Hollywood Doesn’t Understand Where Pirated Movies Come From

wow there are hard of hearing jacks? considering how most theaters blast at 120db or so, I hardly see the point

@GlenTen: affirmative

Germain Ashorlivs Guglielmetti

"So maybe the MPAA should stop whining and figure out a more secure DRM system, some kind of watermark, or just a..............baahhhh...... "

don't help them, dude!

Pirating movies is so stupid. It's not like a netflix membership is expensive...and you get to watch them on blu-ray.

@TheStateOnDVD2Day_GitEmSteveDave: my speakers were off when I hit play. Yet it didn't seem to matter...

Scrum

@Hiphopopotamus: If it weren't for bootlegs, I would have never even considered plunking down the cash for The Dark Knight on Ice.

It'll take them another 5 years to get to that logic, they'll delay taking measures with that knowledge for another 5.

Because if there was any spec of intelligence on people that makes such decisions, piracy would be seen as the future and a marketing strategy, and costumers wouldn't have to deal with crap like DRM and MPAA lawsuits.

Trying to find more secure DRM systems and stuff like that will, considering the lack of intelligence, only make things worse.

They have to cope with reality, understand file sharing isn't something that will end with random lawsuits and stupid measures that only harms honest costumers, and find a way to make a buck with what they got.

Which is what the few smart guys are doing.
They have to quit thinking they'll be able to continue exploiting helpless clients by selling products for over 2000% it's production price.

It's over. Deal with it.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@GlenTen: how am i supposed to sleep now? I mean, ever again.

They've never seen TS or Telesyncs where the audio is taken directly from the hearing impaired jacks in the theater. If the shot is in frame - and the camera is good. This is a pretty good recording.

SejalNimrah

What are you talking about? That copy of Dark Knight that I saw recorded off someone's RAZR was superb.

All of this may be true about cellphone video quality, but try explaining that to the mouth-breathing private security people that run these operations. One time I got my cellphone in by holding it *in my hand* while they wanded me. Not that I was going to shoot anything with its crappy camera, I just didn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to get it back afterwards.

The best way we can fight something like this is to demand a refund and leave, preferably while promising to download the movie when you get home.

Unfortunately this doesn't work at film festivals where you're usually not buying a single ticket for the film. But, forewarning about these cellphone confiscations would be nice, so that we could leave the phones in the car or plan for that extra 30 minutes after the movie waiting in line to get the phone back.

@redkamel: I have no idea what they were talking about, I was too distracted.

orthorim

You left out TS.

torrents come in these flavors, from worst quality to best:
- cam. somebody in the theatre bothered to tape the whole thing. horrible quality, most can't be bothered, unless you really want to ruin the movie.
- TS - telesync. This is usually done from the projection booth, by a movie theatre insider. They use a high quality camera to capture the picture, and often get the sound directly from the source. Still pretty bad quality overall, but a lot of people who don't want to wait for the DVD rip still watch it. Some even don't notice that the quality is really bad. Still better than VHS tapes we used to watch.
- Pre-production samples - rare, Wolverine was an example, it was the whole movie except with the 3D renderings and other FX missing.
- Screens - good quality, final movie with some warnings, maybe not final quality (which is intentional in case they get out)
- DVD rip - good quality
- BD rip - better quality, mkv or H264 format, from 1GB file size the way to 50GB original BD.

Anyway, while I personally won't watch TS versions, lots of people do. Just check out the number of seeders/leechers on the more popular movies. And TS does not come from inside the movie industry - it's done by somebody working at a theater. If I was the movie industry, I'd concentrate my efforts on that.

orthorim

@GlenTen: You seem to have a very vivid imagination. Congrats

mysecretidentity

@Scazza: Some theaters have headphone jacks for those who are hard of hearing to use. I know of a few theaters in Montreal that used them when I was living there.

knacko

@TheStateOnDVD2Day_GitEmSteveDave: Holy cow that was some awesome cleavage.

redkamel

"some kind of watermark, or just a way of tracking which copy gets leaked instead of taking silly action like confiscating cellphones."

Ummm.... They already do that. Ever notice how there's a blurry strip or 2 usually throughout the whole screener? That's because the person who released it blurred out the information so that they can't be tracked down. Or at least legally prosecuted.

