Slashdot Mirror
Psst! Eight Bits Gets You "The Two Towers" In China
rocodipoco writes "CNN reports on this article about DVDs of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" were available in Shanghai two weeks ago for about $1 a pop, according to one Western film industry executive who visited that city. The film opens in North America on December 18. Interviewed at the CineAsia movie convention, the executive said as many as 40 street vendors were openly offering DVDs outside a Shanghai mall; he declined their offers, and thus can't verify the quality of the counterfeit copies. I personally want to wait for the movie to hit the big screen...it's all about the suspense. What do others think?"
I realize that movies are sometimes released to the net and/or street vendors (primarily in Asia) before their official release dates, but like the false reports of the second Harry Potter movie being available months before release, I think this is just some bullshit the industry exec invented out of whole cloth to prove again how 'damaging' pirating is to his industry. I'm not pro-piracy in any way, but a line of bullshit is a line of bullshit.
call me naive, but LotR is one of those movies that people don't _want_ to pirate.
I know several people who had a SVCD-rip of the full movie and yet they still got the full DVD set half a year later...
------------------
You may like my a cappella music
I have the DVD of FOTR and it really really sucks on my TV. You can hardly see the characters. Either you have a really huge screen, or you better wait for the theaters.
KdenLive/PIAVE - non-linear video editing
I don't know why everyone likes watching movies in theaters. I like the ability to pause if I need to releave myself. My home is also a more comfortable setting. Of course "counterfeit" movies may not as high a quality but it's not giving money to MPAA.
Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
However, I sure want to see that film in a BIG screen, I don't think I'll ever buy a DVD of it.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
i live in lebanon (middle east) and we get these DVDs from asia for each and every film before the official release but i have to say this is usually recorded on mini DV by someone during a prerelease of the film. u actually see shades of people and heads moving around and teh sound is the ambiant sound.
believe me i still go to the movies to c the real thing! cause these DVDs suck big time.
baxter yazbek
http://www.baxter2.com
beirut - lebanon
Wasn't this available for download through KaZaA a while back? Why would you order a questionable-quality version from China if you could pull (possibly) the same thing from a P2P network?
Not like I have the will (or the bandwidth for that matter) to pull the movie, but it shouldn't be such a big deal if it was already available.
Sounds like scaremongering to me..."insidious crime ring use ninja to pirate film prior to release".
The industry needs to either get their act together re how they embargo new releases or give up their sad attempts at pre-release hype.
he declined their offers, and thus can't verify the quality of the counterfeit copies.
Talking about making a fool of himself...
bash$
After just viewing LOTR: The Two Towers, I was shocked when I found out that they all died....
In college, really poor, need a flatscreen.
You might be up to something. After all, Elvenfolk have that dreamy look...
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Dude, read the book....
Suspense is sitting at the edge of your seat wondering whats going to happen next. I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but I think most people reading slashdot are going in to these movies knowing more or less whats goign to happen. The suspense factor just isn't going to be there.
I think the exciting part about seeing these movies is comparing how the movie compares to what the story looked like in your own imagination. Just as an example, I pictured the great river as a river as wide as the Columbia, winding through a dry wasteland. In the movie it was portrayed in an entirely different way. Thats what excited me, to see what another person imagined the story to be like.
I think if your watching the movies for the suspense, do yourself a favor and read the book. Sometimes knowing whats going to happen is even better.
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
Well, I don't believe anyone who really appreciates movies would want these. It's a similar mentality to those hordes of 14year old "gimmes" who download tons and tons of mp3s and DivXs because they can, and it's somehow "cool" to have it before anyone else. Half the time, they don't even watch them! It's just a status/ego thing to be able to say "oh, I've got that. Had it for weeks *yawn*".
What interests me is that I've always thought this was quite a "western" mentality, grounded in materialism and greed. Are the Chinese just the same? Or do they have other motivations?
Prisoner #655321
WARNING!!! TO ALL TROLLS. Being moderated as "Troll" in a discussiona about the LoR might make you allergic to daylight.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
For me Usenet is one of the most reliable sources for this kind of news. If it hasn't been posted on newsgroups, it is most certainly not available.
