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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-29-2007, 06:03 PM:
 
Yes I know we have a thread for news articles, but this one is a standout as it directly relates to the industry. (And also because it's my site darnit.)

So it looks like Universal is already blaming the failure of American Gangster on internet piracy before it even opens. Nice save guys!

Also I find this article very interesting in that Universal is telling people that the copies available for free download on the internet are "pristine copies". Why would you tell people that would otherwise be expecting a crappy camcorder job or a watermarked screener that they can download a perfect copy?

Also, the quote "consumers are then more likely to buy a theater ticket rather than a poor-quality bootleg DVD."

And since when did moviebootlegging become a word?

Link to story, reprinted from Wall Street Journal

quote:

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Hollywood security not enough to foil movie bootleggers

BY SARAH MCBRIDE AND PETER SANDERS THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Posted on Monday, October 29, 2007

A new high-profile moviebootlegging case involving the coming Oscar hopeful American Gangster shows that Hollywood’s supposedly reinforced preventive measures on piracy aren’t as reliable as the industry thought.

The movie, which stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, is being distributed by General Electric Co. ’s Universal Pictures and is set to open to the public Friday. The premiere took place Oct. 19 at the Apollo Theater in New York.

But the movie has been available since at least Wednesday at various file-sharing sites on the Internet. High-quality DVDs were being sold for $ 5 on Thursday morning in Los Angeles, where someone in a car pulled up in front of a Wilshire Boulevard office building and quickly sold a few copies before moving on.

While studios have come to accept that their movies will quickly find their way onto the Internet after their theatrical releases, they have been fighting hard to prevent them from landing online before they hit the big screen. For the past few years, the studios seemed to be succeeding in that mission, with few prerelease-piracy issues. The companies have taken extensive security precautions at prerelease screenings in theaters and have been vigilant about stamping watermarks on other copies of films that circulate in a quest to identify potential pirates.

But early releases are on the upswing again. Earlier this year, Ratatouille, the animated film from Walt Disney Co. ’s Pixar, began appearing online about 10 days before its official release. Other titles that have been affected this year include Weinstein Co. ’s Sicko and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. ’s Hostel: Part II. The events show that leaks may be occurring during postproduction, when various vendors working on each film have access to it.

The impact of such releases on a film’s ultimate box-office and DVD performance is hard to gauge, but industry officials say there is no doubt that it hurts.

“The longer you can prevent a scenario like this one with American Gangster from occurring, the better the return on investment for a studio,” said John Desmond, vice president of SafeNet Inc. ’s MediaSentry, an online piracy-research company.

In the case of American Gangster, the problem is compounded by the excellent quality of the bootleg versions, which appear to be pristine, lacking even the “not-for-distribution” scroll at the bottom of the screen that would identify it as an “early screener.” If a movie is going to be pirated, the ideal for studios is for poorquality copies to predominate online for as long as possible, Desmond said, since consumers are then more likely to buy a theater ticket rather than a poor-quality bootleg DVD.

Universal officials say they aren’t sure how a copy of the movie leaked. In recent years, studios have clamped down on many sources of piracy, such as copies leaking out from postproduction houses or members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who vote for the Oscar awards and typically receive DVD copies of films at the beginning of the annual awards season. But Universal says that isn’t the case in this instance.

“There have been no screeners sent out to members of the academy so that’s 100 percent impossible as the cause of how this leaked,” said Michael Moses, a Universal Pictures spokesman.

American Gangster is a project many years and more than $ 100 million in the making, and the studio has high Oscar hopes for it. The early release is “disappointing and devastating, but unfortunately, it’s part of doing business,” Moses said.

Equating every bootleg copy with a lost sale is faulty logic, many in the industry say. Many people who buy the illegal copy are prepared to spend $ 5 for the bootlegged movie but wouldn’t have forked out $ 20 for the legitimate DVD, let alone paid for the whole family to see it in a theater.

The situation leaves studios in a predicament. They need to hammer hard on piracy, presenting it as a serious problem worthy of crackdowns by law enforcement, lawsuits and massive public-relations campaigns.

