Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Paramount Offering Reward for Catching Ironman 2 Piracy

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Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 04-16-2010, 11:58 AM:

I received the following email:

quote:
Paramount Pictures has created a special [Take Action!] rewards scheme in conjunction with the U.S. theatrical release of Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010).

In order for a theater employee to be eligible for the reward, please note the following:

1. The police must be called and a police report must be made and submitted.
2. The reward is payable to the theater employee and the on-duty manager, to where a maximum of $2,000 ($1,000 maximum per person for the employee who initially spots the camcorder and for the on-duty manager) could be awarded per incident in the US.
3. The reward will only be paid within the first 10 days of theatrical release (*may be shortened if an ample supply of camcords are available).

You must also have ALL the information filled out on the normal reports we fill out. The claim cannot be filed without all information for a reward.

Please publicize this special program with your theater managers, and let me know if you have any questions.

Anybody else receive this?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-16-2010, 12:57 PM:

The reward program might possibly be more effective if it was payable to someone who was illegally loaned a studio screener DVD. Rat out that actor or movie critic for a cool grand. It would not surprise me one bit if Iron Man 2 was uploaded to the Internet before the movie's early May release. Nevertheless the theaters would get all the blame because piracy only occurs in commercial movie theaters.
[Roll Eyes]

Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 04-16-2010, 01:38 PM:

Get ready for the cans to be locked as well. They'll probably get unlocked an hour before your first show, if that soon.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-16-2010, 04:38 PM:

We're doing Iron Man 2 and Shrek 4 both. This'll be my first experience with Par's locked cans...wish me luck!

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 04-16-2010, 04:45 PM:

We received e-mail and fax that Hot Tub Time Machine was supposed to be locked and the codes would only be available after a certain time for 48 hours.
The movie arrived in a Fox Box.
Maybe they ran out of locks and cans?

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 04-16-2010, 06:55 PM:

We received the same message for Hot Tub. Ours came in cans without a lock in sight . . .

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 04-25-2010, 09:02 AM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
It would not surprise me one bit if Iron Man 2 was uploaded to the Internet before the movie's early May release.

As no cinema has taken delivery of ironman 2 as yet why do i find dozens of files for it on the bittorrent download site already?

looks like paramount has missed the crooks again .

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 04-25-2010, 09:24 AM:

You'd all better be hanging around the editing rooms or at the back door of the film lab. This is where many "screeners" escape from. Screeners are the number one piracy point for all movies, not the movie theaters themselves.

Mark

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 04-25-2010, 12:48 PM:

quote: Phil Blake
As no cinema has taken delivery of ironman 2 as yet why do i find dozens of files for it on the bittorrent download site already?

While at least one of those is probably the real deal, some people put up torrents that are fake just for the lols. I remember a friend had downloaded Superman Returns before it came out only to find the content of the file was Super Troopers.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 04-25-2010, 01:14 PM:

Back when Dolby was doing the DCMI cinema inspection thing a few years ago (maybe they still are in some locations) they used to offer a reward to any inspector that caught a camcorder or other recording device in a theater. An unobtrusive sweep of the auditorium looking for such things was a part of the inspection checklist.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 04-25-2010, 03:41 PM:

While someone camcordering should obviously be removed,
I wonder if anyone remembers that girl in Chicago last year who got arrested for inadvertently capturing a few seconds on her camera phone.

Remember all the negative press it generated for that theater?

Not worth it. Incentivizing ushers to become a studio police squad instead of customer service personnel is bad for business.

Posted by Manny Montes (Member # 5639) on 04-27-2010, 01:33 AM:

heck, while cams are so rare to find now days, I'll gladly take some extra $$$ if I catch someone recording it.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-27-2010, 01:58 AM:

People bring entire laptops into the auditorium all the time these days. I saw one on about a year ago or so while the movie was running. I didn't know if someone was actively pirating or not, so I informed the GM. He went in, stopped, turned around and left the auditorium. Turns out it was just a kid (who I couldn't see) playing games on the laptop while the mom or dad or whoever watched the movie. The auditorium didn't have many people in it and the GM felt it was not worth it to approach and talk to the laptop family unless someone else complained.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 04-27-2010, 03:45 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Screeners are the number one piracy point for all movies, not the movie theaters themselves.