Kakkoister

@NurseDave: Are you suggesting if someone bootlegs a movie and likes it, they are more likely to pay to see it performed live?

Woah...hold on there. Did Gizmodo just advocate for MORE DRM?! That stuff stole half my library of music!

@Scazza: It's the feeling of accomplishment they think they are getting when they bring out these "tough laws" to others. Sure Canada may be one of the biggest bootleggers out there (I still love it here :P), but It makes them feel great regardless of how effective or how small of a contribution it may be.
Well Hollywood? Mission Accomplished, huh?

@Dan
*cough*Nark!*cough*

douchebagantics

People still go to theaters? Gosh.

Chezedog

@GlenTen: You're kidding right? The way to pirate that would be to bring a camcorder...

AaronC-T

@NurseDave:

But most of the music and movies that people pirate are shit.

seizurelitezrfun

So THAT'S a "screener".

Can she show me what's a "hummer"?

CaliforniaKid

I think I have a good idea who is running Hollywood. Movies get to the internet magically!

This is why it pisses me off so much that Canada has recently been getting seriously bad press over piracy when its the movie studios themselves that are leaking them unintentionally. Then pay off OUR politicians to pass laws to try and make stricter antipiracy laws here.

Ask anyone who actually visits sites like TPB etc who download movies, most of the movies are either Screeners (aka, leaked internally) or filmed in a russian theatre (with russian subtitles).

Another thing, alot of cammed recordings are not done by random joe public. They are usually done by someone working for a theatre. You can tell this is true when the audio is great and dosnt match the video, its when they plug in the input into the theatres speaker system or get the audio after filming.

Well, I would be leaking movies too if I was in an industry as whiny as the MPAA. Employees can be vengeful bastards if they don't agree with their employer's actions.

you would think they would just have special players for specially encrypted discs.

redkamel

@saycarramrod: this made me laugh:) way to admit it. don't worry, you're not the only one!

@GlenTen: agreed. and awesome fantasy, lol.

The only good outcome of this would be that there will be no more calls interupting the movie.

@jwm1314:

True. And also award consideration copies, when a movie is released near a major award ceremony and the studio forwards advanced copies for consideration.

Whoa.....wait a sec....is this a sting?

know1

when my cousin was interning at disney in the animation department i saw bolt at home while it was in theaters. in the middle of watching it i thought to myself, " so this is where pirated videos come from!" my cousin looked at me and threatened me if i thought about it any further than that.

@ViewtifulJason: ...Yep. Sad but true huh? And I'll be president before it happens too...

Ajh

Typical rights-owner logic:

A: People are nicking our stuff. What can we do?
B: Nothing, really. The cat's out of the bag.
A: OK. How do they do it?
B: Well, most of them rip DVDs or Blu-rays. They were protected, but that doesn't work any more.
A: OK, what about the rest?
B: Well some of them use cams in the cinemas, but...
A: So we could stop them in the cinemas?
B: I guess. But no one really goes for those.
A: Still, we could stop them?
B: I guess. You realise the incessant anti-piracy messages will piss off paying customers?
A: Fuck 'em!

I love films, and music. I pay for plenty. But while they continue to give me this shit, they deserve to die.

LolpantsofArabia

@Teknowledge: I've always been rather irritated at the ones that switch to black & white for a minute.

zenneth

@GlenTen: Something tells me your Megan Fox fantasy has been throughly thought out.

@Teknowledge: The increasing and decreasing brightness is usually a result of Macrovision. Ye olde ARM (analog rights management) for VHS that somehow survived into the DVD era.

I say we go back to stage acting. There's no way to pirate a live act (yet). Sure the special effects would be somewhat limited, but on the plus side, you could meet the actors after the show.

Even better, I could live out my fantasy of meeting Megan Fox, and having her tell me how much she likes short pudgy nerds right before she tears my clothes off. Then we both morph into robots and make sweet robotic love.

Every day I am more and more certain that I, an obese teenager (yeah, I can admit it), could perform auto-fellatio before the RIAA or the MPAA start making any sense.

ViewtifulJason

@Stingers: Even a critic can be a nerd like us...

>> "some kind of watermark"

Why don't DVD screeners have some kind of watermark?

That seems like the first thing they would do to prevent leaks.

Or just like the music industry, they could realize it creates interest in their movie if it's a good one.

