#bootleg discourse

who are the people watching the bootlegs? is it 

rich and/or able-bodied people and/or people who live in/near big cities who can afford to see professional theatre (namely, big ticket venues like Broadway and the West End) dozens of times a year and not worry about how the several hundred dollar ticket will affect their daily lifestyle

or...

poor, disabled, international, and geographically isolated people who want nothing more than to see professional theatre live but are physically unable to because those same celebs and creators are doing nothing to speak out about theatre inacessibility and instead are using their platform to villanize said poor, disabled, international, and geographically isolated people

if you have any position of power in the theatre realm and you’re using your platform to talk about the evils of bootlegs and the people who watch them INSTEAD of how millions of theatre fans are unable to see live theatre because of the inaccessibility of theatre, you are a bigger part of the problem than fans who watch bootlegs.

Those Broadway Actors™️: “You are the reason Broadway will not return.” You are selfish, how dare you watch a bootleg and deprive Broadway actors from receiving the money you would spend on their show that is now closed. I don’t care that you’re a young fan of mine and most likely a minor, especially when considering the young average age of my fanbase. It’s not my fault my show was inaccessible when it was open, if you can’t afford these costs then don’t bother being a part of this community.

A Broadway director: “Watching bootlegs is directly comparable to watching child p*rnography and here is why: a thread.”

Basically, i’m an IB student writing my Extended Essay (a 4000 word research paper) on the ethics of theatre bootlegs, and i need some resources

This is where y’all come in, i cannot seem to find ANY useable resources on the topic of theatre bootlegs, i have found exactly one (1) paper on this, and i’m not even sure if i can use it so PLEASE HELP ME LMAO

NFT MEANS NOT FOR TRADE. THAT MEANS THE BOOTLEG IS NOT TO BE SHARED, TRADED, SCREENSHOTTED/POSTED, ETC. UNTIL. THAT. DATE.

a whole lot of really cool bootlegs were filmed recently which is awesome!! it's so cool that these shows are going to be immortalized and made accessible to people who can't afford to come see them!! but FOR THE TIME BEING, those bootlegs are being kept private both for the benefit of the shows that just started and for the safety of the master! if a video is spread around right after it's taken, do you know how easy it is for someone to track down who took it? and then that person can't take anymore videos. and then the only person you've screwed over is yourself.

the nft period also allows the master to sell their bootleg to small groups of people in order to recoup the cost of their ticket, before people begin trading it around themselves. oftentimes someone who films will go to a show they really have no interest in seeing, or a show they've seen before, just to get a video for YOU GUYS. that hurts the bank. if you want them to keep doing it, that money has to come from somewhere. (buying the bootleg directly from the master STILL DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO BREAK A NFT DATE)

so when you break a nft date, all you're doing is giving a big 🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻 to the person risking themselves to give you this content, just because you're selfish and impatient and can't wait a few months to see something or share something. and then people will stop filming altogether! and then we're all going to have to listen to you bitch about something you brought upon yourselves.

you guys whine about the fact that i won't share any bootleg content i have and this is exactly why. i'm not as forgiving about what happened last year as my friends are. i have zero faith that any of you can get your heads out of your asses long enough to not share everything you get in a matter of minutes.

and to be CLEAR, breaking a nft date involves doing any of the following without the permission of the master:

- sending the bootleg to friends

- posting that you have the bootleg and that you'll share it

- openly and obviously talking about the bootleg

- putting the bootleg on your tradelist

- posting screenshots/clips of the bootleg (looking at you, twitter!)

so can y'all just...fucking stop?