Its just ridiculous to me that this movie has been up on youtube for at least a week and the director/producers/studio either does not know about it or dont care about it. You dont see this with other action stars, being this readily available. I have already preordered the dvd from amazon but this is going to cause the movie to lose a lot of money in sales. Has any of the moderators here told Keoni Waxman or someone at Voltage about this?
This isn't just Seagal. It actually has happened to all the other action guys lately too. Most of Dolphs recent ones have been spread online like wildfire, and likewise Van Dammes last few were out well before release, including Enemies Closer.
It's unfortunately common. There's nothing Waxman or Voltage could do either. A friend of mine has released a Documentary, the difference for him was it was personal project, self funded, and so he's reliant on the money he makes from it. Despite being a niche product with a very selected audience, it also spread online on torrents etc. Unfortunately he found it hard to quell this. You can contact google etc, let them get at links etc, but for every one removed, another will just pop up within hours. So my friend considered paying a company that specialises in identifying and removing pirate links, but at the end of the day, for him, the cost isn't worth it.
It's something all musicians, film makers etc just have to deal with. The way to get around it is to make your product good enough that people will still purchase it if they've watched it illegally.
Piracy, as well as the economy has effected movie budgets, but these films will still turn a healthy profit.