Slashdot Mirror
Bootleg Star Wars AotC Debuts on Internet
Arctic Fox writes "Matt Drudge is reporting that bootleg copies of the new Star Wars movie have been appearing on the internet one week before the movie's big screeen debut. The article says that they have used a tripod mounted camera at a pre-screening to tape it. Not known is if anyone is seen walking in front of the camera."
I gotta admit, I find this amusing, although I'd never bother downloading it:
I've had 12:01 tickets ready to go and there is no way I'm gonna spoil it watching
a low quality divx.
For those who haven't caught on yet, this is why the MPAA and RIAA dislike technology so strongly.
--
Damn the Emperor!
I downloaded a bootleg version of LOTR when it came out. It realy spoils the awe that accompanies seeing the film on the big screen for the first time. Having made the mistake once, I won't do it again. After all, the wait is just like waiting for Christmas as a little kid.
Thats what I think, anyway.
The movie is completed already. The MPAA refuses to sell you a CD copy of it, so they are leaving it up to the pirates to fill a market demand that they don't want to bother to satisfy.
A large percentage of the piracy situation involves just this exact sort of situation: the material is out there, and the company won't sell it, so piracy flourishes. This has nothing to do with denying profits to creators, since they have decided that they don't want the profits by not selling it.
Those with the low-qual divx may see it frist, but nothing beats the "big screen" :)
why download ts and cams? i always wait for the dvdrips to come out..
this movie is going to suck anyway and you know it. why not spend your money on some QUALITY movies instead that deserve your money, not this hollywood crapovera.
So, to see these you need to incur a gig of download and all you get to see is two crappy VCD's of a movie that's coming out next week.
These are obsessed people, my friends. Nobody is doing this to avoid paying $8 at the box office. The people who download this will probably be first in line, dressed up as their favorite StarWars character. And they'll probably see it 6 times, even if it sucks.
Noone is loosing money here.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Have you actually downloaded it and watched it?
Has anyone?
In looking around I have seen files with the name, but they are always bogus. Big time bogus. Different movie, not large enough, etc.
Has anyone for a single second considered that this could be a disinformation campaign created by the MPAA?
I have friends with 100's of cds of movies downloaded from the net. as DIVX is non-streamable, there are some programs to make a valid DIVX file from a download from Kazaa/Morpheus/etc, just to check if the rest of the movie is worth downloading.
I have friends with lots of movies obtained this way. If one of them downloads a new movie, it will be shared among all the others.
The thing that strikes me odd in the previous post is the people that rename movies to fool others into downloading them. It's not like a few years ago in BBS were we had the upload/download ratio, and sometimes we just pumped something in with a goodlooking file name to be able to download something. These are p2p networks. They will get nothing more from the network, and will probably pay for the bandwith to upload the movie.
What the hell is the point? Episode II is going to suck just as bad as Episode I did, therefore, it isn't even worth downloading.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
Maybe they haven't done it, because it would just discourage people from doing it in the future. This type of low-quality piracy probably causes less loss of ticket revenue than it makes up for in free marketing and hype.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
If it sucks as bad as TPM did, then it might. I dl'd TPM and didn't bother seeing it on dvd or in the theater, and I will probably do the same here.
By the same token, I dl'd matrix and saw it afterwards in the theater 4 times. Same with LOTR (I only saw it at the theater twice though).
The point being that P2P services are hollywoods worst nightmare- because if everyone has easy access to free movies, they will only pay to see good ones at the theater. Lucas doesn't want to be forced to make a good movie, but he wants to make $200M anyway--so he will fight KaZaA etc. with everything he has.
... and there is no doubt, that one day he will be
where the eye of his telescope has already been
This silly little low-quality screener isn't what the MPAA/CBPTA are all about about, although it does give them more fule for the fire. What the entire media industry is terrified of is the ability to steal original quality digital copies and distribute them. All of these laws are being pushed so that the media industry secures their revenue stream.
Believe it or not, in the not too distant future, we will have broadband capable of transmitting DVD qualtiy video quite capably. When movies and television broadcasts are released completely in digital format, the thieves will have a field day. This is what the media people want you to believe.