Exactly! Mark, that is spot on.

So why is it so hard to get this through to the studios?

Surely it's a no-brainer. But I guess the studios have to be SEEN to be doing something about the scourge that is piracy.

On the other hand, bombarding patrons with that rotten "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" nag at the start of the show will only piss people off. More than one patron has said to me that it makes them feel like a criminal.

Treat people like criminals and they will act like them.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 04-27-2010, 04:25 AM:

quote: Ian Parfrey
"You Wouldn't Steal a Car" nag at the start of the show

You run them?

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 04-27-2010, 04:34 AM:

John

Here's our house tag list-:

"You wouldn't steal a car"

....and....

Kung Fu Panda- "No cell phones-No Talking"

That's it.
How bloody exiting.

Management just wont spring for any others.

I've considered bringing in my "Spaceman Intermission" but I figured why bother. It's minty but starting to fade.
[Frown]

Posted by Phil Blake (Member # 2012) on 04-27-2010, 05:56 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
You'd all better be hanging around the editing rooms or at the back door of the film lab. This is where many "screeners" escape from.

i guess no one likes to look in their own back yard first.

Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 04-27-2010, 07:07 AM:

I remember when superman came out,in england, all the cans were sealed with colour changing tape,and you only got one can delivered a day, and you had to ring the renter to tell them which can had been delivered, you got the final reel on opening day,a projectionist at one of cinemas actually took some unopened reels home for safe keeping,went to work on the day of opening superman, and found the booth had been entered by outsiders,unlucky 4 them not to find anything.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 04-27-2010, 04:00 PM:

quote: Alan Plester
a projectionist at one of cinemas actually took some unopened reels home for safe keeping

Ha! Didn't happen to have a 35mm projector or two in the house per chance? [Cool]

Posted by Alan Plester (Member # 852) on 04-27-2010, 05:11 PM:

I can see where thats coming from John, but on this occasion no. He
just thought it would be a good idea.

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 04-28-2010, 02:10 PM:

Don't know why they bother.

Just saw by chance there is a good quality copy out with spanish subtitles for download on the net.

[Confused]

I wasn't even looking and was just surfing for information on kick-ass release date in Spain, so it may have been out for a while...

I downloaded the first 10 minutes or so chunk and indeed it's real.

Oh, well.

They need to realise that movies are going to be pirated and shared on the internet a day after (or before) they are released in cinemas and that those that are willing to see them in the inferior pirate format are going to do so regardless. Only if the movie is actually worth it, and I'm not talking only about "artistic quality" but also spectacle and expensive action crap, people get their asses out to watch them for $10+popcorn the right way.

And stop wasting all this money that REAL customers obviously end up paying on extremely expensive anti-piracy stuff that obviously will never work when any kid, anywhere in the world, can pop out a $100 HD cellphone and tape the whole thing and upload it 1 hour later to the entire planet.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 04-29-2010, 02:35 PM:

Julio's right on the money.

Proof positive that its the screeners that are the major source of piracy.

..but it's not THEIR fault, is it? [Roll Eyes]

Here's an idea Studio Guys.

You know the "bug" that sits in the corner on FTA television? Modify that to watermark your screeners and see what happens.

..and stop stuffing up the audio tracks with fart noises, all of which does nothing except trash the very product you are trying to sell.

Time to look in your own backyard.

Hey, only trying to help. [Cool]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-29-2010, 03:12 PM:

Kind off topic, but today I received an e-mail from some lawyer guy asking if I'd seen the audio drop-out anti-piracy thing on any prints from Technicolor or if it had only been Deluxe.

