Gawain of Orkeny
05-22-2005, 00:33
Star Wars bootlegs already on the 'Net
by Luke Tagg
Posted Mon, 13 May 2002
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones hasn't even opened yet but already millions can view it on the Internet, as bootleg copies begin making their way to the world wide web. Analysts believe that it could end up in a situation where more than a million people have seen the movie before its release.
Star Wars only opens this week Friday in the United States, but two full copies of the film have already been spied on the Web. According to the LA Times the first copy appears to have been made by using a discreet, tripod-mounted camcorder pointing at the screen during a private viewing, while the second is of a higher quality than the first.
Despite assurances from the film producers that security was extremely tight during the run-up to the premiere, someone still managed to get an entire camera and tripod into a private viewing, set it up correctly and get it all out again without anyone noticing. This person was obviously trusted enough to be allowed to attend a private viewing, which gives a distincly odd turn to the whole affair.
Still - people will go to great lengths to be the first with the big news, as the head of the litigation department at Dreamworks SKG told the LA Times.
"I'm not surprised that it's on the Internet. I talk to pirates because I want to find out why they're doing this," said Jean Murrell Adams. "And what I've been told is that they were eagerly anticipating who would be first to do this. It's a challenge for them." And the film industry is not missing out on a golden opportunity to lay into Internet pirates - they claim that they wish to avoid the sort of wholesale copying that tarnishes the music industry, and which is a growing sport. The arrival of broadband, which produces extremely high speed data connections, is seen as a threat to the industry, since it allows for large volumes of data to be downloaded, including movies.
Unfortunately it's only going to get harder for the industry, as technology is becoming smaller, more powerful, and definitely more discreet. All it takes is for one buttonhole camera to find its way into a premiere or private showing and the next day the movie will be available for download.
But I believe the film industry is going a little far by saying their future is in jeopardy with Internet piracy on the increase - for starters most people do not have high-speed data connections, and secondly I for one would hate to spend hours downloading a grainy film of a film, and have to sit in front of my PC watching it without the benefits of surround sound or decent picture.
In that fashion you can never capture the true essence or feeling of the film, which would be much more immediate on the big screen, and overall a far superior
THE TECH SET
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viewing experience. The point that is being made, however, is that the quality doesn't have much to do with it at the moment - it's the thrill of being the first to make a movie available.
Whatever turns you on, I guess.
For me, however, a film of the magnitude of Star Wars belongs on the big screen, and seeing as how I still use a modem at home it would probably take me about a week to download the full bootleg movie anyway.
May the Force be with you.
More at this LINK (http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163106318)
Further
Why all the fuss about Star Wars piracy?
20 May 2005 22:49 by Dela
[picture]This week, one of the biggest and most anticipated movies of the year opened in theatres all over the world. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith showed millions of fans finally how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader and is packed with tonnes of special effects and action scenes. News coverage on TV stations, in newspapers and on the Internet covered the opening of the movie very well but suddenly the focus has gone off the movie and on to an occurrence that happens much more regularly.
On Wednesday night, a copy of the new star wars movie appeared on the Internet and spread like wild fire (as one would expect). It is a full Workprint copy of the movie featuring two massive timers on the top of the video. The fact that this is a workprint means that this originally must have come from "inside". This was not made by someone with a concealed camcorder in a movie theatre. My question is simply; why would the media make such a fuss about this?
I think it is safe to say that most major movies appear on the Internet within days of its release in movie theatres. Cam and Telesync copies of movies are not rare and I'm sure you've seen the ad's at your local cinema warning you not to copy the movie from the screen with a camcorder, or face the consequences. The MPAA has condemned the individuals responsible for these copies but they need to look a lot closer to home to find the ones responsible for the Star Wars copy.
In September 2003, AT&T Labs published a study that basically told the MPAA to "stop leaking your own movies", blaming industry insiders for a huge majority of movies that appear online before they appear in theatres. Perhaps the Star Wars copy would have never appeared online at all if more care had been taken? "There is no better example of how theft dims the magic of the movies for everyone than this report today regarding BitTorrent providing users with illegal copies of 'Revenge of the Sith'," MPAA president Dan Glickman said.