NurseDave

There are so many sources not list here.
Telecine,, R5, Workprint, Telesync, and then there's ripping.

Some screener copies have watermarks or timecodes embedded on the bottom of the screen. The most annoying one I had seen actually raised and lowered the brightness of the movie.

Teknowledge

THAT'S what a screener is? I always thought a screener was the cam version. Wow, I feel like such a noob

saycarramrod

Y'know, this actually never dawned on me. I always assumed the good rips were straight DVDs, not pre-release ones.

Kind of cool to know we have some friends in high places, eh?

You guys forgot Telesync before the screeners.

jwm1314

@Robotic Bilbo Bagins has no use for fleshy ones: I've seen one or two that had the color fade in and out. Made it less watchable. (but people will watch cams and the olympics on youtube, so people suck.)

@Slottsherre: Not that you know these things right? Heh.

Seriously though, you can get screeners while it's still in theaters, so.. yeah.

@GlenTen: Imagination won't help when she has toethumb. TOETHUMB!!!

@Identity: Now 100% more Pre.: i didn't even have to hit play for that xD

internet magic on top of the screen, boobs at the bottom. next to boobs: mute button.

can't get better than that ;)

@videobeagle: They've actually been around on TV longer than Billy Mays.

Kakkoister

@fleebailey33:

It's not just the MPAA, it's common business practices that have been taught at every university for 50 years. If you give it away you are LOOSING (potential) MONEY.

Some people are still struggling with the notion of "potential" money related to IP (internet and downloads)

este

I'm certainly not handing my cellphone over to some rent-a-cop. Or even a real cop for that matter. If I wanted to do a cam of a movie I'd go to the local drive-in and do it.

MrEvil

@know1: LOL, Award Consideration copies. Several years ago, a friend was showing off his new home theater(HD Ya'all!) and he played a movie that had just been in theaters. We're a bit in and "For your consideration" pops up and we all ask WTH? And he plays it cool and tells us that some relative of his gets to vote on the Oscars. We're even more impressed. Flash forward a couple years after I've learned about all this and I press him about that, he came clean, saying it was the funniest thing that ever happened to him.

Robotic Bilbo Bagins has no use for fleshy ones

@Michael Scrip: Some do. Doesn't help.

Robotic Bilbo Bagins has no use for fleshy ones

@JoeLikesRamen Likes You!: i forgot to mention i tend to think out loud. nasty habit really. got me in trouble a few times

@Hiphopopotamus:
That sounds like the beginning of an interesting case study.

Robotic Bilbo Bagins has no use for fleshy ones

@HoneybunsCandy_GitEmSteveDave: They still have drive-ins? Where? I will rent a car & go to one-don't even care what movie's playing.

Lupus_Yonderboy

@videobeagle: If we're talking about the kind of team up I want us to be talking about, I'd much rather prefer them to Billy Mays.

Lupus_Yonderboy

WORKPRINT - CAM - TS - TC - R5 - DVDSCR - DVDRip - 720p - 1080p. That would be the more correct order, if you skip the many DVDR and Custom DVDR. And I wouldn't say leaks mostly come from critics. You have a lot of people working in a DVD plant. You got a lot of people working in DVD/BluRay rentel/retail stores.

@HoneybunsCandy_GitEmSteveDave:

I've seen them selling stuff before...are they a new Billy Mays like team?

videobeagle

@strider_mt2k: I bring my phone into the theater all the time. I usually get there 10-20 minutes early, so I need to entertain myself during that time.

szrimaging

@strider_mt2k: Because maybe you took the bus or the subway there.

Because maybe you're using the cellphone to talk to someone before the show (hey, you bringing your sister? I'll get her a ticket too).

Because maybe it's just damn inconvenient to be at the mall, go to your car to leave the cellphone, go to the movie, return to your car, go back to the mall.

Because it's a freaking asinine process and should be fought on principle?

@strider_mt2k: so basically if im just walking around town with my phone and decide to watch a movie my phone will be confiscated? one of the many reasons you would have a phone in a theatre. its not like carrying a gun, where in most of the world you have to have a good reason you have a gun on you otherwise you wouldnt be carrying it. a cell phone is an essential part of life nowadays, so i cant see why i wouldn't have a cell phone in a theatre. what next? when you travel do you leave your shoes at home because of airport security possibly asking you to take off your shoes for screening?

deux_ex_machina

Stop giving the MPAA ideas!