There is a very good search engine available: http://alt.binaries.nl
If you can't find it there, it's not posted/available.
Daxy's Networking Blog
China has always been good with replication (yes, it reflects on their population too ;)). They are bright, intelligent and hard workers. I guess they lack that innovative touch, otherwise they would have shaken the world by now. It's not just China. I'm pretty sure that Malaysia, Thailand will also have copies floating around. DVDs... now that's the shocker. We've heard of cds, they are cheap and easy to duplicate. Usually they dump "Camera prints" on their early releases, but DVDs ?? Are they proper DVDs or are they just camera prints dumped on DVD media ?
Their loss though, coz such an epic will lose its impact if not seen on the big screen !!!!
|/________
|\A|ALYS|
Those of us who have seen The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring know what an amazing director Peter Jackson is. When I learned that there apparently was to be a sequel, I was overjoyed. However, Peter Jackson has decided to tastelessly name the sequel "The Two Towers". The title is clearly meant to refer to the attacks on the World Trade Center. In this post-September 11 world, it is unforgiveable that this should be allowed to happen. The idea is both offensive and morally repugnant. Hopefully, when Peter Jackson and, more importantly, New Line Cinema see the number of signatures on this petition, the title will be changed to something a little more sensitive.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Some people are stupid.
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
I've seen a few copies of LoTR 2 here in China. Sort of. All the DVD/VCD copies I've seen here so far have been labelled quite well. Pretty box art and everything. But when you put in the disc it turns out to be a completely different movie. Not sure which movie it was as I didn't watch long enough to be sure, but it's some old fantasy flick from the 70's. AFAIK they don't have a real copy of LoTR 2 yet in China.
Do not anger the worm.
For a film to have its amazing SFX used as a selling point is pathetic.
Anyway, where's the suspense? I can hardly believe that anyone here really doesn't know the LoTR storyline by now?
Not trolling, just pissed off at the way films are made and sold sometimes....
Tom.
Oh arse
Just as with the Star Wars movies, there are two things I don't get:
-do you really want the first time you see this movie to be on a small screen (yeah, 21" is small for this kind of thing) with crappy quality? Or do you want to see it and be surprised by surround sound with a HUGE screen?
-I don't really get "freaked out by the piracy" act from the studios either; it's gonna happen, and the people who watch the bad quality rip will see it in cinema's too. If they can afford it...and if they can't, they wouldn't see it anyway.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Thanks to my brother, I *ahem* had access to Episode 1 on VCD about a month before it came out.
There were three girls on my entire engineering course at the time. One of them was a Star Wars fan, not to mention gorgeous. I happened to mention that I had this VCD, and that night found us lying on my bed in my darkened room staring at a 14" monitor. (I said monitor).
Can't believe I actually watched that movie, but it was worth it. Unfortunately I was too stupid to take advantage of the situation. Wonder if she's into LOTR? =)
Having traveled in Asia a couple of times, I know from experience that this does indeed happen. Street vendors in cities like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur are selling lots of pirated CD's and DVD's. It's quite funny to see them running when the police show up. Many guesthouses and restaurants show movies too. I have seen movies in Asia that hadn't started showing in the theaters in Europe when I came back home.
Holleywood has denied any attempt to profit off september 11 with the release of the new Bruce Willis action movie "Bin Laden go bye bye". Industry sources say that its a tribute to the fallen heros and every dollar spent will only prove the success of western capitalism and how great the US is.
That would be "originally," and "movie." Virtually all previews use music from other sources, because the scores for most movies aren't finished until shortly before release. Besides which previews these days have almost a "music video" style to them to hold people's interest, and the film scores sometimes don't work well with that style. I though that it fit quite well with the visuals, though it depressed the hell out of me. And then I saw the Ring. Jesus, talk about a fun evening.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
I know several people who described identical experiences buying DVDs in China. It seemed too good to be true, near-cost prices and titles which had sometimes only been rumored to be in production. The labels looked authentic at first glance but often contained spelling errors... possibly composed of images gleaned from promotional material.
The movie inside was not at all the one which was advertised. Usually it was an old movie with a similar theme.
