A sad day in the Final Cut Pro X ecosystem as a row has broken out over the copying, publishing and selling of a copyrighted product. We won't go into the exact details here, but we will comment on the growing problem of copyright violation.
Everything is a remix right? In some sectors maybe, but video and television are obviously very visual businesses and copies, clones and 'me toos' are easy to spot. You might say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, maybe. The content of this site gets used (and translated) illegally on a whole host of competing websites. We see it as lazy journalism on their side and log all similar articles to build up a case against them, hard to prove though.
But what if a product is a direct copy from another company that has just been flipped, slowed down, scaled and then packaged up for resale?
As we mentioned, we won't go into company specifics, you'll have to do the exceptonally easy task of looking on Twitter or Facebook for the spreading story. We have been getting notifications from various parties over the last week of this impending problem and it looks like today will see the story explode on the internet.
Is the FCPX ecosystem becoming a victim of its success? The majority of plugins for Final Cut Pro X are written in Motion and are therefore easily copied by anybody who wants to. So what is stopping somebody from downloading as many free plugins from the web as they can, packaging them up into a product and then selling them online?
Nothing.
Unlikely? This is exactly what one unscrupulous character did with iMovie products before Apple ruined his wheeze by changing the app so it wouldn't accept third party products. We have had more than one conversation with FCPX plugin writers who at their chagrin think their products have been used as a base for a competing product.
Do free plugin makers publish T&Cs? We don't think so, maybe they should.
So what can be done? We are sure that legal action is going to be taken by the party whose copyright has been violated. A DCMA to the site owner and hosting company (who have to act on it by law) will ensure that the product and maybe even the whole site gets taken down. A public confession, customers refunded, a smack on the wrists and then back to work would be another solution.
We think everybody has a role to play in keeping an eye out for the copying of products. The plugin market is becoming a race to the bottom with prices tumblng and sizeable discounts being advertised all the time. If we are not careful it will become difficult to differentiate between the good and the bad, the original and the copy.
And that will be bad for us all.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
