Campaign ended!

More videos on our Youtube or Vimeo channels.

And if you missed the campaign,

here's a quick summary:

Episode 2:

Episode 1:

Copying. We do it thousands of times every day. We do it with language, the clothes we wear, we even do it with our dance moves! Ideas are everywhere and people, much like sponges, absorb everything. Copying is rooted into our very essence.

Copying is our way of sharing and creating. But copies themselves don't have any monetary value. You can make infinite copies of the same file. That doesn't make you the author of the piece, nor does it equal stealing. That's why it's called copying!

Copy-me is an infographic-style animated webseries that deals with our modern attitude to copying. It assembles the most relevant information and makes it accessible to everyone. It will span eight short-and-sweet episodes that talk about copyright, public domain, originality, artists and how they can make money, digital copies and lot more!

Everything will be concise, short, informative, and accessible to everyone.

It will appeal both to copyright literates, as well as to those with no previous knowledge on these topics. Our biggest goal is to raise awareness and highlight our concerns regarding the copyright realities of today. We think these topics are extremely relevant and could use an update. We hope that, through educating the audience, our webseries will make a difference.

I'm Alex, I studied film school and I'm a freelance video editor. I've been immersed in the world of copying/ "piracy"/ free & open culture for quite some time now. These subjects are very dear to me and I can't seem to evade them. They have to do with a lot more than just copyright infringement and other mischief. They also concern freedom, equality, human rights and human nature.

And this covers everything I believe in. Everything I want to fight for.

I previously made a short documentary called The Internet is Closing Down that tackles some of the same issues, but with this team, I'm ready to take on something much bigger! We've been working for about a year on this. So, here we are. An online series that's not EVER been made before: a webseries dedicated to debunking the myths of copying.

We plan on releasing the first two episodes, 25 days apart, even before the end of the campaign! The remaining six will follow about a month apart.

Here's a more detailed rundown of what they'll focus on:

If you've got any other interesting topics you’d like to see discussed, please share them with us and we'll do our best to incorporate everything you think is important. 

We know that everyone's time is important. And we're big fans of educational videos like C.G.P.Grey, MinutePhysics or Ted-Ed. So we'll try not to eat up too much of your time. At the same time, our episodes will be fully packed with relevant facts, examples, a lot of information, as well as with our personal views on things. All of it in eight short 3 to 5 minute infographic style episodes.

All the videos will be free. And not just like in free beer.

The webseries will be live on Youtube and Vimeo, free for download and... torrent-able :) No DRM, of course. More importantly, Copy-me will be licensed under a CC-BY license, which means that you’ll be able to redistribute, remix, and do whatever you like with the videos! We just ask you to attribute us.

We’ve got nothing to hide. And we’re big fans of open projects.

So we’ll try to be as transparent as possible. All throughout production, we’ll be updating you on our progress, talking to you, and listening to your suggestions.

More importantly, we rely on YOU to make closed captioning for friends in your country, so more people can see the videos! We’ll provide the files and the know-how for you to easily translate the English subtitles, so they can be downloaded and featured directly on Youtube & Vimeo. And they'll have your name on them!

Go check our community board!

Storyboard - Illustrations for a part of an episode

Screenshot - "Everyone can make their own copy!"

Screenshot - "Sharing is free, natural and we do it out of love."

Screenshot from Work - Video effects for Rick Falkvinge :)

Our goal is to make all the episodes as useful and instructive as we possibly can. The most important thing for us is that people learn (and find out) about public domain, the history and effects of copyright, a Creative Commons-based business model for content creators in the digital realm, and lots more. And we believe the visual medium is perfect for talking through all these points! It makes them exciting, compelling – and a lot more fun to share it with friend.

Join our newsletter to keep in touch!

Whichever perk you end up pledging for, you'll be directly supporting an awesome webseries that wouldn't have EVER existed without your help! Want to join our little club?

This crowdfunding campaign spans 60 days. Why so long, you may ask? Well, because we've already started working on the first two episodes and they'll be live even before the campaign ends. This way, you'll be able to share a completely finished episode and make more people interested by the time our campaign ends!

But enough logistics. So, what's in it for you? Just take a look:

Having trouble contributing? Here's a list of Common Errors.

Note: Unfortunately Paypal limits guests. That means that if you don't have a Paypal account, you will not be able to contribute more than 500EUR. If you do want a larger perk but don't want a Paypal account, please contact us.

T-shirt sizes/Poster Choosing/Shipping

Each contributor will be asked individually about the size of the shirt they want or the poster they chose once the campaign has ended. So please be patient, everyone will certainly receive the exact order they want. 