-Rick
did the exec actually BUY one of those 'dvd's and try if it was really the 'real thing'.
couple of months ago there was this huge fuzz about two towers being available on kazaa, whilst it isn't. there's just a shitload of fakes.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
It's not just about "doing business" during a movie either. Nor is it just about the biiig screen and THX sound. It's the leg room. It's the cuddling with a loved one, or pet as the case may be. It's the 75 cents for popcorn and koolaid vs $8 for popcorn and ice(soda if you're lucky).
And, for some weird reason, most people at the movie theater don't like it when I bring my bong.
He painted a unicorn in outer space. I'm askin' ya, what's it breathin'?
To the contrary, I love my movies loud, to the point a contract-signing-worthy hearing damage. That THX sound is something cosmic, it's HUGE!!! sometimes I stand up and scream, "THAT SOUND IS SO FUCKING HUGE! HOLY SHIT!" Thats how loud I like my movies :) :D
But I digress, Would it hurt the theatres to have showings at different volume preferences. Because I want the voice of Saron to pierce my living - likely high and scared - soul
also I am going to download this new one.
Another thing that sucks is bar cover charge...I guess they're special but I'd like to see stores like Wal-Mart try to charge cover for the opportunity to shop there.
- Health, Fitness, and Weight Loss News
I did a scan just out of curiosity on a couple of underground P2P networks, and low and behold, Two towers was available. (No I'm not going to tell you where I found it, but I suspect that most P2P apps will be sharing it soon, if not already)
I resisted the temptation to hit 'download', as I to would love to see this first on a large screen, with state of the art dolby digital sound. I agree - It's all about the experience, suspense, hype... Watching the movie first on a 15" laptop screen with poorly coded audio and video would destroy the whole buzz for me...
-- 7 string electric violin + live loop samplers
I'm almost totally convinced this either isn't true or the quality is so bad that a purchaser of one of these dvds wouldn't be able to tell whether or not she got the real thing.
But just in case...
This is the only kind of piracy that I actively and vocally oppose. Most of what's labeled as piracy nowadays is simply acting in accordance with the laws of information physics at possible detriment to the financial standing of companies that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo with regards to content-centric business models. I'm not saying it's good or bad. In fact, I'm saying the exact opposite: when someone copies digital media, legally or illegally, they're simply doing what the laws of physics of information permit. "Piracy" of digital media after it has been sold or rented to the public is as natural and unstoppable as falling after jumping off a cliff. (I.e. It can be stopped, but only through extreme measures like stationing a police officer in every home, or bungeeing [is that a word?] yourself to a crane you've rented for the specific occasion. And even though it can be stopped, that does not take away from the fact that physics still works. Information is still copied in a free society. You still experience the force of gravity when you're hanging from a crane.)
However, just because information physics doesn't permit the kind of control over information that big media companies would like (i.e. the ability to sell information as a physical good) doesn't mean that they have no control. On the contrary. The one and only way information can be controlled is by keeping it a secret. The one and only way information can be kept secret is by assuring that all entities that have access to that information:
1. Agree to keep the information secret.
and
2. Are able to keep the information secret.
While DRM schemes like Palladium or SDMI aim to prevent the unstoppable variety of piracy, they cannot do so because they violate #2. DRM system designers may want to keep information a secret even after it enters a consumer's home, but no device is capable of that. (Yes, you could encase every computer in 10 meters of titanium, but if you're going to allow such extreme protection of content in a hypothetical situation, you also must allow extreme resources on the part of the consumer as well.)
On the other hand, movie companies are very capable (or should be very capable) of keeping a movie secret until its release. If the film didn't leave the care of responsible individuals who care about the profits to be had when it is finally released, bootleg preview copies like the ones mentioned in this article wouldn't exist. You can't sell copies of information you can't get at all.
It's because of this that I oppose this kind of copying and will never purchase or watch any kind of pre-release copy such as this. This kind of piracy is damaging to both consumers and producers of content, but most importantly it is preventable.
