Unorthodox distribution

Due to terms of the music license, one limited DVD pressing of 4,999 copies was printed.[16] The film was released for free download starting in early March, 2009 "at all resolutions, including broadcast-quality, HD, and film-quality image sequences", licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-alike 3.0 Unported license.[17] The freely downloaded files will count as "promotional copies" and will thus be exempt from payments to the copyright holders of the songs.[3]

The full film can also be viewed in low-resolution streaming video on the web site for WNET, a PBS member station in New York City. WNET broadcast the film on March 7, 2009.

Nina Paley plans to make money through voluntary payments, ancillary products, sponsorships, the aforementioned limited DVD sales, and possibly other methods.[3]

A cornerstone of the distribution model is the "creator-endorsed" logo, developed by Nina Paley in cooperation with QuestionCopyright.org. Although anyone is free to distribute the film, distributors who do so while giving a part of the profits to the artist can get the artist's endorsement and use the "creator-endorsed" logo on their promotional materials.[18][19] Exclusive right to distribute 35mm and HDCam prints of the film is split between GKIDS[20] for all theaters East of the Mississippi River, and Shadow Distribution[21] for all theaters west of the Mississippi River.

The film can also be rented via DVD on Netflix as of March 17, 2010.[22] When asked by a media provider on behalf of Netflix in April 2010 if she would also offer the film via the company's on-demand streaming service in exchange for a limited amount of money, Nina requested that the film be streamed either DRM-free or with an addendum telling viewers where the film was available for download. When the internet television service refused to meet these conditions due to a "No Bumpers" policy, Nina refused to accept their offer, citing her desire to uphold her principled opposition to DRM.[23]

Paley has qualified this distribution strategy as a financial success, citing that it earned $132,000 from March 2009 to March 2010.[24]