Permission To Bootleg...Please
By Syndicated Columnist Cathy Harris
June 13, 2014
There is a reason I am placing this article in my Father's Day edition of my e-newsletter because it needs to be read by men. Last year when I visited 15 states I decided not to allow anyone to film my events because many young black men were trying to bootleg my events.
Recently as an effort to keep my events from being bootlegged, I bought my own camcorder and tripod and will pay others to film my events using my own equipment.
I got a phone call the other day from a young black man on the east coast who runs an online bookstore. He told me that what I was preparing to do with the National Community Empowerment Think Tanks, that I was a "Bootleggers Dream."
He asked me if he could be first in line to bootleg my events? He even said I could come to his venue on the east coast and present to his audience and he would film my event specifically for bootlegging.
When I told him I did not want to attend his venue for the sole purpose of him bootlegging the event, he then asked me if I would just give him a CD so he could bootleg it.
He said if I did this, then he could make me famous by bootlegging the event. He said people who allow their events to be bootlegged are viewed by millions of people and therefore they become famous.
My reply to him was that I did not want to become famous, I was simply trying to help black families move forward and it should not take my events being bootlegged to do that.
I have heard horrible stories about speakers being filmed by video camera operators with their equipment and once the event is over, they are not even allowed a copy even after they paid for the footage.
Dr. Ray Hagins, a pastor and psychologist, videos are sold everywhere especially on the streets of New York where many bootleggers exist and a couple of years ago he tried to reign in those bootleggers but of course he was unsuccessful. It's not fair that his works is being sold everywhere and he is not making any profits off his own material.
I don't see why these men don't learn a topic their ownselves then film their ownselves and bootleg their own material. When both my daughters finished with their Master's Degrees in 2007, I wanted to know all about student loans and finance -- so in an effort to assist them, I read all SuzeOrman.com, ClarkHoward.com and DaveRamsey.com, who are all financial gurus, books and listened to them on radio and TV and I had enough material to speak on another topic, which was finance, which is desperately needed in the black community so I know within 6 months you can totally learn another topic.
The bottomline is black people need to get back to using ethics and integrity in their businesses and other black people need to challenge this type of behavior from the black community.
Black people are visual people so it's vital for speakers and other business owners to record their events. Cameramen and Camcorder Video Operators could be thriving careers for men or women who is familiar with this field, however, when you branch out to bootlegging, it's just like being involved in Network/Multi-level Marketing and you do nothing but devalue who you are as an individual and who you are as a business owner.
Because of the economy and technology, there are so many other legitimate careers that black men and women can get into but what we really have to ask ourselves "Are African Americans Wired for Business Ownership?"
Cathy Harris is known as The Ethical Black Business Coach, http://theethicalblackbusinesscoach.blogspot.com, and is an Empowerment and Motivational Speaker with over 20 non-fiction books. She is available for lectures, seminars, workshops and consultations and can be reached through her company, Angels Press, P.O. Box 5288, Atlanta, GA 31107, Phone: (770) 873-2072, Website: http://www.angelspress.com, Email: [email protected].
Copyright 2014 Cathy Harris. All Rights Reserved