I'm not saying that I pirate (or support the piracy of) MP3s or rentable movies online; in fact, I'm of the opinion that there is an overall negative impact on the self caused by participating in the unstoppable variety of piracy in a legal system which doesn't allow it. Easy availability of content through illegal means anesthetizes potential activists and prevents them from acting towards greater good. It stops people not from understanding there is a problem with the legal system, but really feeling it to the point where they're willing to act. Want to hear a conspiracy theory? Maybe the content industries are holding back on prosecuting file traders so that they can get more anti-consumer legislation passed before people really start to pay attention.
Ugh. It's way too late to be evangelizing on slashdot. I'm going to bed.
</soapbox>
if the movie hasn't been released on DVD yet, it is usually of the theatre-screening-captured-on-a-camcorder variety. Just like the theatre experience, complete the sounds of the audience coughing and chewing popcorn, but obviously terrible picture and sound quality.
if the movie has been officially released on DVD, then these are usually perfect copies. The discs are sometimes flawed, though, as they are cheaply laminated. I don't know what their shelf life is.
If you don't care about the moral issues of piracy, then these DVDs are a great deal. You can expect about one of every three that you buy to be duds, but even then at less than $1 a pop, I ended up with well over 50 movies for less than $100 spent.
This is a copy and paste of a response made to a comment I made a while back, it really opened my eyes as to *why* chinese are so into open source. I believe that Chinese frugalness (as explained by the below re-post) is to blame for the rampant piracy of The Two Towers.
Before I get to the repost i'd like to add in my own link and two cents from the SVCD Faq I read.
Cool huh? It's a part of their culture folks. How can Hollywood fight an entire culture of 4 billion people?
The only thing that strikes us Americans as odd is the communist goverment that is in power there. As geeks we are appalled that they would dare install a firewall to protect their people, which in our eyes is a violation of their free speech, but this is what their society just does. How do you convince this culture of 4 billion people that what they are doing is not being frugal but stealing
It would begin at a goverment level, and the police would have to crack down on the street vendors that bootleg it. Will it happen? I doubt it, from the above snippet of the SVCD faq I bet the goverment is celebrating yet another victory.
I am, for one. (Re: Are there any Chinese slash..) (Score:5, Informative)by DigitalHammer (581235) <digitalhammer001&hotmail,com> on Wednesday August 14, @02:49AM (#4068791) Is there any Chinese Slashdotters...that can provide a cultural insight as to why china would be so open to open source?
First of all I would like to state that I am of pure Chinese descent.
To answer your question, I believe there are 3 factors that make China very open to open source: Confucianism, the WTO, and Microsoft licensing.
The centuries-old mentality of being extremly frugal with one's money or possesions. Though this idea is ancient, the Communist government began to encourage the use of this virtue in times of famine and hardship. This article from Time Magazine titled Overeating Dying in China further explains:
In the early 1980s when some nouveau rich squandered their money on restaurants delicacies and government officials took advantage of their jobs to attend luxurious feasts, a distorted concept was built up in most Chinese's minds: the wealthier one is, the more fatty foods are on your dinning table.
The grumbles about upstarts' arrogance and the government officials' corruption turned into general disapproval. People began to look favorably at the ancient Chinese maxim which praises abstinence in consumption....Considering the 30 million destitute Chinese struggling in remote mountainous areas and those laid-off work who are living a hard life, traditional virtues like fighting one's way up and building the country through hardship and thrift are still highly encouraged by the Chinese government.
This frugal ideal, reinvigorated in the minds of mainland Chinese, compounded with ancient Confucian values of filial piety encourage the development and acceptance of open source software over propeitery ones in China. The bit about filial piety applies to the corporate environment of Chinese businesses. Filial piety in Chinese families enforce the younger family members' respect of older ones. This encourages the younger members' to set priorities that value the importance of the older family member (typically the father, mother, and grandparents). Chinese children, raised under this mentality, carry these priorities over to their workplace where they place their upmost importance upon the boss and senior officials (formerly occupied by older family members).
