Is This Legal ???

[Cecilio]

i wanna make some money by doing this showing people how to back up dvds and i will only show them how to back up only their personally owned dvds not no rentals or anything and if they decide to do that well thats on them. so i will charge 60 bucks and i will teach them how to back up a dvd in only 1 day. i will show them how to burn them how to make them if there ntsc film or just ntsc. i will guide them through everything that took me really really long to learn well i learned in 1 month but i sucked and i got cheap quality, but now im good and im willing to spread my skills around for alot of cash

[Craig Tucker]

Well, I'm no lawyer, but I don't see anything wrong with that providing you use freeware or software that you own.

[housepig]

watch out for the competition though... what happens when you teach someone all your tricks, then he goes out and steals all your business by only charging $50?

[txpharoah]

As long as they provide their own software, nothing illegal with your service.

[Cecilio]

watch out for the competition though... what happens when you teach someone all your tricks, then he goes out and steals all your business by only charging $50?

yea i did think about that all night well not just that, but i didnt sleep till like 5:30 just thinkin of how i would do the classes and what freeware programs are good to use i just want everything to be legal, i just dont wanna get none of this shit im gonna sue you or none of that. and i also thought about that he steals my buisness and that well ummm what can i say i found a soulution, but one that cant be solved. well it can but won't. i thought about this a one time class like in a classroom get all these computers with dvd rom drives and i will show each and everyone of them how and well lets say 10 people go wowsers i would get about 600 dollars wow. and then i can individually teach other people how to do this and get more money. but i am not gonna get the whole classroom thing to work unless they all have lab tops with dvd rom drives which i doubt it, but oh well ill see what i can do, plus i doubt that the person i tought will know how to explain each and every step of the programs and what they do. i on the other hand know everything nessesary to know about vcd xvcd svcd xsvcd cvd dvd kvcd ksvcd and well i think that might be all, but i will teach only dvd cvd and svcd. i dont know if i should teach vcd. its cause with DVD2SVCD it seems like you can never make a good compliant vcd cause if the source is ntsc film it does mpeg 1 regular vcd bitrate if you set it correctly, but it does 23.97 fps which is incompatible. and yea i know how to do it but it will be more hasslte for the person that i am teaching. i mean ripping the dvd and going through the whole dvd2avi settings and saving the d2v file and then going to tmpgenc and setting the correct settings or well loading the vcd or illegal vcd template, yea this is all easy, but this process will throw the student way off. or what do you all think should i teach it anyways. or should i just tell him/her that it looks crappy.

[Cecilio]

i was also thinking of telling a few friends hey you know what lets start a business, and invest your money give me 60 bucks each and ill give you lessons on how you can record a dvd to dvd-r or cd-r. and then once they learn well i mean when they learn, we will team up and if i get a customer i will get the whole 60 bucks cause im the founder of our company :P and if they get a customer i was kinda thinkin that they could get 50 % but then i said na make it 75 and i get 25. but then i started thinkin na this would cut down on my money so f*** them

[trialsofg]

It seems to me that you had better be prepared to be your students' help desk if you charge them and only give them a little knowledge (just enough to be dangerous.) Because, if you don't support them, then they will probably end up here asking questions that you left unanswered.

[fmctm1sw]

and if they get a customer i was kinda thinkin that they could get 50 % but then i said na make it 75 and i get 25. but then i started thinkin na this would cut down on my money so f*** them

Are you an Amway spokesman?

[housepig]

one more tip... when you write your business plan, you might want to add in paragraph breaks. it's kinda customary.

[i_am_dave]

Yeah, you could teach a class.
But why ruin it for your prospective students???
Most of us here at this forum have spent years of trial and error before finally becoming proficient. :

Well, good luck in your business

[thayne]

With software like DVD2One and ShrinkDVD WTF do they need you for?

You may con a few bucks out of a few idiots, but there is no business here. It will prolly end up costing you more than you make in support calls. People who would go for this are the same people who call aol because they forgot which icon gets their email......

(Sorry, was that too harsh?)

[housepig]

With software like DVD2One and ShrinkDVD WTF do they need you for?

Because with his extensive (over a month now!) expertise, he adds value.

It seems to me that you had better be prepared to be your students' help desk

god, I hope he does. he'll soon find out how much aggravation a student can be, especially when they've paid for the benefits of his deep knowledge.

if you don't support them, then they will probably end up here asking questions that you left unanswered.

and what would he care? that would be the best of all worlds - he's got their money, and they're pestering someone else with their problems....

[thayne]

and what would he care? that would be the best of all worlds

LOL that doesn't work in the real world. He better be prepared to answer everything from "why doesn't my email work anymore" to "What is the best bit rate for 3 45 min Variable bit mpegs to be put on one DVD?"

