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Author Topic: Fake titles on DCP drive boxes Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 06-17-2015 11:20 PM                        Just been digesting a flurry of "WTF is this and when are we showing it?" emails resulting from the fact that a DCP we were recently delivered had a fake name on the box. Unbelievable that they’re still using fake titles on encrypted DCPs. With film prints it made sense – get your hands on a film print and, assuming you have access to scanning/telecine infrastructure (which, if you’re an organized criminal of the sort who typically stole film prints, you probably will), you have a means to make high quality pirate copies. So there was a good reason for disguising the identity of film prints in transit. But an encrypted DCP?! By the time you’ve successfully done a brute-force decryption of 128-bit AES, the movie in question will be written about in history books, and almost certainly near-worthless to pirates. The encryption system used in DCI DCPs has proven so strong that to my knowledge, no one has yet managed to crack it (unlike every consumer system you care to mention, e.g. CSS, AACS and HDCP, all of which can be defeated by cheap hardware and/or software easily available on Ebay). All you will have stolen is a $50 hard drive, and that is still worth $50 regardless of what movie is on it when you steal it. So using fake names on DCP drive boxes serves no useful purpose whatsoever, while creating the risk that theatres will return them in error without ingesting, in the belief that they’ve been sent the wrong show. Did no-one tell the studios, Technicolor or Deluxe why they go to all this hassle encrypting DCPs, fielding all the "Help! Where's my KDM?" messages, etc. etc.?!  |  IP: Logged William Kucharski Expert Film Handler Posts: 244 From: Louisville, Colorado, United States of America Registered: Oct 2012 posted 06-17-2015 11:36 PM                     Most criminals aren't that intelligent, and encrypted or not there's a much higher chance anything labeled Star Wars VII is going to disappear from FedEx, UPS or even the back hall of the theater than if it were labeled Return to Joe's Apartment.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 06-18-2015 06:19 AM                     It does happen that the final title is not decided upon when the movie is being mastered. Also, there may be very different title names for multi-territory releases. Very often we get boxes and discs with labels carrying the original language title, with the localized title being so far off, we have to google the relationship. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2015 07:42 AM                     I'm sure that your average FedEx or UPS driver, or any other potential bootlegger/uploader, has no idea what level of encryption is happening and no idea what file format they will be dealing with. Anyone dumb enough to boost a drive more that likely that thinks the picture is simply a .mov or .wmv file or something eaisly transferred to an average computer, and when they realize they can't, it will go right into the trash. Meanwhile, your theatre is out a drive. In a similar vein, I remember years ago a 35mm print of Return of The Jedi was stolen from the booth of a local theatre, and found days later in a schoolyard dumpster. When they caught the kids, they said that they thought they would be able to run it on a 16mm Kodak Pageant projector they took from the school's A/V room. No clue.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 06-18-2015 07:50 AM                     Wondering why the shipping box needs to carry any film-title at all... - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 06-18-2015 10:51 AM                        I must confess that Mark's and William's points didn't occur to me. Maybe a printed label that says "This movie will not play on consumer equipment", like the decals on some security vans that say "No cash carried on board" might be a good idea. However, because the studios don't forewarn you about fake titles, this is a risky strategy. On the subject of Star Bores, I did actually put the return label on a 35mm print of the first one of the second batch, in 1999 (it was actually called something like "The Farting Menace" IIRC - the fake title was "Perfect Timing"), and, when it occurred to me to check out the contents of the box anyway, only retrieved it from the lobby with minutes to spare before the courier arrived to collect.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2015 01:11 PM                     quote: Carsten Kurz Wondering why the shipping box needs to carry any film-title at all... Why not dispense with names and just use code numbers on everything? The reference between the code numbers and the actual movie titles could be sent via e-mail along with the KDM that the theater already receives.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 06-18-2015 02:04 PM                     We open every box that arrives at the theater, we do not care about any number or movie name printed on it. As a matter of fact, a lot of boxes do arrive without a movie title on them. I hate getting promotional material like posters, etc. without a movie title on it, because we get lot's of material for movies we do never play, and I hate searching through a dozen boxes to find a specific title. But hard-drives are ordered items and we have to unpack and check every one anyway. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-18-2015 04:15 PM                     Tracking numbers or invoice numbers? Just include them in the e-mail. Since there are already people who are spending time making up fake movie titles and entering them into some computer in order to generate e-mails and shipping labels, it might even be a "labor saving" measure. (Sarcasm... )  |  IP: Logged

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