In most, if not all jobs in China involving internal technology, the IT manager must find software that will create a stable infrastructure while saving as much money as possible. This is where the frugal mentality and the rigid set of priorities converge to brighten the appeal of open source software. Because China is attempting to gain full membership within the WTO, which requires its adherance to strict IP rules, the country began an enormous crackdown on the pirated software industry. Using pirated (MS) software no longer was an option, as it used to be 10 years ago. Another path would be to purchase MS software licenses. However, the thought of accepting the dinosauric financial demands of Microsoft licensing contracts clashed with the frugal mentality prolific with Chinese tech companies, and the set of priorities spawned by Confucian filial piety led them to consider the amount of funds that could be saved and allocated for other departments by not buying licenses. In turn, Chinese techs were left with another option: Open source software, more specifically Linuix. The legal and cost-free nature of the penguin OS became an appealing option to the Chinese techs, and in turn took the opportunity to develop and integrate it in to their corporate infrastructure.
Chinese cultural traditions of filial piety and frugality are further explained in this excerpt of the site Paul Herbig's Working Papers:
Chinese Network
The Chinese commonwealth is a group of small Chinese companies from all over the world affiliated with each other, protecting and taking care of each others businesses. They are also referred to as 'Greater China', or the 'Chinese Network'.
The survival mentality and the Confucian tradition of patriarchal authority, form the values of a typical Chinese entrepreneur - one who seeks to control his own small dynasty. These so call life raft values are:
l.Thrift ensures survival.
2.A high, even irrational, level of savings is desirable, regardless of immediate needs.
3.Hard work to the point of exhaustion is necessary to ward off the many hazards present in an unpredictable world.
4.The only people you can trust are family-- and a business enterprise is created as a familial life raft.
5.The judgment of an incompetent relative in the family business is more reliable than that of a competent stranger.
6.Obedience to patriarchal authority is essential to maintaining coherence and direction for the enterprise;
7.Investment must be based on kinship or clan affiliations
8.Tangible goods, like real estate
9.Keep your bags packed at all times,day or night (Kao,p.25).
Unlike the Japanese Keiretsu, the Chinese network is an open system for all Chinese entrepreneurs all over the world. They watch for each others businesses and help those who are in need. These Chinese entrepreneurs have a give - and - take relationship. The network is usually formed by joint ventures, weddings, political opportunities and common cultures. Ownership of the company are usually passed to relatives, regardless of their educational background or competency (the classic example is An Wang's passing of his company, Wang Computers, to his mediocre son instead of professional managers--which ended in failure). Generation after generation, no matter in what culture they were brought up, every Chinese seeks control and security of their businesses.
The first Chinese generation has a survival and Confucius mentality. Every business decision is made for the future of the family. Unlike the old generation, the younger generation are born in other countries outside of mainland China. They do not only carry the Chinese culture, but the one they were born in as well. This generation, especially if born in a western country, has a sense of individualism. Companies like Winbond,a high-tech company in Taiwan, which considers themselves to be a Chinese company , believes that you should respect your family and love ones but you have to set your mind on what is right for the company. D.Y. Yang,owner of Winbond, says, A Chinese company depends less on data and more on intuition,feelings,and people. But on the other hand, he also mentions, Of course you have to respect the family business structure, but since this is a high tech company,individual contributions are important (Kao,p31).
---snip
I have heard about the open markets in china where you can purchase bootlegs of any software for near the cost of the CD. If the choice is between M$ at
On a side note, frugality, combined with Communist ideals and Confucian values led to the explosive growth of the pirated software and media industry in China, as this essay written by Rutgers Univesity student Sheng Ding explains:
Confucius's concept of the transmission of culture and Marx's views on the social nature of language and invention arose from very different ideological foundations. Nonetheless, because each school of thought in its own way saw intellectual creation as fundamentally a product of the larger society from which it emerged, neither elaborated a strong rationale for treating it as establishing private ownership interests.[15] Deeply influenced by these two ideologies, China falls behind all developed countries and many developing countries in the field of intellectual property protection. It is also not difficult to understand why most of Chinese did not know what were IPRs in 1980s.
