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Topic: LOTR: 2 Towers,already being downloaded!?!

Michael Wohlford
Film Handler

Posts: 17
From: Round Rock, TX, USA
Registered: Jun 2001

posted 11-09-2002 10:41 PM

I heard how some movies get released on the Internet. Not sure if it is true. I heard that the studios make a "DVD" of the movie for their employees, but with a scrolling marquee disclaimer saying "Property of 'studio'. Duplication or reproduction is strictly prohibited. Contact the MPAA if reproduced". The marquee appears every 15 or so mintues throughout the movie. Then the employees crack the DVD and submit it online.

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William Leland III
Master Film Handler

Posts: 336
From: Charleston, SC,
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 11-10-2002 12:14 AM

Per, when movies gross up words of $100 million or even gross $20 million, the studios will make money or lose money. If the movie is popular then money is made, if not... money is lost.
Internet piracy will never hurt studios. The piracy of songs did alot of damage to music studios. That i agree on. But movie piracy will never hurt Hollywood. People still need theaters. It is one of the few types of entertainment young kids have these days. If internet piracy continues nothing will happen. Hollywood will not loose that much money.
Per have you ever watched a pirated movie or do you know someone who has. Ask there views on this.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 11-10-2002 10:23 AM

If piracy is not already hurting then it definitely will in the future when the quality increases. A day and date legitimate release on video would canibalize theatrical grosses and obviously reduce total revenue which is why this isn't being done. Therefore if a significant number of people are going to see the movie via bootleg while it's still having its theatrical run then that's going to take a chunk out of the hide of theatrical rentals while contributing nothing to the video side. Many people will still prefer to see the film in a theatre but look how many now use DVD as their primary viewing experience. It's ridiculous to suggest that if they can get that for free they would not avail themselves. It's just a matter of the quality of the bootlegs and the availability of high speed connections although the latter is not mandatory since people will (and are) taking these highly compressed files and burning them to CDR's. As DVD burners and media come down in price they can up the quality by using less compression since a DVD-ROM can hold so much more data or perhaps even transcode the file into DVD-Video format that can be played on ordinary players.

Perhaps the copyright holders ought to fight fire with fire by getting onto the file sharing networks with thousands of clients offering dozens of current films all of which would be sham files.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 11-10-2002 11:09 AM

Steve Kraus suggested: "Perhaps the copyright holders ought to fight fire with fire by getting onto the file sharing networks with thousands of clients offering dozens of current films all of which would be sham files."

Good idea. A "sting" operation could also identify fragrant violators for prosecution. AFAIK, the same techniques are being used to combat child pornography on the Internet.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 11-10-2002 11:59 AM

JP said

quote:
A "sting" operation could also identify fragrant violators for prosecution.

I'm all for locking up fragrant violators who stink up public places with their terminal B.O. Get them off the street!

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 11-10-2002 12:49 PM

I forgot to use Smell-Check.

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Will Morrow
Film Handler

Posts: 91
From: Mt. Pleasant, MI, USA
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 11-10-2002 02:27 PM

Do you seriously think viewing an Mpeg of a movie a month earlier is going to stop people from seeing it at a movie theater? I highly doubt most of these pirates own Digital Projectors, let alone ones that would simulate a theater experience. Outside of the pirated copies being digital (which we know makes them better than film copies ;-) ) These come NOWHERE close to being able to compete with the experience of going to the theater.

I myself think the problem is the fact that theaters are forced to become concessoin outlets because studios rape them of the profits once made from ticket sales. Eventually the public will not pay ten bucks for a 10 cent popcorn and 5 cent soda, on top of their 8 dollar ticket to the movie. This has to be amended. Theaters have become snack bars that happen to show movies, instead of movie theaters that offer the conveniance of snacks.

Let's stop blaming the <1% of the population that trades crappy computer files of movies for something that is ultimately the movie studios fault.

Take for example a movie like Jackass, it had a budget of 5 million, and took in a ton more...why not alot some of those profits to the theaters so that concession prices wouldn't have to be so high. Then more people come to the theaters knowing they aren't spending half of a paycheck on one nights entertainment. Just an idea.

Peace!

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Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-10-2002 02:47 PM

I know that sometime in the past - there were actual real profits from ticket sales going to the theatre companies.But - as long as I have been alive - it has always been about profit margins at the concession stand. The first day I worked at a movie theatre - and John Zampi told me I was going to work in the concession stand - he explained to me that was where the theatre business made it's money. 14 years later it is more true than ever before.

I have watched mpeg movies on a computer screen - but it will never match what we have on the big screen. Nor will the 'home theatre' boom ever put us out of business.......

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 11-10-2002 05:51 PM

quote:
"he explained to me that was where the theatre business made it's money. 14 years later it is more true than ever before."

Give it another year or two and on-screen advertising should surpass it.

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 11-14-2002 07:26 AM

From NBC TV here]here[/URL]

quote:
______________________________________________________________
The early, inferior copies often are soon replaced by better
versions that pirates make by bribing a theatre projectionist
and mounting a camera on a tripod in the projection booth.
______________________________________________________________

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 11-14-2002 07:59 AM

Again, the MPAA does offer rewards for information leading to the conviction of movie pirates:
here MPAA Anti-Piracy

Also, MULTIPLE versions of CAP Code and watermarking are now being used to allow tracking of pirated copies to the specific print they were made from.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-14-2002 08:32 AM

Is there some equivalent to CAP code for screener videotapes/DVDs distributed by the studios for internal use? As others have posted, most of these pirated copies (especially the early ones) seem to be coming from sources other than film prints.

I do agree that this sort of piracy probably isn't hurting boxoffice grosses, but I can still see why the distributors would want to stop it.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 11-14-2002 09:05 AM

Scott asked: "Is there some equivalent to CAP code for screener videotapes/DVDs distributed by the studios for internal use?"

I don't know what is being used, but I suspect there is at least a rudimentary watermark being added.

Kodak has developed some really good technology for invisibly watermarking digital images:
here Invisible Watermarking for Digital Cinema
here How Digital Watermarking Works
here Protecting Digital Pictures

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Bill Gabel
Film God

Posts: 3873
From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 11-14-2002 09:24 AM

On some screener tapes, there is burn-in on screen "Property of so &
so". You also have names burned, as to who is assigned to the tape.
So if the screener gets dupped, you can find out where the tape came from. So if someone brings in a video camera and makes a copy, you
find out who was the last one to screen that tape. New Line on some of their tapes have burnin over burnin and numbers.

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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-14-2002 11:11 AM

Does the severity of the punishment impact the amount of the reward that the MPAA gives out? Perhaps if they were to fine someone $50,000 and give $25,000 to the person who turned them in, there would be more of an incentive to turn someone in.

OTOH, If they were to punish the person with 5 years in prison, I would not want the 2.5 years in prison as a reward.

John-- That link you provided says nothing about a reward.

=TMP=

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