At the same time, they are sometimes reluctant to concede ground to the pirates. After the leak of Hostel: Part II, Tom Ortenberg, president of Lions Gate Films Releasing, told the Los Angeles Times it wouldn’t hurt box-office sales much because the early leak was of such poor quality. When the movie didn’t do well as well as he had hoped, director Eli Roth blamed piracy.

The industry has prosecuted individual pirates — though the consequences are often underwhelming. When Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith leaked online a few hours before its 2005 release, the industry used forensic technology to determine that the leak originated with an employee at a postproduction house who had lent a copy of the movie to friends, one of whom uploaded it onto the Internet.

Eight individuals we re charged in that case, most with misdemeanors. The man who originally took the movie was sentenced to two years ’ probation and a fine of $ 2, 500. The uploader was fined $ 1, 000 and sentenced to four months’ house arrest as part of a threeyear probation.

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quote:

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The events show that leaks may be occurring during postproduction, when various vendors working on each film have access to it.

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Um....DUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!


Fucking Hollywood idiots.

Weren't we pointing out this very issue when "crap code" was all the shiznit on 35mm film prints? Hollywood studios: it's your fucking DVD-R screener discs. That's what's getting pirated. I wish one of those studio "suits" was in my living right now so I could punch him in the face with a can of Green Giant creamed corn!

quote:

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The impact of such releases on a film’s ultimate box-office and DVD performance is hard to gauge, but industry officials say there is no doubt that it hurts.

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quote:

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When the movie didn’t do well as well as he had hoped, director Eli Roth blamed piracy.

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quote:

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When Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith leaked online a few hours before its 2005 release, the industry used forensic technology to determine that the leak originated with an employee at a postproduction house who had lent a copy of the movie to friends, one of whom uploaded it onto the Internet.

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Ah. A leak which "crap code" would have done nothing to prevent. Of course all of the people running Hollywood studios know the truth in where leaks occur for movie piracy. Obviously the problem is not costing them enough money that they would do something like force movie stars and movie critics to watch the movie in a regular movie theater. They'll keep playing fast and loose with post production materials and DVD screener discs yet still blame problems of piracy on movie theaters.

 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-29-2007, 08:47 PM:
 
Actually the coding on the films is nabbing a lot of bootleg films pirated off of screens. We get a list from NATO every quarter telling where the boots are coming from.

But the copies mentioned in the article Brad posted are obviously not THAT kind of bootleg.
 

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Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 10-29-2007, 10:59 PM:
 
Yes Mike, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) to which exhibitors contribute financially, keeps us informed of their raids.

Last week they raided a video store and seized 100,000 DVDs, 51 burners, 14 folders of DVD covers and an extensive catalogue of pornography.

Titles were all mainstream recent and current cinema releases.

Similar reports name titles that are yet to be released in this country.

So the sources are virtually anywhere they can get them. Screeners, cam copies - they don't care.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-30-2007, 12:04 AM:
 
I can't believe that they are ignoring one of the biggest losses of box office revenue.... MOVIE THEATER EMPLOYEES!! These selfish movie theater employees get to see the movies they show for free again and again. Many of them also get to see them a day before the movie is even released to the world! All of these employees would have purchased a legitimate ticket otherwise. Just think of how much cash the studios are missing out on! Oh my god!
 

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Posted by Ron Curran (Member # 3631) on 10-30-2007, 12:15 AM:
 
Joe, to combatthis, all of our employees are blindfolded. Especially the projectionists.
 

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Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 10-30-2007, 12:37 AM:
 
The one and only thing I do to combat the day before screening of any movie is to build movies in the wee hours of the morning on Fridays and any mid-week openings. And if employees were to ask if I could let them in, I would refuse them to enter the building since it's against company policy and because I am the only movie builder for all ten screens which gives me the final say in the decision as well.

Of course, I do run movies through to make sure it goes through well without any hitches on opening day.
 

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Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 10-30-2007, 02:22 AM:
 
Then why not let the staff watch them too while you're running them? Gives them knowledge on the film to pass on to the patron. Of course the condition would be (from me) that if it sucked they were not allowed to say so. It's a business, after all.
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 10-30-2007, 03:01 AM:
 
All over the country, the studios PAY colleges and even some High Schools to show sneak previews all the time. We make a decent profit getting just under a grand to run a single sneak. And we get 600, 700 students per sneak, depending on when the publicity campaign has started relative to the sneak date. Why do the studios arrange for FREE pre-opening sneaks?....because it's good word-of-mouth PUBLICITY.