Well, I am confident that this reply answers your question. More information about Chinese philosophies and other ideals that are involved in China's flourishing open source movement can be found below:
Paul Herbig's Working Papers [google.com]
A Paper on IP Rights in China, by Sheng Ding [rutgers.edu]
The Chinese Way with Money, an article from the Shanghai Star [chinadaily.com.cn]
I don't really like cinemas, and its just giving money to a cartel. I'll wait for the the DVD. I think in the meantime I'll just get the soundtrack, and make do with the book. Is it available in Adobe E-book format?
Kinda ironic to read the banner ads on /. today "Lord of the rings - the two towers...only in theaters" - right above the story about LOTR being available on the street. Would slashdot lie to me??
I somehow got a bootleg copy of Matrix before it was released on the big screen, and watched that very ugly VCD rip. I was blown away by the plot since I didn't know anything about the film beforehand, however since that day I've always regretted not to have seen it in a proper theatre to begin with.
I've stopped getting bootlegs ever since for this reason.
I've found more than a dozen films on DVD in China, for less than US$2.00 each in the last 9 months, that were available before the movie on screen and/or on DVD.
:) ...oh, and these are most always region free
Sometimes the quality is of a handheld DV camera...sometimes the subtitles are from another movie. Sometimes they are tagged as pre-release evals. They are always at least worth the $2.00.
The prices are higher in Beijing...Tianjin is best for price. They are off-street in Bejing. Not at all hard to find in Tianjin...try any of the music stores near the colleges.
Seems to me the studios should hook up with these guys and find a way so that the consumer can get releases sooner and for a better price
[Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam]
;-) (when in rome..) This is THE movie I want to see. I almost want to fly back to the states to see it.
I haven't seen any LotR DVD's anywhere here. And yes, I do look and buy.
As for what movies ARE here.. Harry Potter 2 and Die Another Day showed up on the streets here the day after their release. I haven't been able to watch the DVD's yet cuz my laptop went belly up, but I did get to see a VCD of Harry Potter. It sucked.
As far as my intentions go, and I tell people here all the time, I will watch all of the movies back in the theaters in the US when I get back... if they're still on. I'm pretty sure the LotR:TT and Potter will be still there, but I doubt Die Another Day will, which makes me kind of sad.
People here can't understand the western facination with the "theater". People are always asking me what I miss most, and I tell them without evening thinking - the movies. They ask me, "why? You can get any movie for $1 right now and watch it at home!" Then I explain to them them the sheer size of the screen and the massive sound system. The theaters here suck. Very few people go to them. 5.1 surround sound systems run for $20 a pop so everybody has them. Home theaters are what they want.
Families just can't "go to the movies". A few family members maybe. Getting the family out would require the renting of a car or van.
Plus, I doubt Hollywood would release movies here. The average income is $50/month and they're not going to spend it on a movie when they have a huge family to feed.
Hollywood has nothing to worry about here. They're not losing money here because they don't release movies here. Westerners buy a few DVD's because they can't see the movies here. Now, if AMC put a nice big screen here in the middle of Saigon - it would be another story.
They're a bunch of cry-babies if you ask me.
So.. they're selling counterfit DVDs in China, and this may hurt the film industry...
Yeah right... I can't even be bothered to leave the house to buy food...
Do you really think I'm gonna leave the house, drive to the airport, fly to china, learn to speak chinese, and buy a DVD... all to save 16 hours downloading it from Kazaa;)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Americans should also think of changing their popular emergency phone number to something else... After all, 911 is pretty shocking, isn't it? People nowadays are so sensitive. I suggest 912, so it matches the Simpsons (watch the "stonemasons" episode) idea.
"I think it would be a good idea!"
Gandhi, about Internet Security
Haha, I just have to add my 2 cents on this, since I like this story.
/. and scooped this one by a year.....
My caucasian friend went to China last year. While there he picked up a bunch of DVDs. He was excited to see that they already had both Two Towers and Return of the King on DVD, as well as Spiderman, which had been out not long in the theaters. He eagerly bought them all at grossly inflated (for pirate dvds) prices, and when he brought him home we popped them in the dvd player together. The Two Towers turned out to be a video of what appeared to be maybe a SCA reunion or something. It was a bunch of guys riding around in goofy costumes on horses. I couldn't stop laughing. He then popped in Spiderman, and as the movie started, the dramatic title of Earth Vs. The Spider came up on the screen. He didn't even bother taking his dvds with him as he left.