Odd. Not sure why he picked me to ask but I'm sure he found me here.

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 04-29-2010, 03:33 PM:

Kind of off topic, but if the anti-piracy CRAP, watermarks and audio fingerprints ever start becoming really effective, just rest assure that methods to defeat all of them have been perfectly devised.

Some as simple as taping the shows twice and mixing the two images/audio 50% (or better yet, with a random % that fluctuates through the movie+a bit of noise).

Those that thought that CRAP/equivalents, audio drops or digital picture/watermaking is an EFFECTIVE anti piracy method are addicted to cool aid.

Sure they CATCH a few, maybe even many (careless) "pirates" after the fact. But the truth is for every kid they catch taping, there is another one with a brand new cellphone waiting in line at the BO in Czechia* ...

*DISCLAIMER: just to choose a random country that sounds remote. If you are from Czechia, please substitute for Guam.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 04-29-2010, 03:57 PM:

I always liked Leo Enticknap's "Sodomistan" for use in cases like this. [Big Grin]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 04-29-2010, 03:59 PM:

The audio forced-dropout is in the same place on every print. I was curious and wound through 4 different prints of Crystal Skull and it was frame accurate. They do it during loud scenes intentionally, but the stupid part is that if the SR is properly calibrated, there is no way a videocamera (or cell phone) microphone would pick it up.

It is apparently just a Deluxe thing...or Technicolor knows how to do it properly. It is the same thing with the CAP coding. The Deluxe version is hideous, yet the Technicolor blends in fairly well.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-29-2010, 05:36 PM:

quote: Ian Parfrey
Proof positive that its the screeners that are the major source of piracy.

That list doesn't prove anything, because the movie is not playing in theatres yet. Check the list again on the Monday after opening weekend and see how many screeners vs. how many cam copies there are.

I'm not saying there isn't a problem with screeners; it's definitely a problem. I am amazed they still make the damn things.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 04-29-2010, 06:16 PM:

quote:
That list doesn't prove anything,

It proves everything.

The whole point is that it is NOW available on Torrents and it is NOT available to theatres.

Posted by Jonathan Althaus (Member # 5042) on 04-29-2010, 08:00 PM:

And the print will be locked unti 3pm EST May 6th. Reels 1,8, and trailers.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-29-2010, 09:52 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Kind off topic, but today I received an e-mail from some lawyer guy asking if I'd seen the audio drop-out anti-piracy thing on any prints from Technicolor or if it had only been Deluxe.

I got the same letter. And, yes, I think he used Film-Tech to gain the contact info. I actually sent the guy a response saying I didn't know which movies have had this audio watermarking and that I was skeptical it would even work. Bootleg camcorder recordings are so typically so low in quality it would be easy for shit like CAP code and audio hiccups to fuzzed and muffled out via the poor recording quality.

I also said the DVD screeners were the real problem. If I was running a movie studio I would severely curtail or even completely eliminate the availability of DVD screeners. Any actor, critic, executive or whoever else would just need to see the movie by planting his/her ass into a theater seat for 2 uninterrupted hours -just like the rest of us common folk.

quote: Ian Parfrey
The whole point is that it is NOW available on Torrents and it is NOT available to theatres.

I've been saying the same thing for years. The problem is the folks running things in Hollywood movie studios don't want to acknowledge the truth. They love the convenience of DVD screeners too much to get rid of them. And there's enough people out there buying into their line of bullshit that piracy is all the fault of commercial movie theaters.

If the freaking movie is already available on the 'net before the movie is playing in commercial theaters there's no way those piracy leaks could be blamed on theaters. Anyone trying to blame those leaks on theaters is an idiot.

Posted by Michael Riley (Member # 5693) on 04-29-2010, 10:17 PM:

For the record, anything that's currently out there right now claiming to be a bootleg of Iron Man 2 be it a cam or a screener is just a dummy file uploaded by people with nothing better to do. Usually it'll just be a bad cam of another recent film renamed and uploaded as Iron Man 2. Sometimes it'll just be a virus. Either way, the movie isn't currently out there yet, and if it were to be, it'd be pretty well known and reported in the news, similar to what happened with Wolverine last year.