Yeah, you could teach a class.
But why ruin it for your prospective students???
Most of us here at this forum have spent years of trial and error before finally becoming proficient. :

Well, good luck in your business

But just think of ALL the posts that alot of us cry about NOT being posted. You know, the ones that get the response of "Look to your LEFT" and "Please do a SEARCH". Those would be all gone!

[Cecilio]

well yes i know some of you think its stupid, but not everyone knows how to make things other than dvds. not everyone has a dvd burner, so i will teach them how to make other video formats which i mentioned before. vcd xvcd svcd cvd xsvcd kvcd skvcd kdvd and lastly dvd. yes i know people are stupid and they will not know the first thing about how to copy a dvd, but i do think i can do it and yes i am prepared to answer any any question that a newbie can ask. like what bitrate would be better with what reselution and disk storage and vbr and CQ. and alot of other stuff.

[pacmania_2001]

yes i am prepared to answer any any question that a newbie can ask

Are you sure?

I was tutoring a guy in computers and was amazed at some of the stuff that we take for granted but they will expect you to teach them. I spent around 4 weeks just showing him file management stuff like deleting, copying, pasting and so on.

Even then he used to come to me each week with his desktop full of crap because he couldn't remember how to delete stuff.

So just be prepared to answer a lot of annoying little questions over and over again as well as (like the above poster said) being their new support desk. Whenever they can't get their email or an error message popped up or their CD drive is too noisy they are going to ring you. It quickly turns that $60 of easy cash into a lot of frustration

[fmctm1sw]

Ok, cecilio. You've taken a little razzing.... I was only joking about the whole Amway thing. Did anyone get that? I've thought about this kind of thing too because a lot of people fall into two categories.

1] The folks who aren't smart enough to figure this out for themselves (no matter what guides are out there).

and

2] The folks who are too lazy to do it themselves.

I actually fit into both categories usually. Just start off small so you don't get overwhelmed. And watch out for some folks, if you give them an inch, they'll want a yard.....

[Cecilio]

Ok, cecilio. You've taken a little razzing.... I was only joking about the whole Amway thing. Did anyone get that? I've thought about this kind of thing too because a lot of people fall into two categories.

1] The folks who aren't smart enough to figure this out for themselves (no matter what guides are out there).

and

2] The folks who are too lazy to do it themselves.

I actually fit into both categories usually. Just start off small so you don't get overwhelmed. And watch out for some folks, if you give them an inch, they'll want a yard.....

i didnt even get the whole amway thing so dont worry about it ha :P and well its like this forum i have learned alot of things from here and now all my research could finally pay off. even though i didnt need to invest any money only in the programs i already use which are freeware and about 2 or 3 programs i bought. but i bought those programs for myself so i guess i kinda did invest a little bit of money and now i wanna keep my programs and want my money back so this will all work out hopefully. i just wish i was further up north where people will actually pay i mean being in south texas people are ghetto. and it might be hard to find coustomers.

[rob1]

It's actually not a bad idea. I mean, people take computer classes all of the time to learn really simple stuff. What you might check into, instead of doing it all on your own, are the local community colleges and town recreation departments. You might be able to propose offering a class through them. Whether they would hire you to teach the class you propose is a concern. But if you went in with a prepared proposal, syllabus, required reading material (type up a few of your own guides- you'd probably need to do that anyway)... well, you never know. Then they'd be the ones supplying space, hardware, software, advertising and accounting.

Really- if you knew what you were about, it's not a bad idea. (Speaking as someone who took fishing classes from the local recreation department- and I have the 'degree' to prove it!)

[Cecilio]

It's actually not a bad idea. I mean, people take computer classes all of the time to learn really simple stuff. What you might check into, instead of doing it all on your own, are the local community colleges and town recreation departments. You might be able to propose offering a class through them. Whether they would hire you to teach the class you propose is a concern. But if you went in with a prepared proposal, syllabus, required reading material (type up a few of your own guides- you'd probably need to do that anyway)... well, you never know. Then they'd be the ones supplying space, hardware, software, advertising and accounting.

Really- if you knew what you were about, it's not a bad idea. (Speaking as someone who took fishing classes from the local recreation department- and I have the 'degree' to prove it!)

hey rob1 thats a great idea i never really thought of that, but thinking about it only know well that might be a problem being that im only 15 and yes im smart and know my stuff, but being underaged lowers my chances of teaching in a college.

[motherlori]

Speaking as a Mother of 4 with 3 part time jobs!

I think you have a very sound idea. I don't think a lot of people who want the basics have the time to invest to research everything themselves. I have just begun (and maybe just ended) my adventures into Digital Video! I have spent the last month capturing, editing and attempting to create VCD's only to be disappointed again and again! I would love to take a 3 hour class that would answer some of my questions or show me what I was doing wrong.