I'll bet there is a PhD just waiting for someone to write which would find out scientifically if at least some of the bootlegging going on doesn't actually PROMOTE a film. If seeing it before it opens or even in the early days of the release is so "devestating," then why do the publicity departments purposely show films to thousands of college kids for FREE?!! The suits should just chalk the infintesimal number of people who get to see a bootleg and who DON'T then go to see it again in the theatre, compared to the millions who will actually go pay to see it in the theatre -- they should chalk it up to free publicity and stop whining about it. You KNOW these geeks are going to brag to everyone they come in even remote contact with about how they got to see the movie first. They are walking billboards. You KNOW everyone who saw the internet STAR WARS -- REVENGE OF THE LUCAS went raving about it to all their friends.

A real scientific impact study would evaluate aspects such as this to find out what REALLY is economically harmful and what is not, and even perhaps what might actually even be beneficial.

And perhaps then Hollywood might give it a rest.
 

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Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 10-30-2007, 10:44 AM:
 
In answer to your query, John, is that there were problems in the past during the Thursday night builds, such as floor staff sneaking in their friends, etc. Then, our theatre instituted the Friday morning movie builds. The only time another person would screen a movie would be if a manager was scheduled to come in just to preview the movie and, so far, that hasn't happened, yet. So, no day before film screenings for Floor Staff.
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 10-30-2007, 08:21 PM:
 
There are ways to deal with that though.

I'm sure all your screenings have a manager or a supervisor of some sort in them. Couldn't they just write up anyone who tries to bring a friend? Then if they do it a second time you put them on a probation or fire them.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-30-2007, 08:42 PM:
 

quote: Chris Slycord

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I'm sure all your screenings have a manager or a supervisor of some sort in them.

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And that manager or supervisor is watching a movie for free when he would have otherwise purchased a ticket, thus STEALING revenue from the studios and making their box office receipts much lower. I'm telling you, if it wasn't for those god damned movie theater employees, then there would be nothing to blame for box office failure.
 

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Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 10-30-2007, 10:36 PM:
 
At a booth meeting earlier this year in January, issues like you mentioned, Chris, were brought up and as a booth team and with management, nobody is permitted to preview any movies except for the main movie builder, such as myself. The issue of a manager being scheduled to come in to preview the movie to make sure it runs through great hasn't happened. The primary reason behind it was to make sure that there weren't any mis-splices, sound problems with the print, etc. But, that wasn't needed since I'm able to do it myself and have not had any problems at all since all prints ran 100% perfectly without mis-splices or sound problems, etc.

Other than that, if I don't get a particular movie at my theatre that I personally want to sit down and watch, I'll goto the next closest theatre and purchase a legitimate ticket to see it no matter what the cost is. Usually, outside of going to my theatre, I usually goto either Ultra Star Cinemas Hazard Center 7 or the AMC Mission Valley 20 or Fasion Valley 18.
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 10-30-2007, 11:58 PM:
 
While I did make a comment over in the review section about this 'bootlegging' crap, I will say add this:

Exhibitors should start sueing the film companies for breach of contract when these screeners get out like this. It obviously came out of one of thier production houses. IT WILL AFFECT MY GROSSES THIS WEEKEND. WHY THE HELL DID I GET THREE PRINTS OF "AMERICAN GANGSTER" WHEN HALF THE POPULATION OF WASHINGTON D.C. HAS ALREADY SEEN THE DAMN FILM ?!?!

CAN I GET $500 FOR TURNING UNIVERSAL PICTURES INTO THE MPAA????


 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 10-31-2007, 12:13 AM:
 

quote: Joe Redifer

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And that manager or supervisor is watching a movie for free when he would have otherwise purchased a ticket, thus STEALING revenue from the studios and making their box office receipts much lower. I'm telling you, if it wasn't for those god damned movie theater employees, then there would be nothing to blame for box office failure.

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I was specifically responding to Chad saying that they got rid of letting employees watch, not because they felt it was stealing, but because the employees snuck in friends. I was just saying it doesn't seem that hard to stop them from doing that.