Please let them keep worrying about the guy in the screening with his iPhone 3GS

Mikestan

@pagan_god: But no one really cares about the cams. Watermarking the screeners and then tracking them would be most effective since anyone who would watch a cam probably didn't really care to see the movie anyway.

Septhinox

@strider_mt2k: That is very short sighted. there many legit reasons for needing a phone on you.

Septhinox

@strider_mt2k: I would have a phone at a theatre because it's possible I'd need it before and/or after the movie. Why would you bring clothes? no one's going to be looking at you, they'll be watching the screen!

psychiccheese

-is this about piracy or him not remembering to leave his phone in the car at an event that clearly discourages them?

Just wanna be clear here.

Piracy is bad, but if the rules are always the same about phones at screenings then I don't see the issue here.

Why would you have a phone at a theater anyway?

I don't bring inappropriate items to events that discourage them, nor should others.

It seems like the issues are being mixed here.

@pagan_god: Many torrenters will blur the water marks. I've also HEARD(not seen, as that would be illegal ;D ) about videos that will cut out the watermarked areas of the film, so you will get scene jumps.

I magically want to touch their boobs.

LouisJebber

@TheStateOnDVD2Day_GitEmSteveDave: Ahhhhhhh the ta ta's...

@TheStateOnDVD2Day_GitEmSteveDave: Yes the internet isn't fibre and tcp/ip, it's magic maintained by people who have level 80 in wow.

@Scazza: The good audio is usually pulled from Drive In's. Since the sound is piped into the cars, they just record it that way. You will notice there may be many different versions of the same film b/c people will mix different audio sources with the same video and re-encode it for the best quality they can.

They will never learn, or at least it seems they never will. If someone was going to pay for the movie, then they will. MPAA doesn't loose money for every movie downloaded, mainly if people couldn't download it they would go on without out. Same thinking the RIAA has for saying ever downloaded song is a lost sale. Taking cell phones isn't helping anything but pissing off the people who actually went to see the movie.

Remember wolverine that was leaked and how MPAA was claiming it cost them millions? Well they shut the heck up when the movie did really well.

Almost everyone I speak with supports artists, movies, programmers who they use and appreciate, and buy the album when it comes out, even if they downloaded it for free.

Try not pissing off your customers.

fleebailey33

@TheStateOnDVD2Day_GitEmSteveDave: Your porn-star retraining dollars at work.

They actually did have a DRM system for screeners that was very tight-- you had a special DVD player, and the disc that you got would only work in that player.

The problem is that the people getting the screeners didn't want to be limited to just the one player-- they wanted to be able to watch it on a laptop, or at their ski lodge, etc.

In other words, they had the same problem that all us normal folks have with DRM-- they didn't want to be told how they had to watch the movie.

They also have the ability to watermark individual DVDs, and the watermarks are supposed to survive any encoding that you throw at them, but I can only think of one case where they actually busted someone for piracy using the watermarks.

All digitally projected movies carry similar invisible watermarks, but that just tells you where and when it was stolen. If it was a casual cammer, that won't help you nail them. You can bet that if an employee is regularly camming at their theater, they're going to know not to cam the digital presentations.

pagan_god

@TheStateOnDVD2Day_GitEmSteveDave:

Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic!

killest

I'm pretty sure the people who need to know, i.e. the ones who actually track people down do actually know what's going on.

The whole mobile phone confiscating thing is simply a scare tactic to put kids off downloading. So is the guy who at the beginning of the trailers appears with an "infra red camera detection device".

@saycarramrod: How about just her thumbs morph... perhaps into something less conspicuous.

@Scrum: It didn't. I'll sum it up for ya. Boobs... Boobs... "Magic"... That's about it.

Identity: Now 100% more Pre.

@heisthejordan: Wow, it's wicked that your cousin can read minds.

@Scazza: Well, I'm pretty sure that has more to due with the copyright laws here actually. It's a lot safer to share files in Canada than it is in the USA, and thus a lot of pressure has been put on Canada from lobbyist's to make our laws more like the USA's. As in, allowing idiotic companies like the RIAA to sue old ladies and children for billions of dollars over a few songs.

Kakkoister

@Scrum: You made the best choice.

Kakkoister

Piracy only happens on the open seas.