HypnoSummit Piracy

[Scott Sandland, C.Ht.]

Well, it happened again. It was bound to. I’m going to start with an explanation of the problem and then share with everyone my solution.

THE PROBLEM

The HypnoSummit site was hacked and all the videos from HypnoSummit 2.0 were illegally copied. Without getting into the details of how they did it, I will say that the person who did this has created a real problem that I’ve been busy working on for a while now. As some of you know, the HypnoSummit site was attacked during the event and shut the site down for about 7 minutes while we sorted it out. Everything had to be shut down and restarted because of it. They recently came back and got everything, and from what we have seen they plan on putting it on torrent sites.

The thing that makes this more complex is that the HypnoSummit doesn’t actually own the rights to the videos that were stolen. We let all speakers retain the rights to their presentations. This is why we profit share with every single speaker who presents for us and allow them to sell the videos on their own sites as well as giving them a 50% cut of anything we sell on www.hypnosummitstore.com.

This means the individual(s) who pirated our videos didn’t steal from us, they stole from every single presenter. If I don’t do something about it, speakers won’t continue to present at the HypnoSummit. Why would someone share their hard work and valuable insights knowing that they were going to be stolen? This is a big problem for anyone interested in the future of the HypnoSummit.

If the videos are pirated that reduces the value for the presenters, potential ticket sales, and attendance. This impacts our ability to get the quality of speakers you guys want to hear and makes the event financially unviable. If the presenters don’t see this as a worthwhile investment they go away. Simple as that.

The HypnoSummit isn’t Microsoft. Melissa and I invest tens of thousands of dollars and (along with our team) invest thousands of hours of effort and simply can’t afford to compete with piracy. It is more profitable for Melissa and I to see our clients than it is to put on this event. Piracy not only robs everyone involved of the money we have earned, it takes from us the emotional satisfaction we earn from building something valuable for the hypnosis community. As many of you are aware, that is much more important than the money.

I’m happy to give HypnoThoughts and all its content away free for anyone interested. The moderators and I, along with many who post great content, share that freely with the members. The HypnoSummit is something different. It depends on ticket sales to exist. When you download those recordings you undermine the likelihood of us being able to continue to create these events. It also kills our motivation to keep innovating and building new resources for everyone.

I demand that you show the team, the presenters, and all the honest people who paid more respect than that.


THE SOLUTION

My solution is as simple as the problem. It applies to anyone I find out is downloading the pirated material, not just the individual who initially took it. If you know anything about torrent distribution you know that by downloading it you make it more available to others. You also understand how easy it is to track seeders and leechers.

We will make an example out of people who pirate any HypnoSummit data and undermine our ability to continue to share high quality information with others.

If I find out that you stole from us, including anyone who supports the theft by downloading the data, your IP address will be banned from HypnoThoughts, the HypnoSummit, and any future site Melissa and I create, either individually or in partnership. Additionally, I will publicly post your name on HypnoThoughts.com as a person who stole from us and the other presenters by supporting the distribution of copyrighted content. We will send an email to every speaker with your name on a list of people who have stolen from them. That list will also be sent to every hypnosis organization. we will then contact your internet provider with proof that will probably get your internet account terminated with that company.

An interesting point worth noting is that if a few of the presenters get upset, it would only require 3 of them to get together and form a class action lawsuit against any person who pirates the data. Class action lawsuits are paid for by the District Attorney, not the plaintiffs. There are plenty of DA’s out there looking to make a statement about internet piracy. I’m not promising anything will happen, but I do know that the complexity of this issue actually makes prosecution much easier on the presenters.

CONCLUSION

Those of you who know me know that I have a very long fuse and am not quick to be upset. You also know how important loyalty is to me. Downloading these pirated videos is stealing from people who have supported us, and we refuse to sit by and let anyone do that.

The HypnoSummit team and all of the presenters put a lot of work into creating all these resources and providing all this content for the hypnosis community. All we ask in return is that you act out of integrity and show the content and people who create it the respect they deserve.

Please discourage people from downloading this stolen information and help us to continue to grow these resources into things that can help you even more. Be part of something productive rather than part of the problem.

Thanks,

Scott Sandland
Creator of HypnoThoughts.com
Co-Creator of HypnoSummit.com


UPDATE
Although we know they were taken, we haven't yet found any public sites sharing the information. We will remain diligent in looking though.

If anyone has any tips on any sites or individuals that are pirating the information
please contact us at our email: hypnosummit (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank You!

[Tim Shay]

Folks,
I ,unfortunately, was not able to attend the Hypnosummit and I feel that I missed out on a great product. In the future I do I have every intention on attending. I look forward to it!

Personally, I am surprised that someone hasn't decided to use hypnosis in one form or another to embed commands in Video and Audio format so that if it is stolen material they are watching/hearing a compulsion to contact the appropriate vendor and pay full price could be induced. The more they try to resist the more they have to find every way to contact and make public the fact that they have stolen. Furthermore perhaps they will have to tell us the location from which the product was stolen and how they found it in the first place? As a musician and hypnotist/nlper building a practice I feel that these issues should be dealt with positively and efficiently.

My meta question is this:
I don't know if it's ethical or moral or even legal but..... It's nice to daydream about a day when people know that there is enough out there and there is viable reason to steal from good folks.

[Richard Rumble]

Good Morning Tim...

YOUR point is one of the ways we can point out to people who think that hypnosis is MIND CONTROL that it really isn't.... After All... If it were.. I could put those suggestions in all my recordings ( and I have in some) and everybody would still HAVE to comply.. and they don't.

People will not do things that they choose to NOT do... and turning yourself in for Piracy is one of those things that most people really do NOT want to do. But for the NEXT hypnosummit.... perhaps we should ALL put those suggestions into our program... and see how that works. The Grand Experiment so to speak.

Richard ( who is right now doing an Anti-Drug Awareness show using language patterns, nested loops, embedded commands and all the other tools to teach kids to Just Say NO.... )

Tim Shay said:

Folks,
I ,unfortunately, was not able to attend the Hypnosummit and I feel that I missed out on a great product. In the future I do I have every intention on attending. I look forward to it!

Personally, I am surprised that someone hasn't decided to use hypnosis in one form or another to embed commands in Video and Audio format so that if it is stolen material they are watching/hearing a compulsion to contact the appropriate vendor and pay full price could be induced. The more they try to resist the more they have to find every way to contact and make public the fact that they have stolen. Furthermore perhaps they will have to tell us the location from which the product was stolen and how they found it in the first place? As a musician and hypnotist/nlper building a practice I feel that these issues should be dealt with positively and efficiently.

My meta question is this:
I don't know if it's ethical or moral or even legal but..... It's nice to daydream about a day when people know that there is enough out there and there is viable reason to steal from good folks.

[Alan Barsky]

This gets me so angry. At some point one of us, and in the case of Hypnothoughts, us is a very big group, will run into one of the videos we recognize. It is like stealing a Picasso Painting, You can't sell it or you will be found out. As for "Why would someone share their hard work and valuable insights knowing that they were going to be stolen? This is a big problem for anyone interested in the future of the HypnoSummit.": less need to worry...for We are the people who created these videos, We are the people who create. People who steal, steal because they can not create. We can and will make better and better ones for the same reasons cats lick themselves. Because they (we) can.

[Fable Goodman]

Alan Barsky said:

We are the people who create. ......... We can and will make better and better ones for the same reasons cats lick themselves. Because they (we) can.

I'm with you on that Alan.

Love and hugs,

Fable