Though you're pushing it too hard to make your point seem real.

quote: Dennis Benjamin

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Exhibitors should start sueing the film companies for breach of contract when these screeners get out like this.

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quote: Chris Slycord

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The article made it pretty clear that this wasn't from a screener though.

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Dude - I've seen it. It isn't a cam, it isn't even a telesync. It is a crystal clear DIGITAL version of the film with digital sound. Someone at Universal is lying. Somewhere along the line an executive wanted to see this film in the comfort of their own home and someone made this for them. That is why I am so upset about it. They can spin it however they want in the press, but it is a DVD screener copy of the film. They will never admit to it being a screener so they can avoid any legal issues.

Thank you and have a nice day!

..HOLD ON...

For those of you who are not aware of why I am so upset about this: let me enlighten you. You see, I opened a new 14 screen movie theatre in Hyattsville, Maryland in June. Hyattsville is located about two miles from Washington D.C. "American Gangster" was slated to be my biggest opening movie THIS YEAR. While we did do very well with "Tyler Perry's Why Did I get Married", I still thought that AG would be the defining moment for our theatre in 2007, being in such an Urban location. With this mess concerning these DVD screeners, I will never be able to figure out the revenue lost. Everyone in Hyattsville has this on DVD now (or almost everyone!).
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 10-31-2007, 09:07 AM:
 
Or they aren't lying and they really don't know how the movie got pirated...

edit: And as noted elsewhere and alluded to in the article, the fact that there's no sign of it being from a DVD (like the scrolling text saying that it's not for public viewing or somesuch), it would indicate that it's a copy from a postproduction house. Now, THAT, they don't want to admit to. Cause then it would DEFINITELY be their fault.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-31-2007, 10:19 AM:
 
Dennis: If I were you I would make an educated guess on what your grosses SHOULD be this weekend (be conservative) and then compare that figure to what really happens.

If the movie is good, business should still be good....if the movie sucks, then you could really have a problem. I agree, Universal should be held to the fire on this if it was a postproduction screener. Somebody call Kendrick McDowell!*

* DC lawyer who works for NATO
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-31-2007, 10:35 AM:
 
Dennis, how do you know that a big part of your customer base is burning pirated movies to DVD?

The movie industry has never shown any really dependable hard numbers on just what it is losing to "grass roots" piracy (people downloading data off the Internet and burning it to disc). Sure, some people are definitely doing it. However, I don't think the problem is nearly as widespread as Hollywood is spinning it.

For one thing, it's a lot more complicated to download the equivalent of a DVD and burn it correctly to a DVD disc than it is to download a mere MP3 music file. Most people simply don't have the time or patience to learn how to find pirated movies online, download them and burn that complete movie to disc, much less make any habit of it. On top of that, dual layer DVD-R blanks are still relatively expensive. They certainly cost quite a lot more than single layer DVD-R blanks. Complicating things further, many who would like to download such content avoid doing so out of fear of getting their computer infected with the latest of computer viruses.

In the end, I think movie theaters are losing out to a few computer geeks and cheapskates who know those geeks. And those folks weren't going to bother going to the movie theater anyway.

Anyone who is willing to waste two hours of their life watching a camcorder-based pirated movie is not only a cheapskate, he's an idiot as well.

It's still a very stupid policy for Hollywood studios to create very good quality DVD-based screener discs for film critics, actors and other industry people. Those items almost always land in the hands of mass-production piracy operations overseas.
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 10-31-2007, 11:21 AM:
 
We are located next to a regional mall, The Mall at Prince George's Plaza. I was told yesterday that you could go in a buy a copy of AG in the mall. So it's not about an average person actually burning the movie themselves, it's about them paying the $5 or $10 for the copy of it. Please remember if this was a CAM copy, I wouldn't care. But this is not a cam copy of the film. As one of my employees put it "it's a clean copy".
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 10-31-2007, 12:06 PM:
 
Then your mall is either not keeping track of what individual stores sell or has bad security because they aren't keeping track of people selling stuff that aren't vendors for the mall.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 10-31-2007, 01:17 PM:
 
Have you called the cops, MPAA, NATO and anyone else you can think of and give them the directions to that store in the mall?

