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Bootleg Star Wars AotC Debuts on Internet

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the goes-with-the-territory dept.

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.

9 of 571 comments (clear)

  1. I downloaded LOTR, what a mistake by dstanley · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  2. Re:For those who haven't caught on... by Havokmon · · Score: 4, Insightful
    For those who haven't caught on yet, this is why the MPAA and RIAA dislike technology so strongly.

    Oh yeah, these 'perfect' copies remind me of trying to watch softporn through static on TMC.

    "Standard" piracy isn't any better, or more widespread, than it was in the 80's.

    Sure there's high quality stuff out there, but there's high quality drugs out there too.. Which do you think you'll get a hold of?

    I think of it like Fort Knox:
    Where do you find pirated movies? The Internet.
    Where do you find Gold bars? Fort Knox.
    Where CAN you get pirated movies. The internet, sort of, if you know the FTP site, or manage to have a complete news server, then MAYBE..
    Where CAN you get gold? Fort Knox, if you have a small army with you..

    --
    "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
  3. Re:Not worth downloading... by soap.xml · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If you give the DMCA any place to work, even with something like this, you are validating it as a law. The DMCA is not the solution here. It is simply copyright infringment. Plain, old fashioned copyright infringment. Its illegal, period. We don't need some stupid new law to tell us that. But my personal take on it is simply this. If you want to dl it.... go ahead. I won't, I'm watching it the day it comes out. Then I'll buy the dvd when it comes out, after lucas releases all of the dvd's Ill have a big star wars party and we will watch them in high quality, legally.

    Those with the low-qual divx may see it frist, but nothing beats the "big screen" :)

  4. No Harm, No Foul by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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)
    1. Re:No Harm, No Foul by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Insightful
      • [The people who download films] are obsessed people, my friends. Nobody is doing this to avoid paying $8 at the box office.

      Hmm. Sounds reasonable, until you consider the guy sitting right behind me. He's currently downloading four films to his home machine over his cable modem (using VNC to drive it from work) and has just started looking for AOTC (based on me telling him that it's out there). He basically downloads everything, just because it's free, and it's there. He's getting megabits per second that he's not paying for, he's got a 120GB hard drive, and CD's are dirt cheap. Downloading a film involves half a dozen keypresses, two mouse clicks, and bingo, it's waiting for him when he gets home.

      Would he have spent money at theatres to see all of those films? Probably not, but he's damn sure not going to now. The main point is that he's not a hard core Star Wars fan (he's too young), so it's not just the obsessives who are doing this. Remember, original Star Wars fans are all 30+ now, there's a whole new generation coming up who are seeing films not so much as something you go and watch as something you download to see if it sucks.

      I can quite honestly see why the movie industry is worried. However, I think that the solution is to make fewer and better quality films, and (personal gripe) to show them in theatres with a strict "Shut the hell up and don't bring your damn chattering hyperactive kids, you morons" policy, rather than doing what they're doing, which is dumbing down, going for quantity over quality, and shrieking for legislation to protect their profits.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  5. Re:will have no effect on box office by Nehemiah+S. · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  6. Fan boy alert - much sadness here... by ClockworkPlanet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "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.
  7. Idiots... by stubear · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:will have no effect on box office by Sodium+Attack · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Will this have any impact on ticket sales? Obviously not!

    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.