Does locking the cans really accomplish anything? If someone was bound and determined enough, they could certainly cut the lock off with bolt cutters. Most of the film cans Deluxe uses are decades old and falling apart, so it's not like the hinges on the can couldn't easily get damaged either. I also love the threat of "being reported to the proper authorities". I imagine if you work for Regal or AMC this probably means the person is HR who has the ability to fire you. It's not like the legitimate authorities would waste their time investigating someone without any substantial evidence that a crime was committed, beyond a broken or missing padlock.

Posted by Michael Voiland (Member # 5386) on 04-29-2010, 10:22 PM:

Was that who that guy was. I got the same message asking about dropouts in indy.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 04-29-2010, 11:25 PM:

Maybe the guy is gathering some info for a class-action lawsuit.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-30-2010, 09:43 AM:

From my view, the locks on the cans aren't meant to stop pirates from stealing film prints. They're meant to stop theatres from running shows ahead of time. This could stop potential theatre-employee camcording. As much as screeners are the source of stolen movies, camcording DOES happen too.

And it would also stop unscrupulous venues from running early shows for "special" groups of customers before the official opening date too (such activity was reported here in some other thread).

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 04-30-2010, 12:17 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
From my view, the locks on the cans aren't meant to stop pirates from stealing film prints. They're meant to stop theatres from running shows ahead of time.

The locks are there to keep the honest people honest. Anyone who really wants into those cans could get into them. There are multiple ways I have heard of from bending the latches back by the rivets to youtube videos on how to pick the locks.

My biggest issue isn't the locks at all, but the fact they lock REEL 1 and the trailers in there! That's just the studio guys being assholes. Most theaters will get 2 or more prints of this, yet they won't be able to get much done until the last minute when it turns into a panic "speed build" to make it for the midnight shows. That is hardly in the best interest of your presentation and film care.

To the studios, there is NO EXCUSE for you to be like this. Just lock the LAST 1, 2 or even 3 reels up. Anything more than that is asking for resentment at the theater level, making them more tempted to turn their head the other way when a camcorder DOES find its way into the building to get back at you for making their Thursday evening hell. Let them get MOST of the print built, as it won't take too long to wind the last couple of reels on at the last minute. (Trailer packs can take projectionists longer to build than a few reels too, depending on their expertise.)

And remember, it's only a movie. Yes piracy is a bad thing that can have ramifications right down to the concessionist at a theater, but Jack Valenti has really done a number brainwashing this entire industry FAR beyond mere education on the matter to a point of paranoia.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 04-30-2010, 01:24 PM:

quote: Jonathan Althaus
3pm EST May 6

When I got that fax I wondered if they meant "EDT" or if Paramount has decided to damn the man (and daylight saving time) and just stick with standard time for the whole year.

Posted by Michael Riley (Member # 5693) on 04-30-2010, 06:12 PM:

and what happens when at 3pm on Thursday, you build that movie with no time to screen it, and it turns out that there was a factory error with Reel 1 causing sound loss and / or discoloration? What if you unlock that can and find that someone at the depot messed up and placed an extra Reel 2 in there instead of the correct reel? Does Paramount compensate theaters for lost revenue if this results in lost or canceled shows? Sure, this may not be a problem in a Megaplex that has 4 or more different prints they could potentially run, but what about the smaller locations that may only have one or two? Surely this must have happened at some point.

Posted by Julio Roberto (Member # 4976) on 04-30-2010, 07:12 PM:

There are at least 3 REAL versions of Iron Man 2 in the wild that I know of in the internet. A spanish subtitled, a spanish latin audio and a spanish castillian audio.

If the laws in your country allow these downloads, go ahead and check it out yourself from your favourite torrent site.

