Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Is CAP Code working?

This is topic Is CAP Code working? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 02-23-2004, 05:56 PM:

We all know how annoying these can be. However, all the cases I have read about recently have resulted in the source for film piracy being traced anywhere but cinemas.
The Academy screeners we all know about.
Matrix 2 & Hulk were pirated directly from production company servers.
Perhaps these are just the high profile cases, but I have yet to see where a pirate copy was traced back to a specific print.
Is it just a case of a crappy search engine?
Has anyone been nabbed from the CAP Code?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-23-2004, 06:18 PM:

"Is CAP Code working?"

If its purpose is to get me pissed off, then yes I would say it is working. I have been distracted by it on all of the last few movies I have seen in commercial cinemas. It was really annoying in LOTR: The Return of the King and Mystic River.

As per the question, "is it catching pirates?" I would be tempted to say hell no. The preponderance of movies-on-the-net use DVD screeners as source material. About the only place you'll find camcorder piracy movies available is perhaps on street corners in New York City. They're sold right alongside the bogus Rolex watches and illegally produced T-shirts.

Carmike Cinemas has to play this anti-piracy trailer in front of every show (the one with the stunt coordinator and car stunt scenes from "Enemy of the State").

Sorry. The movie industry needs to tell this accusatory shit to their own damned employees! They're the ones selling the screener discs to Chinese mass production markets or making HD digital tape versions available to copy.

Mass produced illegal DVDs from the Far East are flooding a black market around the world. Here at Fort Sill, there are soldiers returning from Iraq with collections of these pirate DVDs -and often the movie they have on DVD is still playing in the theater.

If Jack Valenti is really serious about fighting piracy, he'll get some lobby pressure happening to re-address our grossly stupid trade arrangement with China.

The People's Republic of China has permanent most favored nation trading status and fast-track status. That's in spite of the country making it okay to counterfeit just about every form of merchandise that can be copied illegally in the world. We give China a free ride because a handful of filthy rich Americans running multinational corporations are making a killing off opening factories there to exploit cheap labor and import the stuff back here with next to nothing in tariffs.

The US level of exporting manufacturing and service sector jobs to China is so high now that Toyota has supplanted Chrysler as the number 3 employer of American auto workers. Meanwhile Ford and GM are shutting more American plants and opening new factories and even headquarter offices in places like China and Taiwan. Kinda makes one think a bit about his next car purchase.

As long as our lopsided policies of international trade continue we will see a lot more in the way of pirated movies. No amount of crap code or policy trailers will affect that.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 02-23-2004, 06:46 PM:

Slightly off topic here but I was pretty mad the WB anti Piracy thing for strsky and hutch. They have sent them out before, but this time it came ATTACHED to reel 1. Not only was it attached but it was before the attached trailer so I had to cut it out and put it in after the trailer so I didnt have a trailer before and after this thing.

What really got me was the way they wrote it, like it was something that the theater is putting on. It read somethign like "our theater would like to remind you that filming the movie off our screen is illegal" Waht it should have said is "We at Warner Bothers think that you are all criminals."

Next time it will not be played.

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 02-23-2004, 06:59 PM:

Chris,

That tag is attached to all Warner sneak prints. I just get pissed of with all the security.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 02-23-2004, 07:56 PM:

I know it's the most hated thing, but could not find any instance of anyone being caught/traced.

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 02-23-2004, 09:04 PM:

Ron, perhaps I have been lucky. They usually send it to us in the can like a trailer, which I dont mind but it should not be attached and if it has to be they should put it AFTER the attached trailer.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-23-2004, 09:52 PM:

Remember, CAP Code is primarily a tool to TRACK sources of piracy, and is usually not directly used as evidence at trial.There was some press coverage of the early successes of CAP Code, but there was a reluctance to make too many of the details known. The fact that distributors have been willing to pay for having prints coded for over 20 years says they have found that the benefits are worth the cost of doing it. Why pay for something you aren't using successfully?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-23-2004, 11:45 PM:

Why? It's a nice false sense of security...kind of like having gates in an apartment complex. That isn't REALLY going to stop much, but the people sleep better at night.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-23-2004, 11:57 PM:

I hate gated communities. Only people overrun with fear live in them. But I suppose pirating a movie is far worse than breaking into someone's home.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 02-24-2004, 01:44 AM:

Just between you & me, John. I promise I won't tell anyone else.
In the past 2 years, how many pirates have been traced to prints vs other forms of piracy.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-24-2004, 12:54 PM:

In-theatre piracy is acknowledged to be only PART of the problem, but it IS still a source of pirated copies. All parts of the production, distribution, and exhibition chain need better security measures.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-24-2004, 02:14 PM:

I wonder how much money was spent developing and applying the various forms of CAP code.

I wonder how much money the CAP code has procured due to thwarting piracy.

I wonder if CAP code has paid for itself.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-24-2004, 02:29 PM:

Ask the MPAA and the distributors.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 02-25-2004, 03:58 PM:

I wonder how much money it's LOST from people who've given up on going to movies??