While copies of Revenge of the Sith are in fact available to download on BitTorrent sites, they did not originally source on a BitTorrent tracker, regardless of what Glickman believes. One has to wonder why the focus is immediately put on to the people (the star wars fans) who are downloading and sharing this copy of the movie with each other, and not on the industry insider who is responsible for the leak in the first place or the pirate on the street selling the movie. This copy probably was picked up on the street before it was even put on the Internet.
There is no charge to download and share the movie on the Internet, whereas on the street you will have to pay for it. Nobody on the Internet sharing this movie is making money from it, and nobody who was responsible for releasing it in the first place is making any money from it, it’s a hobby more than anything else to these groups who compete with each other to make major releases like this. It is also quite interesting to see how many of the sharers would not even think of watching this workprint copy of the movie before seeing it on a big screen first.
I had a look over a few forums and read some live conversations on IRC channels and the general attitude was that the quality isn't good enough for such a movie for a first time viewing, but will do perfectly for viewing after seeing it properly until it's released on DVD. In fact, many people are seeing this as a sort of "collector’s item". The fact that it’s a workprint copy still including its original timers really gives some star wars fans reason to hold onto a copy of it(maybe they feel some kind of "magic" about it just to have it like people do with bootleg copies of their favourite artist's music), whether or not they buy the retail DVD later.
A very good example of how leaked movies become collector’s items is Apocalypse Now. A workprint copy of this excellent movie appeared online many years after its filming. In January 2004 a workprint copy of the movie appeared online, a massive 289 minutes long; 6 SVCDs in total. It was a rough copy that the director had put together and included some never before seen stuff. For movies fans, this was huge, as it’s the only print that ever leaked so you can see why it could be seen as a collector’s item, even though it apparently had terrible quality.
To sum this all up, the media is paying too much attention to the star wars leak and the movie industry needs to start pointing the fingers at its own people instead of P2P users/developers. If the media reported on every leak of a major movie, it is all we would ever read. However, in many countries in the world downloading movies is illegal, even if you have seen it in theatres already simply because the movie studios are not compensated for it but in some countries it is legal to download.
However, in my own personal opinion, I don't see how this leak has taken any "magic" at all from the movie. It is most likely that some revenue will be lost because of it, but this time, the finger should be pointed at the media that made such a huge fuss over such a regular thing and simply alerted the general public that the leaked copy existed and even explained in some cases how easy it was to download.
POLICE FORCE BAGS 'SITH' BOOTLEGS
By JUSTIN TERRANOVA and NEIL GRAVES
Email Archives
Print Reprint
May 21, 2005 -- Anyone who planned to see "Star Wars" on the cheap will have to check out Luke Skywalker elsewhere after a Harlem raid yesterday netted tons of counterfeit DVDs — including more than 1,000 copies of George Lucas' space opera, which opened just two days ago.
Police said they carted out 35,000 to 40,000 illegal DVDs and 25,000 CDs from American Self Storage at Fifth Avenue and West 141st Street and arrested nine members of the bootleg ring.
Police from the 40th Precinct said they had been conducting a yearlong investigation that followed a trail from the South Bronx and led to the Harlem storage unit.
Street vendors bought the bootlegged copies for $3 and resold them for $5 to $10, cops said.
Along with "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" were wrapped copies of "Crash," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Monster-in-Law" and other films.
Cops said the raid wasn't planned in conjunction with Darth Vader's return to the silver screen.
"We were aware that the 'Star Wars' movie was out, but it was more or less a coincidence," Inspector Kevin Walsh said.
This has been all over TV and radio here. Ive seen this print and its pretty good. But does anyone think that this is hurting movie sales or that it will hurt future sales of the DVD when it comes out? Im not advocating piracy here. Hell as Ive mentioned my dad owns a sixplex. But this would only make people want to go see the movie on the big screen. Its far from perfect . In fact I would say if anything it is like free advertising. These companies are too greedy. Look how much this movie pulled in on the first day. All the bootlegging for the entire year doesnt add up to what this film took in on the first day. Poor George Lucas will go broke if this keeps up. Again Im not condoning piracy but I think they dost protest too much.
by Luke Tagg
Posted Mon, 13 May 2002
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones hasn't even opened yet but already millions can view it on the Internet, as bootleg copies begin making their way to the world wide web. Analysts believe that it could end up in a situation where more than a million people have seen the movie before its release.
