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Author Topic: Truely Straight To Video Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 03-09-2010 03:29 AM                        I got this from another list I am on and from a reliable source that I trust on that list; I offer it here for your perusal (cursing is allowed): The War on Piracy is Officially OVER I talked with a friend the other night. He has a laptop in his car. He also has a "computer savvy" friend who helped load movies on my friend's laptop so that my friend could watch them at his leisure. The "computer savvy" guy told my friend that the movies supposedly came from Netflix and Hulu. The movies were in pristine High Definition. They included "AVATAR", "LEGION" AND 'THE BOOK OF ELI" ... all movies in current release and supposedly not available on DVD or cable or download. And "Avatar" is a movie that has basically been unbookable the past two weeks due to outrageous terms. But there it was, in all of its glory on my friend's laptop. Oh, I almost forgot to mention ... my friend in a police officer and the laptop is in his patrol car." So much for the urgency with which this is treated. My reply: Do you mind if I post this on the Film-Tech forum? It is something I have been saying for quite awhile that the studios try to deflect where the real problem is in the piracy issue -- that of huge hemorrhage leaks in their own system. This is pristine product, not what they are always yammering about, i.e., camcorder, off-the-screen garbage. As I say, they don't want to have to face the prospect of FBI agents battering down the doors of 20 Century Fox's vice-presidents' offices carting away top-level execs for either purposely or by culpable negligence, allowing master digital copies of current releases to leak, one way or another out to the public. They needeth to taketh the beam out of theirn own eye....etc., instead of expending all that effort trying to convince the public that it's those less that honest exhibitors who are negligent, or even complicit in allowing it to happen and yes...yes even the PUBLIC itself is at fault for not stopping those guys in the trench coats from shooting movies off the movie screen, because everyone knows it's those JUNK copies that cost the industry 6 BILLION annually, not these post production copies that cops can watch on their laptops and can be sold for millions to the counterfeiters in China & India & Russia.  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 03-09-2010 10:46 AM                     It is disappointing that the production and distribution side of the industry often doesn't value their product enough to protect it, whereas we make a lot of effort to do so. The dvd-quality screeners and leaks hurt exhibition, but also really hurt the studios who need DVD profits, even if that's increasingly from netflix/redbox. We can only prevent cam copies which are usually poor quality, my guess is the people who are satisfied with those wouldn't come to our theatres and buy a popcorn and coke anyway.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-10-2010 09:53 AM                        Hello? It's been like this for a while. Been coming down the pipe for a few years now. I have friends and family that I talk to and I ask them if they've seen certain films and their reply is "So and So had the DVD of it and let me borrow it". A film that I am playing at my theatre in it's second week of release. Anyways...  |  IP: Logged Todd McCracken Master Film Handler Posts: 263 From: Northridge, CA, USA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 03-10-2010 11:56 AM                    I would question weather the description of the prints is accurate. Yes there is piracy, but pristine high definition? I doubt it, at least until the dvd screeners are released.  |  IP: Logged Julio Roberto Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 938 From: Madrid, Madrid, Spain Registered: Oct 2008 posted 03-10-2010 11:59 AM                    Perhaps not "pristine high definition quality" but true DVD quality (or near-DVD quality) of many theatrical releases become available on the internet days (or weeks at most) from opening night.  |  IP: Logged Todd McCracken Master Film Handler Posts: 263 From: Northridge, CA, USA Registered: Mar 2008 posted 03-10-2010 03:19 PM                    Julio, That I can agree with. The insinuation though is that these prints were "pristine HD" and that they thus must have come from the distribution line. I would say that assumption is wrong on both counts (save the DVD screener reference) Most bootleg copies come from the eastern European market where there may be little to no security protocols in place.  |  IP: Logged Caleb Johnstone-Cowan Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 593 From: London, UK Registered: Mar 2006 posted 03-10-2010 05:33 PM                     Isn't there something called an 'R5' copy as well? It is like a VCD-quality release for the Asian market and comes out within a very short time of the theatrical opening.  |  IP: Logged Ian Parfrey Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1049 From: Imbil Australia 26 deg 27' 42.66" S 152 deg 42' 23.40" E Registered: Feb 2009 posted 03-10-2010 08:35 PM                     A quick look at the Showest website advertises amongst other things, a seminar on "Movie Theft". Any guesses as to where the finger of blame will be pointed?  |  IP: Logged Elise Brandt Expert Film Handler Posts: 160 From: Kuusankoski, FIN/ Kouvola, Finland Registered: Dec 2009 posted 03-10-2010 10:17 PM                     Hmmh. I heard a presentation given by a Russian, Oleg Berezin, where he touched on the subject of piratism because the previous speaker Michael Karagosian urged him to. That was odd to listen to he says that in Russia, it's a thing that lives a life of its own and the war on piratism is a joke, it's a fact of life that these copies are made and the movie industry in Russia just lives with it. They take it as given. Of course Karagosian was appalled by the attitude but then he is American. The issue is quite different between the two countries. Oleg told an amusing story (or terrifying, depending on where you make your living) of a locked train cart in which film prints were being transported to somewhere very east in Russia. When they arrived, and the carts were unlocked, they found an entire small factory in there; the prints were obviously copied in the cart, the machine to do it was there, DVD packaging materials were there. Through the train ride someone had made copies of just to be released films at top quality. Sounds amazing and professional  |  IP: Logged Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 03-12-2010 02:36 AM                     I find the assumption that movie theft only happens in theatres rather naive. I also find the assumption that movie theft never happens in theatre and every copy you find on the internet came from a studio screener also naive. When studios do stupid shit like locking film cans or using security titles they deserve to be mocked, but that doesn't mean that piracy doesn't happen on the exhibition side of the industry.  |  IP: Logged Anslem Rayburn Master Film Handler Posts: 476 From: Yuma, AZ, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 03-15-2010 05:12 AM                     "The "computer savvy" guy told my friend that the movies supposedly came from Netflix and Hulu." I find this VERY difficult to believe. Why would Netflix and Hulu (especially Hulu) even have HD versions of current releases on their servers at this point? Hulu streams mainly older films, and Netflix doesn't stream most new releases until a few months after their video release.  |  IP: Logged

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