[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #422: Hollywood pirates

Wed Jan 28 10:30:25 EST 2015

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4cast #422: Hollywood pirates
January 28th, 2015

pirate flagIt's a little less than four weeks until the Oscar awards are 
handed out, so that means it's time for...piracy! Posting pirated movies 
on the Internet, that is. Every year, the "screener" DVDs of nominated 
movies that are sent to Oscar voters find their way onto the web for 
illegal downloading. Screeners often are versions of the movie that have 
not yet been through the final processing to enhance the imaging, but 
are good enough for voters to rate the movie. But while movie piracy in 
general is on the increase, if takedown notices 
<http://torrentfreak.com/google-asked-remove-345-million-pirate-links-2014-150105/> 
are any indication, a strange thing may be happening with screeners: 
Some of them may not be good enough for the discriminating pirate any more.

  * 95% of Oscar contenders leaked on pirate sites already
    <https://torrentfreak.com/95-of-oscar-contenders-leaked-on-pirate-sites-already-150116/>
    (TorrentFreak | Ernesto Van Der Sar) "What stands out immediately is
    how widely available the films are. Of all 2015 nominees, except
    documentary and foreign films, 34 of the 36 films (95%) are present
    on pirate sites. Only the animated feature film 'Song of The Sea'
    and best original song nominee 'Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me' have yet
    to appear online. The films that are available don't all come in
    perfect quality of course. 'Beyond the Lights,' for example, only
    leaked in a CAM (camcorded) version. Most, however, are available in
    relatively decent screener, DVDRip or comparable quality."
  * The cat-and-mouse game between online pirates and the Academy Awards
    <http://www.allvoices.com/article/100003260> (Allvoices | Joe
    Kukura) "The vulnerable spot in the Academy ecosystem does appear to
    be the academy's own voters. The voters, many of whom employ a large
    personal staff because they are rich and famous Hollywood people,
    are either complacent, unaware or in on the job. The common
    perceptions is that stars' personal staff are making the copies,
    though this has never been verified. But it's not as if the Academy
    Awards voters' homes are being broken into and their screener DVDs
    stolen. Voters' DVDs are being copied on purpose by non-intruders."
  * High number of Oscar screeners hit pirate sites
    <http://consumerist.com/2015/01/08/high-number-of-oscar-screeners-hit-pirate-sites/>
    (Consumerist | Chris Morran) "It's not known which roommate of which
    member of which guild stole his friend's DVDs and shared them with
    the world, but TorrentFreak reports that nearly all of the above
    screeners (with the exception of The Hobbit and Big Hero 6)
    originated from the same source. Lending credence to the notion that
    this is some amateur who decided to share this content with the
    world, TorrentFreak says that the encoding of the files being shared
    via BitTorrent is 'choppy,' implying that it's an inexperienced
    pirate who ripped these files."
  * Pirating the 2015 Oscars: HD edition
    <https://medium.com/message/pirating-the-2015-oscars-hd-edition-6c78e0cb471d>
    (The Message | Andy Baio) "If you're the first to release a
    highly-prized film in a high-quality release, you win bragging
    rights over every other group. A release that's lower quality than
    one already leaked by someone else? Completely worthless. A cam
    isn't great, but a telesync is better. A telecine is marginally
    better than a telesync, but a watermarked screener? Much, much
    better. But here's the thing: screeners are stuck in the last
    decade. While we're all streaming HD movies from iTunes or Netflix,
    the movie studios almost universally send screeners by mail on DVDs,
    which is forever stuck in low-resolution standard-definition quality."

*/Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:/*

  * Want to fight DVD piracy? Try digital printing.
    <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=d0d7d1e1-79eb-493d-8ead-39a980b70e46%40sessionmgr4002&vid=2&hid=4207&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=buh&AN=12923080>
    (/EMedia-The Digital Studio Magazine/, April 2004, p13 | Debbie
    Galante Block)
  * Screeners flow with watermarks.
    <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=83f2f697-8051-418c-b082-94ce68a1f944%40sessionmgr4004&vid=2&hid=4207&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=15620393>
    (/Daily Variety/, 1/6/2005 p6,31 | Terence Keegan)
  * Oscars' screener stream still a dream.
    <http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/ehost/detail/detail?sid=11f76d90-3e4e-4499-a3a1-25c93cf0fc83%40sessionmgr111&vid=2&hid=123&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=70427893>
    (/Variety/, 1/16/2012, p9 | Tatiana Siegel)

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