|  IP: Logged

This was probably done to get fans into the digital screenings of Episode II, in the same manor that Lucas will not release a DVD version of Episode 3, 4, 5, and 6 because he wants people to go out and buy HD-DVD (i.e. BlueRAY) equipment when it comes out this fall/next year.

Also, all the pirated versions of Episode II currently available on the internet were done using cameras on tripods with a direct link to the theatre's sound system (which is what is done with most releases). After these are put onto VCD (the first releases were VCD) or SVCD (the new Centropy release (much better quality) is SVCD) there is such a degration of quality that any digital watermark is gone. The odds of a film's pirated release being a Telecline is next to 0 (Telecline machines cost too damn much). These groups use Digital PAL Cameras (25FPS), so the quality is still rather good (depending on how they have it setup).

Note: All items in this post are the truth according to my information and experiences. I have NEVER brought a camera into a motion picture presentation and don't intend to.

I'm not sure what can be done to really stop film piracy. It seems like every effort that is invented to circumvent piracy winds up getting cracked very fast. It's just like those new "copy-protected" music CDs from Sony than can be cracked just by marking the edge with a felt tip marker.

Regardless of what happens, the movie and music industry needs to stop jerking consumers around and insulting them. Rigorous copy protection junk on DVD-V and DVD-A discs serves little purpose when the money making window of film piracy only exists when the film is in the theaters.

And the music industry (particularly the RIAA) has no clue whatsoever when they chisel people for $20 for a crappy CD of mostly unoriginal material and possibly one or two good songs. They were making more money when Napster was around because Napster was a good source of advertising for their product. Jesus, these same morons are paying a fortune in payola to radio stations to get their music played (this is why you seem to hear the same 10 songs over and over and over and over again regardless of music format). Napster was an additional source of advertising. But because they are paranoid, they have shot themselves in the foot marketing wise. I hardly listen to radio anymore since the music is largely so boring and generic anymore. I have to search lots of magazines and internet sites trying to find new bands of interest that are getting no radio airplay. At least with services like Morpheus, I can download a low quality 128kb/s MP3 file and see if their stuff is any good before buying the better quality CD.

The movie industry is flirting with the same bad path. If they hamper digital formats bad enough out of copy protection junk, to where you can't even hook your digital camcorder up to your computer anymore then the whole damned market is going to dry up and they will all lose their shirts financially.

DVD-A and SACD are going nowhere at all since they cannot function on the same levels of user customization and portability as classic Music CD. I can make my own "best of" CDs with no filler material and take it to the lake and pound it out of my boom box as atmosphere for a good tailgate party.

Theatres will loose their location in american media rather quick, and because the MPAA sees this they want to do everything in their power to keep people in those theatres where they are making $3/person in royalties rather than $1 per household for rentals.

 |  IP: Logged

I wonder if it's anything like that horrible copy of Episode 2 that showed up a week prior to release.

It almost makes me wonder, with all of these releases showing up before the actual release date if the bootlegging is occuring at a regular theater.

Did ayone else see that 5-minue Sprint bit at the beginning? It was hillarious!

"A passenger carrying 3,800 pirate DVDs, including 1,400 copies of Men In Black II was intercepted at Johannesburg International airport over the weekend by South Africa's Federation against Copyright Theft, in its latest drive to stem the counterfeiting market which is costing the industry some $6.1m per year."

For more on this story, here is a link to Screen Daily:
http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=8812

It's an interesting comparison of the film and record companies' current situation. The point is essentially that the film industry has had great success with DVD sales by giving customers a quality product at a resonable price (which reduces piracy), while the record industry has been hurting by providing customers with what is perceived to be overpriced, substandard products and is thus suffering much more from piracy.

The print I saw didn't have a cartoon attatched to it. I wonder if it is supposed to be on all the prints? Maybe the Sprint attatchment will be replaced with the cartoon. Anywho, Sprint had a special screening for their employees at our theater Sunday evening. Before the actual movie, there was a guy talking to the audience (obviously the Sprint audience) about selling two of their new phones. Then he and Frank go into a room at MIB headquarters and he practices a sales pitch on one of the aliens. After than, about a dozen MIB's, along with the guy from the Sprint commercials come into the room, but the sales guys dissapears into the counter much the same way the "drivers" of the MIB vehihcles get sucked into the steering wheels. It was pretty funny, but I didn't realize until afterwards that it was only a Sprint thing. The whole time I was watching it I was thinking to myself, "What the phugg is this??"

Sprint obviously paid good money to do "Product Placement" along with Burger King. It's a way for a studio to reduce some of its cost and for someone to advertise a product. (Austin Power's Hot Pocket's, Minority Report has a bunch).

When watching the movie, they use a Sprint PCS phone to make calls, a Sprint PCS store was located in MIB right next to BK.

(God, I sound like a commercial)

We received the print the same way everyone else did. Instructions were to remove the commercial, given that we were keeping the print, and to add Chubbs when it came in.

Sony is the worst studio in regards to piracy. Any trade screening that is done, the print arrives 2 hours before show time by courier, built with them watching, shown, immediately torn down with them watching and removed from the theatre.

The worst idea with them was with Spiderman. I had a two print screening on Tuesday before opening. Technicolor said I got to keep the prints, which they were wrong, so I had to break down the two prints for a courier to pick up. Then the next day, a new print arrives for a Wed screening. I do get to keep that one and then on Thurs, the original two prints that I had, come back to me to build up again.