Having said that - I will say, be prepared to put in a great deal of time preparing and following up! I have spent many hours giving individual instruction for people who have already taken classes. But if you're patient and a good teacher, I think there's a place for you. If you're doing it just to earn money, you might be disappointed. If you're doing it because you are excited by your abilities and want to share them, you might do okay.

Good luck,
Lori

[Cecilio]

Speaking as a Mother of 4 with 3 part time jobs!

I think you have a very sound idea. I don't think a lot of people who want the basics have the time to invest to research everything themselves. I have just begun (and maybe just ended) my adventures into Digital Video! I have spent the last month capturing, editing and attempting to create VCD's only to be disappointed again and again! I would love to take a 3 hour class that would answer some of my questions or show me what I was doing wrong.

Having said that - I will say, be prepared to put in a great deal of time preparing and following up! I have spent many hours giving individual instruction for people who have already taken classes. But if you're patient and a good teacher, I think there's a place for you. If you're doing it just to earn money, you might be disappointed. If you're doing it because you are excited by your abilities and want to share them, you might do okay.

Good luck,
Lori

well thanks motherlori that was pretty encouraging, but at first i didnt wanna do this because i didnt want anyone to know how i do it. like sometimes people ask me how do you do it and what programs do you use. and i really didnt wanna answer that question. but being that i need money and i cant get a job yet maybe in about 2 months i can but till them ill try out my idea and well getting 60 bucks from each person i will be patient and show them alot more than they will be able to learn in weeks of research. so i hope i do good.

[MrKGB]

Cecilio,
You should charge them for support calls something like $3 per minute if you want to make money on this, or 3c per minute if you just want to prevent them calling you

[oaddington]

Ok, cecilio. You've taken a little razzing.... I was only joking about the whole Amway thing. Did anyone get that?

LMAO, it was the first thing I thought, as soon as I read "get my friend to give me $60.00" I was thinking of all the foolish people talking about pyrimid scams lmao.

[BlueWolf2005]

i just wish i was further up north where people will actually pay i mean being in south texas people are ghetto. and it might be hard to find coustomers.

<edit -People have found this line offensive, please refrain from posting anything that could be seen as offensive on this forum - tgpo>

I also work for Computer Nerdz and we charge 65$ a hour for our help. I usually go out on about 10 - 12 calls
a day. It is mostly the same people that would run when you yelled that, but they also pay for our services.

The best bet is to get a group of friends to help you out. I would set it up as follows. You and one friend teach the class and have another friend answer the support calls. That way while your teaching your friend can handle the questions. I wouldn't disclose the amount of money your making to your friends. Keeps things from getting overboard when it comes time to pay them. Also, I would keep the classes small to start out. About 3 - 10 people, simple because you can have more personal time with each one. Then you also will have to have more then one class session to explain everything. If you go the collage way then you will have to keep the classes at 3 hours time frame. Also, it would be wise to put what preknowlegde they should know, before attending your class. Which will cut down on some question that should be a givin'.

You hold a class on this and advertise it wisely they will come. Even in a
"ghetto" like South Texas.

BlueWolf

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning.
/ Moderator tgpo

[SatStorm]

This Service has money, but has much trouble! What I mean trouble? Questions over questions, blames without a reason, even after midnight phone calls for stupid things you have nothing to do with!
Teaching software isn't illegal. It's like studing murder. You are illegal if you kill someone, not buy learning how to kill people....
Extreme example, but I love extreme expresion. Must be my nature...

By yourself, and if you have extreme patience, you gonna hold it about 6 months at best! Do it more and you gonna need medication.

[Cecilio]

LOL

[Cecilio]

i live 3 hours south of san antonio and believe me its way ghettoer than san antonio. like yea theres alot of rich people in Laredo, but its an illegal way and yes its Drugs and alot of them. all the drug dealers live on the north and the poor consumers are in the south. and i live in south laredo
and no i am not a consumer i am drug free well for now lol

[i_am_dave]

hey rob1 thats a great idea i never really thought of that, but thinking about it only know well that might be a problem being that im only 15 and yes im smart and know my stuff, but being underaged lowers my chances of teaching in a college.

Man, you've got ambition.
I hope you are going on to college in a couple of years. With that in mind, here's a novel thought.....

Most colleges (and scholorship programs) look for community service activities on applications.

How about putting on a series of seminars at the local boys club???

Would go a long way toward your future..

[Cecilio]

hey rob1 thats a great idea i never really thought of that, but thinking about it only know well that might be a problem being that im only 15 and yes im smart and know my stuff, but being underaged lowers my chances of teaching in a college.

Man, you've got ambition.
I hope you are going on to college in a couple of years. With that in mind, here's a novel thought.....

Most colleges (and scholorship programs) look for community service activities on applications.

How about putting on a series of seminars at the local boys club???

Would go a long way toward your future..

well yea i suppose i could do that, plus it is for community service so if its for my future which yes i am going to college and hopefully a good one.