Legacy Direct Review: $399 piracy boxes
Legacy Direct operate out California and operate in the stream box MLM niche.
Launched in mid 2015, Legacy Direct is headed up by CEO Christian Rosario.
Through his company MiH Marketing, Rosario is currently a Seacret Direct affiliate. Prior to Seacret Direct, Rosario was an affiliate with Gano Excel (ganoderma coffee).
Read on for a full review of the Legacy Direct MLM business opportunity.
The Legacy Direct Product Line
Legacy Direct market an Android-based stream box they call a “BTV media player”.
BTV media player boxes retail for $399.
The Legacy Direct Compensation Plan
The Legacy Direct compensation plan pays affiliates to sell BTV media player boxes to retail customers and recruited affiliates.
Residual commissions are paid out via a binary compensation structure, with additional rank and performance-based bonuses available.
Legacy Direct Stream Box Commissions
The Legacy Direct streaming box retails for $399, on which a $150 retail commission is paid.
The same $150 commission is paid out on non-retail sales of the stream box to recruited affiliates.
A $25 override commission is paid to an affiliate’s immediate upline for each $150 commission earned.
Recruitment Commissions
For every three Legacy Direct affiliates recruited who purchase a stream box within 30 days of signing up as an affiliate, a $100 commission is paid out.
Residual Commissions
Residual commissions in Legacy Direct are paid out via a binary compensation structure.
A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):
New positions in the binary team are created by splitting the previous level positions into another two positions each. Positions themselves are filled via the direct and indirect recruitment of new Legacy Direct affiliates.
Commissions are paid out based on a 1:1 matching ratio between the two binary sides, with a 10-15% commission is paid out per 100 BV matched.
BV stands for “Business Volume” and is sales volume generated by the sale of a Legacy Director stream box. The sale of one Legacy Direct stream box generates 80 BV on the side of the binary it was sold on.
According to the Legacy Direct compensation plan, new affiliates are paid 10% ($10 per 100 BV matched) and Director ranked affiliates 15% ($15 per 100 BV matched).
To qualify as a Director, a Legacy Direct affiliate must have 25 recruited affiliates on both sides of their binary or 2000 BV in accumulated sales volume.
Binary commissions are capped at $25,000 week, with any unmatched volume carried over.
Binary Check Match
Upon qualifying at the Director level and having at least one personally recruited affiliate do the same, Legacy Direct affiliates quality for a 20% match on that affiliate’s earnings.
This 20% match is then paid out on any personally recruited Director rank affiliate’s binary earnings.
Rank Advancement Bonus
The Legacy Direct compensation plan mentions rank advancement bonuses of up to $1 million dollars.
Unfortunately no specific qualification criteria is provided.
Performance Bonuses
To qualify for Performance Bonuses, a Legacy Direct affiliate must have 50 recruited affiliates on either side of the binary team or 5000 BV with an Elite Distributor on either side.
The Performance Bonus is described as a bonus paid out “every four weeks”. The Legacy Direct compensation plan does not go into any further detail.
Joining Legacy Direct
Legacy Direct affiliate membership is $49.
Conclusion
There are two primary issues with the Legacy Direct MLM opportunity.
The first is the probability that the only customers of the BTV media boxes are Legacy Direct affiliates.
I’m basing this likelihood on the $150 markup of the boxes, which is paid out as a base-commission. Other commissions paid out further inflate the price, with comparable stream boxes available for less than half the price.
So other than a few gullible unsuspecting customers, who exactly is paying $400 for an Android stream box?
A near 100% affiliate-based customer pool means Legacy Direct would effectively be operating as a closed-loop opportunity. Commissions would inadvertently be tied to the recruitment of new affiliates, spurred along by a specific commission paid out per three affiliates recruited.
If this scenario exists company-wide, Legacy Direct would be operating as a product-based pyramid scheme.
The second issue is one Legacy Direct shares with nearly every other MLM stream box opportunity out there. That is, the legality of the content streamed and issues with marketing access to pirated content.
For reference, here’s how Legacy Direct themselves market their BTV media players:
-Stream your favorite Movies or TV shows
-Access to over 250,000 Movies, TV shows or original content
– Access to over 50,000 radio stations
-Access your favorite apps: Netflix, Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pandora and more!