Star Wars only opens this week Friday in the United States, but two full copies of the film have already been spied on the Web. According to the LA Times the first copy appears to have been made by using a discreet, tripod-mounted camcorder pointing at the screen during a private viewing, while the second is of a higher quality than the first.
Despite assurances from the film producers that security was extremely tight during the run-up to the premiere, someone still managed to get an entire camera and tripod into a private viewing, set it up correctly and get it all out again without anyone noticing. This person was obviously trusted enough to be allowed to attend a private viewing, which gives a distincly odd turn to the whole affair.
Still - people will go to great lengths to be the first with the big news, as the head of the litigation department at Dreamworks SKG told the LA Times.
"I'm not surprised that it's on the Internet. I talk to pirates because I want to find out why they're doing this," said Jean Murrell Adams. "And what I've been told is that they were eagerly anticipating who would be first to do this. It's a challenge for them." And the film industry is not missing out on a golden opportunity to lay into Internet pirates - they claim that they wish to avoid the sort of wholesale copying that tarnishes the music industry, and which is a growing sport. The arrival of broadband, which produces extremely high speed data connections, is seen as a threat to the industry, since it allows for large volumes of data to be downloaded, including movies.
Unfortunately it's only going to get harder for the industry, as technology is becoming smaller, more powerful, and definitely more discreet. All it takes is for one buttonhole camera to find its way into a premiere or private showing and the next day the movie will be available for download.
But I believe the film industry is going a little far by saying their future is in jeopardy with Internet piracy on the increase - for starters most people do not have high-speed data connections, and secondly I for one would hate to spend hours downloading a grainy film of a film, and have to sit in front of my PC watching it without the benefits of surround sound or decent picture.
In that fashion you can never capture the true essence or feeling of the film, which would be much more immediate on the big screen, and overall a far superior
THE TECH SET
The official Cooltech newsletter - news, inventions, downloads and more, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.
Subscribe now!
viewing experience. The point that is being made, however, is that the quality doesn't have much to do with it at the moment - it's the thrill of being the first to make a movie available.
Whatever turns you on, I guess.
For me, however, a film of the magnitude of Star Wars belongs on the big screen, and seeing as how I still use a modem at home it would probably take me about a week to download the full bootleg movie anyway.
May the Force be with you.
More at this LINK (http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163106318)
Further
Why all the fuss about Star Wars piracy?
20 May 2005 22:49 by Dela
[picture]This week, one of the biggest and most anticipated movies of the year opened in theatres all over the world. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith showed millions of fans finally how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader and is packed with tonnes of special effects and action scenes. News coverage on TV stations, in newspapers and on the Internet covered the opening of the movie very well but suddenly the focus has gone off the movie and on to an occurrence that happens much more regularly.
On Wednesday night, a copy of the new star wars movie appeared on the Internet and spread like wild fire (as one would expect). It is a full Workprint copy of the movie featuring two massive timers on the top of the video. The fact that this is a workprint means that this originally must have come from "inside". This was not made by someone with a concealed camcorder in a movie theatre. My question is simply; why would the media make such a fuss about this?
I think it is safe to say that most major movies appear on the Internet within days of its release in movie theatres. Cam and Telesync copies of movies are not rare and I'm sure you've seen the ad's at your local cinema warning you not to copy the movie from the screen with a camcorder, or face the consequences. The MPAA has condemned the individuals responsible for these copies but they need to look a lot closer to home to find the ones responsible for the Star Wars copy.
In September 2003, AT&T Labs published a study that basically told the MPAA to "stop leaking your own movies", blaming industry insiders for a huge majority of movies that appear online before they appear in theatres. Perhaps the Star Wars copy would have never appeared online at all if more care had been taken? "There is no better example of how theft dims the magic of the movies for everyone than this report today regarding BitTorrent providing users with illegal copies of 'Revenge of the Sith'," MPAA president Dan Glickman said.
