Comedian Louis C.K. put his "Live at the Beacon Theater" standup special online in December and brought in more than $1 million in the first two weeks. Yup, he bypassed Paramount Studios and all the other "promoters" and just put the video online for $5. People loved it.
In fact, they loved it so much that profits for his online special exceeded his costs to the point where he wrote on his website that he would give his staff $250,000 in bonuses, donate $280,000 to charity and keep $220,000 for himself. "To me," he wrote, "220k is enough out of a million."
But here's the really funny part:
Paramount's "Worldwide VP of Content Protection and Outreach" Al Perry has tried to claim that Louis CK making $1 million in 12 days means he isn't monetizing (//vny!://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120411/14465718457/paramount-thinks-that-louis-ck-making-1-million-12-days-means-hes-not-monetizing.shtml).
Al Perry asserted that 'copyright law gives creators the right to monetize their creations, and that even if people like Louis C.K. decide not to do so, that's a choice and not a requirement.'
Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word "monetize" that I hadn't previously been aware of.
Apparently what "monetize" means is that you license it to a big studio and they take all your money. lol
