a few hours and then managed to operate a DVD burner - yay you!"
  • edited December 2008
    Of course Richard Stallman even objects to the term "piracy" citing it as industry fuelled propaganda.

    Heh - you know he also redefined "free" and "freedom"? I have a huge problem with that.
  • edited December 2008
    NickH wrote: »
    Heh - you know he also redefined "free" and "freedom"? I have a huge problem with that.

    Well, a lot of people see Stallman as an uncompromising extremist.

    Whether you agree with that or not, one thing he did point out (actually was it him?) is the difference between "free as in beer" and "free as in speech", since the English language is lacking separate adjectives for this - although other languages do naturally make this distinction. I note you've made this distinction by using the word "freedom" in this case.

    If nothing else, I thought that was a point worth making by the FSF.
  • edited December 2008
    Now that I think about it:

    Downloading movies/music/software/whatever is like masturbation: everybody does it, everybody knows that everybody does it, and most of those who do it do it alone and feel a little guilty and ashamed after doing it, and certainly don't consider it acceptable to boast about it to anyone else.
  • edited December 2008
    NickH wrote: »
    Now that I think about it:

    Downloading movies/music/software/whatever is like masturbation: everybody does it, everybody knows that everybody does it, and most of those who do it do it alone and feel a little guilty and ashamed after doing it, and certainly don't consider it acceptable to boast about it to anyone else.

    id rather be caught by my mum downloading a film than the other thing.

    im not ashamed of downloading stuff, i like to spend my money on other things. im not really ashamed of masturbating. i don't go on about either but if asked id admit to both wholeheartedly. (maybe not to my mum)
  • edited December 2008
    Piracy is an overrated problem anyway.

    Unless you were planning on either spending money going to see at the cinema, or buying brand new DVDs of, every single film that comes out that you're interested in seeing, the industry isn't losing money anyway.

    If I can't afford to legally watch a new film, the industry still isn't getting my money, so they still lose. Often I watch things that I never would have paid money for in the first place anyway.

    But if I enjoy something, I'm a lot more likely to then buy an original, and go to see the sequel (if there is one).
  • edited December 2008
    The thing that stopped me buying dodgy new films from the Chinese guy that dropped by once a week was a documentary on illegal immigration, people trafficking, drugs, prostitution... that sort of thing. He wasn't called Nigel though, it was Yo Ying.
  • edited December 2008
    If they're really worried about piracy, I think they should sort out those Somali gangs that are hijacking oil tankers before worrying too much about people copying movies and the like. :-P
  • edited December 2008
    robert@fm wrote: »
    (Note that, contrary to what has frequently been claimed over the past few months (especially by the infantile idiots on a certain IRC channel), I put up with a somewhat slow and often unstable connection because I don't go in for massive downloading -- not, as often claimed, vice-versa. I could (if I so desired) have a 3Gb or even 7Gb monthly cap, but I don't so desire as it's no use to me (I've used less than 400Mb transfer this past month). Plus, on the rare occasions I find something much larger than 50Mb or so to download, I can always nip out to one of the hundreds of nearby cybercaf?s; I downloaded the ISO of Open Office just the other month.

    It should also be self-evident that if there were anything I could do to improve my connection, I would already have done this (for instance, there's no point in getting a landline installed if you have no security of tenure, and thus no guarantee that you'll be around long enough to get any benefit from it). Maybe the guy who runs #speccy will eventually understand this, when he grows up -- if he ever does.)

    we don't care whether you download films or not, I don't either. It's just the constant disconnect messages filling up 50% of the channel activity that are annoying :)

    oh, and why not be rude to spike somewhere where he'll read it rather than safely hidden away in a web forum that you know he avoids :-)
  • edited December 2008
    I was going to post a link to the IT crowd anti piracy ad piss take on youtube...

    but the beautiful irony in seeing this message is almost better:

    "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by FremantleMedia Group Limited"

    :lol:
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