-Turns your old TV into a SmartTV saving hundreds of dollars
-Surf the Internet from your home TV
-Skype, share photos and more!
-Access to Kids Zone and educational programming
-Access to national and international sporting events
AND MUCH MORE!
The movies and TV shows mentioned are pirated content, with Legacy Direct an opportunity built on marketing access to it.
This is problematic for what should be obvious reasons, least of all the legality of the unlicensed content itself and profiting off of marketing it.
What you do in your on home is up to you, but when you join and promote a business opportunity focused on the distribution of pirated content, you’re opening yourself up to some pretty serious liabilities.
Unable to ignore the obvious, it appears Legacy Direct have employed an intellectual property attorney to push its own brand of pseudo-compliance.
In footage uploaded to YouTube late last year, an individual who claims to be an attorney tells an assembly of Legacy Direct affiliates:
Because there are so many ways to use the device and because you can surf the internet with it, of course it is possible to find media files that would be infringing someone elses’ copyright.
But we’re not promoting that. You don’t wanna do it.
Don’t talk about it when you’re selling it to people. We are on the up and up.
The problem?
As the lawyer instructs the crowd to not promote Legacy Direct’s piracy box’s biggest selling point, he’s flanked by a big promotional poster advertising “movies, tv shows and music”:
What with Legacy Direct not advising they hold the distribution rights to any media, it’s pretty obvious the content advertised as accessible through their device is pirated.
Now the counter to that is Legacy Direct aren’t explicitly referencing any particular content on that flyer – so how would I know if it’s pirated or not?
Well, you’re right. But let’s cut the crap.
Bearing in mind the pseudo-compliance speech Legacy Direct’s lawyer gave, here’s Christian Rosario, CEO of Legacy Direct, marketing the opportunity by demonstrating access to pirated content a few weeks later:
I won’t go into Rosario’s bullshit explanation about streaming copyrighted content being legal and media copyright being “unregulated” in the US, suffice to say that Legacy Direct are unquestionably selling and marketing access to pirated content.
Again, what you do in your own home is your business – but as soon as money (via a business opportunity) enters the equation, we have a problem.
When the legality of what you’re marketing factors in as routine due diligence, consideration of the myriad of less shady MLM opportunities available is probably a better bet.
Update 18th April 2019 – Legacy Direct appears to have been abandoned.
The company has been rebooted as Vizions Network Live on or around January 2019.
Christian Rosario is still running the show, although there’s no mention of him on the Vizions Network Live website.
I had intended to publish a separate review but couldn’t find anything on Vizions Network Live’s compensation plan.
The cost to sign up as an affiliate is the same, so I’m assuming there’s little difference between Vizions Network Live’s and Legacy Direct’s compensation plans.
Rosario is still marketing access to pirated content through Vizions Network Live.
There is a new hook though, with affiliates and customers able to host their own channels.
Yes this is totally a YouTube knockoff, save for one feature; Vizions Network Live affiliates and customers able to charge for access to their channels.
There is also an advertising model, similar to how YouTube pays its creators.
Considering Legacy Direct and Vizions Network Live’s streaming boxes are pitched at people who don’t want to pay to legally access content, getting them to pay to access affiliate and customer PPV channels is pretty rich.
I doubt anyone outside of a few affiliates will adopt the service, and certainly I can’t see anyone outside of the business opportunity paying for access to what is essentially a YouTube channel clone.
Pending access to Vizions Network Live’s compensation plan I might publish a stand alone review.
In the meantime the above should be enough for an introductory Vizions Network Live review.
Update 26th November 2019 – Vizions Network promo material is naming Stuart Graham as CEO of the company.
Graham doesn’t appear to exist outside of Vizions Network marketing material. I was unable to verify he actually exists.
The media players costs about $65 each shipped direct from China on Alibaba or Aliexpress (or lower, depending on specs).
There’s a 75% markup on these.
Is that lawyer even for real? Got a name and bar #?
All mlm products are marked up very high.
Also they do not have an autoship this is only a one time sale. That wont work in a comp plan.
Exactly. How many players does one need? This basically is a referral sales system, and that’s illegal if one must buy first to participate.
I heard they will have a $45 autoship that is a warrant on the tv box. That’s $540 per year which is more than the cost of the tv box.
