Fans compiling their own bonus DVD

This forum is for questions/discussions about the now sold out first DVD box set by BMG / AnotherUniverse.
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Anthony
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Fans compiling their own bonus DVD

Post by Anthony » Apr 29th 2004, 7:46 am

Seeing as it is now certain bonus footage from the Museum of Television and Radio in L.A. is never going to materialise, wouldn’t it be possible for MSCL.com to get hold of it and make it available? How about the M.T.V. footage as well? Unfortunately I do not live in the States, otherwise I would have looked into it already myself. But if it were possible I’m sure there would be a lot of interest out there among fans. The footage could be put on disc relatively cheaply and sold at a moderate price; it could generate a lot of money for the site.

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Sascha
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Post by Sascha » Apr 29th 2004, 8:33 am

It's a nice idea and we discussed this internally many times before. There are huge problems:

- This footage is not cheap. I remember $10,000 for the Museum of Radio and TV footage alone. How could we raise this huge amount of money?
- It's not easy to get all the paperwork done. Example: You need the written permissions of everyone who appeared in those videos.
- We don't want to make money with mscl.com. We even pay the hardware/domain/bandwith costs out of our own pockets to keep this site free of banners and ads. If we would launch such a commercial project (buying those rights, pressing & selling the dvd is commercial, even if we don't make money in the end) we would need some kind of infrastructure to get these dvds produced and shipped. Imagine shipping 1,000 dvds worldwide and handle the entire payment & stuff. Nothing one could do in his spare time.
- Then the legal aspect: What if a shipment gets lost? Who's responsible? Is MSCL.com an enterprise then? It's like opening Pandora's Box.

And after we all have been screwed by AU.com, we are not really looking forward to pay again in advance for some mysterious MSCL dvd.

You see, it's way more complicated than it sounds. I would love to see such a fan-made compilation become reality - but I really can't see how it could be possible. I guess there's a better chance that Buena Vista will re-release MSCL on DVD - and that's already pretty unlikely.

But if anyone has some ideas or experience with something like that -- we're always open for suggestions.

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Post by Jason R » Apr 29th 2004, 2:09 pm

I am trying to find out if I can get a limited license of the bonus disc from BF so we can possibly run off copies for those who didn't receive them.

Museum of TV and radio footage was about $10,000. If people pre-registered but DID NOT prepay, we could see if the Museum Footage could be made available.

However, if the footage from BF is the only thing that is cleared, I am willing to have them manufactured at my expense. I may be able to even count it as a business expense. But, regardless, I think I can have them manufacturered in a way that it wouldn't break the bank for me (assuming they only go to people who preordered).

Regarding lunchboxes, a similar limited run might be possible for those who already paid ONLY and didn't receive them. There'd be no profit involved, only making good on what was promised. However, GWhiz is now out of the picture, and I'd prefer to find something on the North American continent. Still, if there were unshipped quantities at AU.com I'd prefer that they be seized.

Jason R
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Post by Jason R » Apr 29th 2004, 2:12 pm

I am trying to find out if I can get a limited license of the bonus disc from BF so we can possibly run off copies for those who didn't receive them.

Museum of TV and radio footage was about $10,000. If people pre-registered but DID NOT prepay, we could see if the Museum Footage could be made available.

However, if the footage from BF is the only thing that is cleared, I am willing to have them manufactured at my expense. I may be able to even count it as a business expense. But, regardless, I think I can have them manufacturered in a way that it wouldn't break the bank for me (assuming they only go to people who preordered).

Regarding lunchboxes, a similar limited run might be possible for those who already paid ONLY and didn't receive them. There'd be no profit involved, only making good on what was promised. However, GWhiz is now out of the picture, and I'd prefer to find something on the North American continent. Still, if there were unshipped quantities at AU.com I'd prefer that they be seized. (Bonus disc seems very possible. Lunchbox seems more difficult). I will do a survey with the next mass mail to try to get some idea of how many people are still owed by AU.