Depending on the number of perks ordered, we'll try to find the best fulfillment strategy to get your orders to you as quick as possible. To reduce the costs (and keep our perks cheap), this will happen only after our campaign has ended. So, we plan on working closely with the nice guys at Teelaunch for the T-shirts & posters part, with CustomUSB for... you guessed it, USBs, and/or other similar services - depending on the total number of orders. The delay shouldn't be more than a month after the campaign has finished. The more orders there are, the better the quality, speed and overall efficiency!

We knocked our heads together many times to come up with the right amount for our budget. You should know that this is not what a professional webseries costs, not by far.
It's much less.

Nevertheless, we think it's quite a fair budget. That's because we really just want to see this series out there, reaching as many people as possible. Spreading the knowledge. And working on the issues.

So, what will you pay for?
Indiegogo charges us a fee of 4 to 9 percent of the entire amount raised. On top of that, there will be a 3% tax for credit card processing. About half of the remaining amount will go into paying all the printing and shipping services for your goodies.
So, if we reach our goal, we will get about 10.000 Euros that will pay for eight episodes. That means a mere 1350E per episode. And that's the amount of money that will pay for all these things below:

• Production, research, writing and script editing
• Illustration and animation made from scratch
• Professional voice recording and studio time
• Music composing, sound effects and sound design
• Video and audio editing all these things together

So it's quite fair, isn't it? :)

Liviu is a talented young illustrator with whom we've previously worked on other great projects. He worked on a number of commercial videos and does a great job at drawing fun stuff. He recently launched his own site, called Chenar ("Frame") where he and his colleagues mix journalism with infographics... with a twist. Take a look at his entire portfolio here: Nene.ro

Ioana lives to tells stories. She's a wonderful writer and a great English speaker. She works in SEO content generation, writes delightful articles for SUB25, translates film scripts and does a lot of other language-focused work. She's now working on a masters in Visual Studies and dreams of going to New York to study creative writing.

Ștefan has a lot of experience with audio/video, but he only soon decided to turn his whole life around. After years of tinkering with audio, he now makes a living mixing sound for commercials. He's also a very talented music composer and has a real eye for video editing, but if you ask him, he'll be all modest and crap.

Alex, as he's writing these very lines doesn't really know how to talk about himself :) He's a licensed video editor, has worked on feature films, as well as on a lot of shorts. He also does work for several film festivals in Romania. He's passionate about human rights and internet freedom and, after his short documentary release, has started to think bigger.
A lot bigger :) Copy-me.org

 

Do they pay you to spread propaganda?

Well, you'll just have to take our word for it, but we really don't have any hidden agenda. We are an independent project and we do this out of love. Seriously, we have no ulterior motives. We'd be much smarter about it, if someone were really paying us.

Where are you from? Is your English gonna sound all crappy?

We're from Bucharest, Romania. So... somewhere in Eastern Europe. However, we do have an American English native speaker on the voice overs, so no worries there!

Why is your campaign under flexible funding?

Because we want to make this project happen either way. We'll be happy even reaching half of our goal. We just hope we can cover our expenses. But rest assured, you will get all the goodies you pledged for, no matter what!

What will the perk delivery date be?

You'll have to wait till we finish dealing with our suppliers, so we can get the best bang for your buck. We do hope it won't be more than a month after the campaign has ended.

Can I tell you the size of the t-shirt / what poster I want?

Each contributor will be asked individually about their choices once the campaign has ended. So please be patient, everyone will receive the exact order they want.

Got any other questions ?

We'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and even your criticism! Maybe there's something we've missed or something we've done completely wrong! Either way, here's a number of ways you can reach us.

You can write a comment in the comments tab, you can contact us via PM, you can get a hold of us via any social platform we're on, or just leave us a line at: info@copy-me.org. And thank you for reading this whole thing!

Some illustrations used on this page are derivative of icons from The Noun Project (CC-BY): Cloud designed by Simple Icons; Cloud Download designed by Ugur Akdemir; Hammer designed by Daniel Garrett Hickey; Mouse designed by Camila Bertoco; Ruler designed by Creatorid'immagine; Creation designed by Jakob Vogel; Duplicate designed by Austin Andrews; Poster designed by Semilla Solar; Tshirt designed by Pasquale Ottaiano; Video Player designed by Antar; Music designed by Thomas Grollier; Video designed by Anas Ramadan; Directors Chair designed by Vitor Gurgel Siqueira; Computer designed by AnsteyDesign; Camera designed by MaJo Ox.