Legacy Direct has Hollywood celebrities endorsing their TV box. This seems like a conflict of interest to their profession.
I think the argument falls pretty flat when it comes to any of these media players, simply because if you have a pc, laptop or even a smartphone you (Ozedit: aren’t running a business opportunity that profits off of piracy. Irrelevant arguments removed.)
Do they really though? Look again. Misrepresenting Obama’s statement about net neutrality to mean support for their piracy is stupid (check their Vimeo channel)
Oz, your Youtube video is toast, but I think this is the same video on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/151549962
Video identified a “Don Borba” as president of Legacy Direct, and the attorney is Matthew Lapple, who’s an IP / Trademark / Patent / Copyright attorney in Irvine, CA. Senior partner in Udell-Lapple Law.
Video seems to be both a compliance video AND marketing video. Borba is asking softball questions. We know it’s a streaming player, not a DVR, not a video server. The fact is the president is asking his IP attorney what does the product do. It’s hilarious. The attorney repeats “Legacy direct respects the IP rights of others” after every question.
In other words, if you use the box “as intended”, it’s basically Roku at 3X-4X the price.
Thanks for removing most of my comment. You obviously have an agenda of your own.
The law is to the letter in case you’re just too ignorant to understand that. Show where streaming is the same as piracy according to law.
And if you’re going to make a claim at least have the balls to handle the disputes against it.
Correct. That agenda in this particular instance is the removal of strawman arguments.
Content streamed by sourced that have no license to broadcast the content = piracy.
Profiting off piracy via an MLM opportunity = ruhroh.
Equivocation argument, attempting to “umbrella” all streaming as legal when some are clearly not. Illegal streaming, i.e. streaming pirated content is against the law via copyright violation.
Your box costs 2x-4X a generic Android TV box that will do the same thing, i.e. potential to be modified for both legal and illegal streams
Your box costs 2X-3X a legal streaming box like FireTV or Roku or AppleTV.
Face the fact: Your box has NO compelling feature whatsoever.
Furthermore: it is faced with a dozen competitors in the MLM space alone, not to mention all the generic boxes and legal name-brand boxes.
I have no agenda other than to show you the door to the truth. Whether you want to go through it is up to you.
All these companies are simply taking advantage of people who don’t know how to shop for a better price.
I just bought a box on Amazon for 109 dollars. it comes with a 1 year warranty, 1 year of customer service in which you talk to a person on how to operate, download add ons, etc..
Point is. For 109 dollars..You get the exact same thing… Therefore, I would feel very guilty selling a 89 cent Snicker Bar to a friend for 4 dollars……
(Ozedit: Offtopic comments removed)
I read this article to see if it had anything new I hadn’t heard before. What I found was that it made several assumptions that lead to incorrect conclusions.
For example it says 100% of customers of this product are affiliates. Which would mean that people like my father-in law who purchased a box from this company, but in no way work for or associate with the company are affiliates.
If that were the case then all my friends and I would be affiliates of Target, Starbucks, Apple and any a myriad of other stores we shop at. (Hey where’s my employee discount ?)
That’s just one example.
The big issue mentioned in this article was pirated content. They claimed that because the company promotes their product as a way to view movies that the company is pushing pirating.
That is like saying that if “Dell” computer were to advertise their laptops by showing a commercial with someone watching movies online they are pushing pirating to all their customers.
There are many legitimate sources from which to gain access to movies and many illegal sources. A company that sells a hardware or software product can’t control which kind of content users will stream.
Another important note is that this product only streams content and does not allow a user to download anything. A computer lets a user download content which may be pirated, are computers scams? They are not, but merely used illegally at times.
This product does not even allow the possibility of downloading, though someone may stream something which has been illegally posted. In that case it is a matter of ethics as streaming illegal content is not yet illegal in itself.
If it were it would be nearly impossible to follow through on. Illegal content must be downloaded to be considered pirated.
So the only question of legitimacy left in the claims of this article is :
Is this company advertising in such a way that promotes watching pirated videos?
My answer is two part. One : The answer according the company’s own stance is no.
Two: There isn’t much you can do to prove otherwise as it’s not illegal to promote something implicitly.