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Post by Justin at AU » Apr 29th 2004, 9:00 pm

I am the last employee for AnotherUniverse. I am the one turning out all the lights. There are bonus disks and lunch boxes just sitting in the AnotherUniverse website that hae to be moved and stored somewhere. The company has no money left to pay employees or to ship out all the remaining lunch boxes and bonus disks. I tried to email Jason about this earlier today, I don't know if he got the email or not from me, I wasnt sure of his email address.

If there was any way someone from this group could pick up the disks and lunch boxes and get them to people before we close the doors that would be great. I would hate to have them just locked away somewhere till Ross gets out of jail in who knows how many years.

I don't see why anyone needs to pay out of there pocket to have the disks printed again or to get new lunch boxes made. They are just sitting on a couple pallets in the warehouse in Sacramento. If someone can figure out a way to get these to the people who still need them, please let me know... I am all ears.

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Post by Jason R » Apr 29th 2004, 9:17 pm

This is actually very good news. FBI told me that they didn't really see anything in the warehouse.

I suppose that where there is a will there's a way. Would anyone be willing to volunteer to help me finish shipping these items out if I were to fly out to Sacramento?

Also, I don't know about the shipping charges involved, but would people be willing to help with shipping if volunteers ship the remaining items out?

Jason
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Post by kenickie » May 1st 2004, 12:01 pm

Fantastic news as I am still waiting for DVD, bonus disk and Lunchbox and have had to buy the dvd again from someone on ebay!

I'd love to help although not sure how much help I'd be living in the UK... :?
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Post by tridentdps » May 7th 2004, 6:14 pm

I'd be willing to help in any way if we could get these into the hands of their rightful owners. Jason, let me know.

AJ

Jason R
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Post by Jason R » May 8th 2004, 12:49 am

Just a quick update.

I received a letter from American Entertainment Group, the parent company of AU.com authorizing me to have the lunchboxes and DVDs moved and agreeing to hold me and my agents harmless. Also stating that these items belong to the people who paid for them and that AU had no claim to them. It also stated that these materials are not evidence in criminal proceedings against Ross Rojek.

Asked the FBI for something in writing, but the best they could give me was their word. The word of the FBI is good enough for me.

At about 4 PM EST, Jetxpressmail, a fulfillment company brought their forklift and truck to the AU warehouse and picked up the bonus items.

At about 4 PM EST, I also received a complete list of those who ordered these materials and who (supposedly) received bonus materials. It will never be possible to find everyone with spam filters and changed email addressed, but I will do the best I can, and try to leave enough time for people to claim their items.

For approximately $8 US, those the USA will be able to pay for S&H to receive their bonus items. (this is for a 1 lb 13 oz package). The markup by Jetexpress is approximately $2, and includes picking the items up from AU, storage at Jetexpres, and pick, pack and ship.

Could have saved some $ by using volunteers, but I believe that this will be a much more efficient way to go. After so much dicking around by Ross and AU, I don't want to add to the torture.

The cost to international customers who are owed these items will be the cost to your country plus the same markup. We are only starting with US because it is easiest to ship items when they are all very close in price --being identical items, that's the case here.

One more thing, I originally considered that if there are unclaimed bonus items, I might try to couple them with DVD sets to hold a fundraiser to partially reimburse people who were ripped off by AU (or who paid s&h for these bonus items). As of now, I am leaning against this idea. While I want to get these items to the people who made them possible, I don't want to get myself into the habit of letting Ross Rojek off the hook for his financial debts.

Anyway, I will have more information next week.

I will be leaving this message forum to post on new forum dedicated to getting bonus materials to people. The address is http://www.anotheruniversesucks.org/forum and it will be up sometime this weekend.

If this issue affects you, I look forward to seeing you there.

Jason

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Post by Chase » Jun 20th 2004, 10:13 pm

Hey i havent posted in a while but this is some great news to know that we can finally get our much awaited lunchbox and bonus dvd [since you know we did spend an assload more on the box set then others have now adays]
so if there is shipping possible for our bonus material i would really like to know how and when this will all be possible! thanks for always helping us out!

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