While copies of Revenge of the Sith are in fact available to download on BitTorrent sites, they did not originally source on a BitTorrent tracker, regardless of what Glickman believes. One has to wonder why the focus is immediately put on to the people (the star wars fans) who are downloading and sharing this copy of the movie with each other, and not on the industry insider who is responsible for the leak in the first place or the pirate on the street selling the movie. This copy probably was picked up on the street before it was even put on the Internet.
There is no charge to download and share the movie on the Internet, whereas on the street you will have to pay for it. Nobody on the Internet sharing this movie is making money from it, and nobody who was responsible for releasing it in the first place is making any money from it, it’s a hobby more than anything else to these groups who compete with each other to make major releases like this. It is also quite interesting to see how many of the sharers would not even think of watching this workprint copy of the movie before seeing it on a big screen first.
I had a look over a few forums and read some live conversations on IRC channels and the general attitude was that the quality isn't good enough for such a movie for a first time viewing, but will do perfectly for viewing after seeing it properly until it's released on DVD. In fact, many people are seeing this as a sort of "collector’s item". The fact that it’s a workprint copy still including its original timers really gives some star wars fans reason to hold onto a copy of it(maybe they feel some kind of "magic" about it just to have it like people do with bootleg copies of their favourite artist's music), whether or not they buy the retail DVD later.
A very good example of how leaked movies become collector’s items is Apocalypse Now. A workprint copy of this excellent movie appeared online many years after its filming. In January 2004 a workprint copy of the movie appeared online, a massive 289 minutes long; 6 SVCDs in total. It was a rough copy that the director had put together and included some never before seen stuff. For movies fans, this was huge, as it’s the only print that ever leaked so you can see why it could be seen as a collector’s item, even though it apparently had terrible quality.
To sum this all up, the media is paying too much attention to the star wars leak and the movie industry needs to start pointing the fingers at its own people instead of P2P users/developers. If the media reported on every leak of a major movie, it is all we would ever read. However, in many countries in the world downloading movies is illegal, even if you have seen it in theatres already simply because the movie studios are not compensated for it but in some countries it is legal to download.
However, in my own personal opinion, I don't see how this leak has taken any "magic" at all from the movie. It is most likely that some revenue will be lost because of it, but this time, the finger should be pointed at the media that made such a huge fuss over such a regular thing and simply alerted the general public that the leaked copy existed and even explained in some cases how easy it was to download.
POLICE FORCE BAGS 'SITH' BOOTLEGS
By JUSTIN TERRANOVA and NEIL GRAVES
Email Archives
Print Reprint
May 21, 2005 -- Anyone who planned to see "Star Wars" on the cheap will have to check out Luke Skywalker elsewhere after a Harlem raid yesterday netted tons of counterfeit DVDs — including more than 1,000 copies of George Lucas' space opera, which opened just two days ago.
Police said they carted out 35,000 to 40,000 illegal DVDs and 25,000 CDs from American Self Storage at Fifth Avenue and West 141st Street and arrested nine members of the bootleg ring.
Police from the 40th Precinct said they had been conducting a yearlong investigation that followed a trail from the South Bronx and led to the Harlem storage unit.
Street vendors bought the bootlegged copies for $3 and resold them for $5 to $10, cops said.
Along with "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" were wrapped copies of "Crash," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Monster-in-Law" and other films.
Cops said the raid wasn't planned in conjunction with Darth Vader's return to the silver screen.
"We were aware that the 'Star Wars' movie was out, but it was more or less a coincidence," Inspector Kevin Walsh said.
This has been all over TV and radio here. Ive seen this print and its pretty good. But does anyone think that this is hurting movie sales or that it will hurt future sales of the DVD when it comes out? Im not advocating piracy here. Hell as Ive mentioned my dad owns a sixplex. But this would only make people want to go see the movie on the big screen. Its far from perfect . In fact I would say if anything it is like free advertising. These companies are too greedy. Look how much this movie pulled in on the first day. All the bootlegging for the entire year doesnt add up to what this film took in on the first day. Poor George Lucas will go broke if this keeps up. Again Im not condoning piracy but I think they dost protest too much.