First, The company itself is saying you can use the box for movies, yet they don’t condone pirating. Therefore we can infer they are suggesting customers to use it for watching content you own or is free use- of which there is plenty.
If someone reads into it saying they felt they were being told to pirate then who is to blame? I submit to you that it would be the person who commits the action, not the company who supplies the neutral tool.
Second,
Even if many people felt the company’s advertising condoned pirating, there is no law, that I know of, which prohibits from advertising in a way that might make someone want to do something illegal.
It may be morally wrong or ethically ambiguous, but the company itself is not actively trying to get people to break the law. It’s no more illegal than advertising an alcohol product knowing that some people may be abusing it.
The only legitimate complaint I saw on this article was that the price was marked up. Maybe so, but isn’t the price on an iPhone a little steep? It’s all in the company’s decision what to charge.
If they charge more in order to pay their employees or affiliates more that is a choice that may lead to less customers – it’s a trade-off. Employee satisfaction may be a high value of the company as opposed to Walmart which makes billions and pays its employees minimum wage.
People can choose where to buy their products and what price they will pay so price is not a legitimate complaint when looking at the ethics of a company.
Hopefully this sheds some light on this issue. Those who have purchased this product needn’t fear , you aren’t going to have Feds at your door anytime soon.
No it doesn’t.
I’ve never seen a Dell advertisement based on accessing pirate content through purpose built piracy boxes. Have you?
Ah, but you’re not selling hardware are you? You’re selling purpose built piracy boxes pre-configured to access illegal content. And that’s the selling point.
Your father-in-law didn’t buy Legacy Direct’s over-priced box because he dug the hardware, he bought it because someone (likely you) sold him on the idea of paying a fee and accessing all-you-can-watch piracy.
As to the “box can’t download crap”. Who cares? It’s a strawman defense. The problem is Legacy Direct is a business opportunity marketing access to piracy… and profiting off of it.
Whether their piracy box can download is neither here nor there.
What on Earth are you talking about? It’s illegal to promote piracy and it’s certainly illegal to profit off of it.
See included screenshot of Legacy Direct’s own CEO marketing their piracy box using illegal pirated content. Like hell you can’t prove it, proof was included in the review.
Yeah look, the CEO of the company marketing the opportunity with piracy as a selling point? That’s condoning it.
The company marketing, selling and profiting from the product. And to a lesser extent, their affiliates. Welcome to MLM 101.
Yeah, so I’m just gunna leave that as is and let the dumbfuckery of the statement sink in on its own.
See screenshot and video of Legacy Direct CEO marketing the opportunity and product based on accessing pirate content.
Sure, but affiliates and Legacy Direct itself? Legally, running a business that profits from piracy leads to only one inevitable conclusion…
Who’s going to be first?
The funny thing is that it’s trivially easy to load the same type of software “Kodi, with Exodus plugin” on an Amazon Fire TV Stick and get the same functionality of piracy that makes the Legacy Direct Box worth anything for the low price of $35, along with the rest of Amazon’s SW (legal Prime streaming).
I went to one of their meetings in Las Vegas recently and just can’t believe how gullible and naive people are to fall for such “ILLEGAL” product, company and marketing plan.
I really think that everyone involved in the company is going to get into deep trouble very soon for purchasing and selling this crap.
Advise to all – STAY AWAY PEOPLE… FAR AWAY FROM THIS PROGRAM!
Is really hard to trust people this days who is doing a legal or illegal businesses….Fake people they will never be successful no matter what, the bad karma it will come secretly…
We all trying to survive, make money, why doing biz and involved innocent people. Be Honest, Kind and help others… God is watching you and you will receive a funishment sooner or later…
Btvi3 cost $399 Legacy direct and $49, a year for membership is this is a rip-off.
No amount of a Personal Development can hide the level of scammery these distributors are pulling off.
Review updated with news of Legacy Direct rebooting as Vizions Network Live.
No compensation plan details but a brief overview of what I was able to find.
Here is the current website.
(Ozedit: see review update)
Review updated with news of Stuart Graham supposedly being Vizions Network’s CEO.
Was unable to confirm Graham is an actual person.
he’s selling cbd products now.
youtube.com/watch?v=Hi2erJjAd8U
never mind the website and socialmedia links don’t work anymore.
youtube.com/@wannaworks3778/about