I would be over there with my camera taking pictures of the DVDs if possible. Do it NOW before the movie opens.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-31-2007, 11:35 PM:
 
Yeah, I have to raise my eyebrows at that one. A store in a freaking high priced mall selling pirated movies? That's just downright risky. I can see pawn shops and fly by night booths at a flea market pulling the stunt. But a store in a mall with a contractually binding lease and a lot to lose is taking one hell of a flagrant risk by offering any kind of pirated movie content on their premises. If I saw a legit store pulling that sort of stunt near where I live I'd immediately call the local police and FBI just for the entertainment value of the bust!
 

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Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 11-01-2007, 01:55 AM:
 
And even if it weren't a store, I'd think it'd be extremely suspicious if anyone who wasn't in a store were selling stuff. I'm pretty sure you aren't allowed to set up shop inside a mall without the mall's permission, plus it'd be illegal for them to sell anything regardless (since they wouldn't have a business license anyway).
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 11-01-2007, 04:40 AM:
 
There were several stores that were selling them. The authorities were notified. Not that anything happened to the people that were doing it. Typical.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-01-2007, 10:07 AM:
 
Sorry Dennis, but you're being awful vague on this.

What "authorities" were called? Local cops aren't always that well-informed about copyright issues and such.

Did you call NATO or even e-mail them? What about the MPAA piracy hotline? The mall's management office? How about your film booker? Your contact at Universal exhibitor relations?

This employee of yours who said it's a "clean copy." Did you ask this person to bring the offending DVD in so you could send it to the authorities?

I'd think you would be more proactive about getting something done. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't stop yelling until someone did something.
 

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Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 11-01-2007, 11:26 AM:
 
Dennis,

Have you seen this DVD yourself. While excellent quality bootlegs have been around for years, it is very unusual for a mall based retail store to carry them.

Are you sure it is not the DVD of the TV series "American Gangster", which is out legitimately from Paramount Home Video? The release date for the TV series DVD was 10/23/2007, and i'm sure video stores are capitalizing on it having the same title as the current movie.
 

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Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 11-01-2007, 01:39 PM:
 
As far as wide spread computer downloading goes, I know of a town of population of 5800, 40 miles from any semi-major city, the assistant manager of the theatre in that town is a school teacher during the day, he regularly has students telling him that "Daddy watched that movie on his computer last night, that your playing at your theatre." (first runs)

Remember, the vast majority of people could care less if it was a "clean copy" or not, their tv's have crappy pictures on them, many people are getting used to watching films on freakin IPODS, they don't care if the picture is prestine or not.

I think this is a wider problem than we realize/want to admit.

And yes, I think the film co's should be held accountable for "letting" this happen. Sounds like breach of contract to me.
 

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Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 11-01-2007, 02:14 PM:
 
O.K. - let me explain:

Prince George's Mall (mentioned above) is the epicenter of crime in Prince George's County, Maryland. My theatre is located across the street from it. I was told that various people were selling the DVD's while they walked up and down inside the mall. Some of them may have been employees and some of them may have been just mall rats. Anyways, it was a law enforcement officer who told me the story about how people were selling them there. Apparantly, when a police officer has to make a decision to arrest someone robbing a store and someone selling bootleg DVDs - they made the obvious choice to chase the DVD peddlers out of the Mall and arrest the suspected robbers. OK.

For those of you who live in Rural America - that's how it goes in the big city. They don't have time to arrest and detain people who are not committing violent crimes. For the record - I am friends with this law enforcement officer and completely understand and respect his responsibilities as an officer of the law. Reports were made - that's it.

As far as this WHOLE situation is concerned - I am only upset with whomever let this DVD quality video out of the bag and onto the streets - that's all. Yes I've seen it and yes it is top quality.

I have turned plenty of people into NATO for bootlegs - and guess what - NOTHING EVER HAPPENS. I have had candid conversations with John Fithian himself. Guess what - NATO and the MPAA have no clue what is going on out there with Movie Piracy. The teens on the Internet are so far ahead of everyone else - it doesn't freakin matter. It's not even about money anymore - it's about who can get the best quality version of a film on the 'Net first. Apparently that's how you are considered "cool" in today's f-ed up society.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Have a Nice Day
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-01-2007, 03:49 PM:
 
People walking up and down the mall. That's a lot different from before where you said:

quote: Dennis Benjamin

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There were several stores that were selling them.

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