I just downloaded a small chunk of the spanish castillian audio version to compare the quality and it's a bit worse (someone with a camcorder in a theater and the audio is also recorded live in a theater).

Regardless, if they were trying to prevent internet piracy somehow with all those ... let's call them lame measures, they were obviously dreaming. Those measures only cost money, inconvinience greatly paying customers and MAY in some cases help DELAY a couple of hours the spread of pirated copies in the internet or may help in catching A COUPLE of guys responsable after the fact, which would do nothing to stop piracy itself other than punish SOME of those who "start it up". And always at a pretty high cost.

So what's the solution? I don't think there is one. Try to save as much money as possible to lower the cost of distribution/exhibition and pass the savings to customer with cheap tickets to watch good prints that have been made-up and checked with plenty of time and cheap discs w/o warnings and crap at the beginning which customers can just push "play" and watch at their homes.

And this last part is no joke.

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-avatar-blu-ray-consumers-cant-watch-DVD.html

http://www.answerblip.com/avatar-blu-ray-consumers-cant-watch-dvd

quote:
An unusual glitch has angered some “Avatar” Blu-ray owners. For these unlucky people, since the disc won’t play on their Blu-ray players, their new “Avatar” DVD serves no real purpose other than to sit idly on the coffee table.

“When 3 out of 3 players in my house (Denon, Samsung and PC) won’t play it, then 20th Century Fox should be slapped with losses on this one,” said one irritated customer.

In reality, the disc works fine; the problem stems from the Blu-ray players themselves. In order to run optimally, the firmware for these fancy DVD machines needs to be updated regularly via a download from the Web. (“Firmware” is the program that controls the performance of an electronic device, which would be, in this case, the playback of a Blu-ray disc.) If a Blu-ray player owner doesn’t have a home Internet connection, the chances are good the player’s firmware will be out of date. Thus making “Avatar” — a movie that prides itself on being presented with only the most cutting edge of technology — unplayable with the older firmware.

Unfortunately, people without an Internet connection probably aren’t reading this particular story — or the hundreds of other pieces instructing new Blu-ray player owners on how to upgrade. So they’re not aware of the root of a problem. But while they may not have home access to the Internet, they likely do have a telephone. And they’ve been using their phone to flood retailers with angry calls.

Still, that only seems to be part of the problem for “Avatar” owners.

It appears the main culprit concerning playback issues with “Avatar” is, ironically, the disc’s DRM (digital rights management). DRM, which is the very technology meant to prevent bootleggers from illegally copying the film, is the very technology preventing people who actually paid for the disc from watching the film. Even with updated firmware, a lot of Blu-ray players weren’t prepared for these security measures.

The response so far from Fox on the Avatar issue to paying customers ... none yet. It will probably be: send your blu-ray player to be serviced so it can play our movie or buy a new player.

Otherwise, there are PLENTY of trouble-free pirated copies of Avatar in all formats, languages, shape and form (and yes, including NATIVE non-recompressed blu-ray HD) on the internet. For free. Those play just fine in all blu-ray players or PC's, since they are pre-stripped of all DRM and region codes and locks.

What are they thinking? Don't they realize that the whole world is connected on a network to share information and that even if they succeded protecting their films in 99% of the world still some russian hacker would manage to put it in the web or, worse comes to worse, someone with a good HD camera and LCD monitor can just re-tape it and offer a fairly good pirated copy around?

Those that want the pirate copy, will always get it. Those that want the original, want a decent good deal $$$ and one that works and is trouble free with maximun quality.

[Roll Eyes]

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 05-01-2010, 02:07 AM:

I have found (but not dl) at least four different copies out there all Camcorders and all in Russian (no english language version yet).

Posted by Todd McCracken (Member # 4718) on 05-03-2010, 07:28 AM:

From what I understand a English version hit yesterday [Frown]

I really hate it when this type of thing happens pre-break.