Fodder to support their nefarious schemes.
Will this affect ticket sales? No.
Will this cost Lucas anything? No.
Will this in any way directly damage anyone? No.
Will the RIAA/MPAA use this as a scare tactic to ramrod any legislation they happen to want? You bet your bum.
Right or wrong, harmful or not, giving your enemy ammunition is a pretty stupid idea.
gm
Ad luna, Alicia! Ad luna!
"Films are constructed. Every element is precisely inserted for greatest effect. Find out what it's like, drop the $9 and get your ass in line."
Hilarious! You believe that, and you call me an idiot! Rich!
Lucas makes it up as he goes along! He "inserts" things to appease his daughters and his bank balance, that's why every film after the first has been aimed at a younger and younger audience, and that's why his re-released versions took out the parts that made Han seem like a guy who sometimes did bad things.
After the nice lady at your Anger Management Therapy slips you the pink pills, get her to read my comment to you.
I said nothing that was an "attempt to legitimize crap presentation" I merely told how I enjoyed watching my crappy looking VCD copy, and explained how it, in TPM's case, looked appropriate, in my opinion.
If you find that "offensive", too bad. It's only a film, not a religion.
And try to chill out a bit, eh?
Now wash your hands.
People who pirate movies like SpiderMan and Star Wars: Episode II (to name tow recent ones) only undermine the efforts of the EFF and groups like them to reign in copyright protection. Even if copyright were returned to 14/14 like the copyright act of 1902, these would still be gross violations of intellectual property rights. Think before you download this movie REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE GOING TO SEE IT IN THE THEATERS!!! By downloading this movie or engaging in file sharing of copyrighted material you are spitting in the face of those in the EFF who are trying to protect our rights.
based on what Lucas turned out for Episode I, I'm not holding my breath for this one.
What about what he "turned out" for Episodes IV, V, and VI? Or the Indiana Jones franchise? Or Willow? So with you, it's "make one movie that I don't like and you're permanently blacklisted?" Doesn't that seem kind of silly?
Lucas has an excellent track record. I still hold high hopes for the rest of the prequel trilogy.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
Lucas has an excellent track record. I still hold high hopes for the rest of the prequel trilogy.
Unfortunately Lucas does not have a good track record as a director, nor as a writer. Said simply, he is rather poor in those roles, though he is a great producer. Of the movies you mention, the only one he directed or wrote (the scenario, not story) was Episode IV, which holds a special place in my hard but is definetely not a cinematographic achievement. It did create a new genre, and there's no doubt in my mind that Lucas is (was) a visionary. But from an artistic point of view, the second one (Empire) is by far superior.
Why Lucas insists on writing and directing the new Star Wars is beyond me. By refusing to accept his shortcomings and play on his strenghts instead, he's wearing himself thin and turning out inferior films. Too bad...at least the geek AND film buff in me are totally satisfied by LOTR (now, that's some director!). I'll still go see AOTC, but I'm not expecting much. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong.
Reminder: find a new sig
You have to guess that this is going to open on at least 3000 screens domestically. If it's opening in a week, it's not hard to assume that their distribution channels might have some of those prints in place already.
This sig intentionally left justified.
Here's a post from someone who admits he won't see AOTC in the theaters, now having seen it on the internet. Obviously, it will have an effect on ticket sales. (How much is debateable, but it's clearly a non-zero amount.)
Never take moderation advice from sigs, including this one.
Funny how times change. It used to be said that widescreen movies were unwatchable on any TV 20" or smaller. Now it's up to 40"?!
Hardly. My 27" does quite fine thank you very much. Is it perfect or just like a theater? Of course not. But unless you build a theater to scale in your house, nothing will be like a theater. Even the 61" screens are still smaller than a movie theater.
My so-called too-small TV works as well as it does because of the room it is in. That's an important factor here, room size. Or, more precisely, how far away from the TV you are sitting. If you can't get very far away then a 40" is, in my experience, worse than something smaller.
It's all about perspective and environment. Screen size is a factor, but it's not the only factor.
-r
Just because something is free does not mean you have to take it.