Haha, they sure had nice cases though. That's the key for the pirates: nice, believable cases.
I'm sure the exec knew that it wasn't actually the TT too, he just wanted to spread some FUD about the evil pirates.
Man, I could have gotten my story posted on
Such situation is quite common in countries without strong copyright law or its proper enforcement.
Say, in some ex-USSR states you can buy an upcoming blockbuster months before the official world premier. Often they are outright stolen from clipping board and lack some scenes and visual effects. I recall Casper the Firendly Ghost without the actual ghosts rendered, and Waterworld without the shark hunt scene being offered on street markets.
Quite possibly it can be the case with The Two Towers as well.
Lisp is the Tengwar of programming languages.
it's like if i made a webpage that said g. bush shoots up heroin 3am every morning, and the next day someone published it as first page news..
Shh. You'll be sued for libel in Australia if you're not careful.
I saw something similar once, a TV showing Tekken and "showing what poor quality pirate games are" - the TV wasn't tuned in properly!
no sig.
> Most of what's labeled as piracy nowadays is simply acting
> in accordance with the laws of information physics at possible
> detriment to the financial standing of companies that have a
> vested interest in maintaining the status quo with regards to
> content-centric business models.
That's the most absurd statement I have heard since "Information wants to be free".
How is that any different from saying:
"Most of what's labeled as burglary nowadays is simply acting in accordance with the laws of mechanical physics at possible detriment to the financial standing of companies that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo with regards to inventory-centric business models."
In other words, you are using big, important-sounding words to say "since it is inherently possible to steal, it's not really theft".
Just because information has no physical reality, and just because it can be copied at virtually no cost, that does not mean that the information has no value.
IMO that's the key point that most anti-copyright proponents miss: Information Has Value. If it didn't, nobody would want to steal it.
Secondarily, and just as important: Information costs time and money to produce.
Third: Companies and individuals often spend time and money producing Information in order to sell it and make a profit.
Fourth: There is nothing inherently evil about that.
When you acquire something that has value without compensating the owner, that is Stealing. When you do it in violation of the current law, whether you agree with that law or not, that is Illegal.
P.S. (Thanks
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
...to in a crowded cinema with kids kicking the seats from behind, the stench of popcorn fried in rancid oil and chairs that ensure you can't feel your legs after 3 hours. It's not the perfect environment for a film *that* long.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Humm.. Lets press our CD's in china, so we can make that extra 35 cents per cd. And then cry foul when somebody who makes 1.25 per day takes a copy home and presses a few extra. That will give us more ammo to cry to congress that we must control every americans computer, tv, and toaster. Even though we KNEW that it would be pirated if we pressed it in Asia.
My friend recently came back from a visit to China where she bought one of those pirated Two Towers-DVD:s. Upon placing it in her DVD-player she discovered it was actually LOTR 1. The cover was an authentic-looking Two Towers one, however.
Man oh man, I think I'd pay a buck to give that movie back.
This story comes up with the ad for the new LoTR trailer advertisement, with the tagline: "Only in Theatres Dec 18th!"
:P )
You people who disabled ads don't know what you're missing (I "donated", I just didn't bother to turn the ads off
I haven't read the books in 15 years and plan to avoid them until I've seen Return of the King.
Friends of mine who have read them recently spend half the film thinking "Well, that's different, and this line of dialogue wasn't quite right."
I just want to watch great films for what they are.
My Journal
8 bits...that's some pretty mighty impressive compression! Damn all who complain about petty things like grainy pixels!
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
I work in Shenzhen (north of Hong Kong) and I've seen the movie out for just over a week now on some of the outside stalls.
Okay, put it this way. I'm flying into New Zealand next week to see the LOTR:TT. I'm not about to watch it on a VCD.
But imagine the temptation. Every evening after work, I think, tonight I could see the two towers. It could be tonight. It's tough I tell you.
"Teachers leave us kids alone
...I might care.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
I think the music fits quite nicely to the trailer.. It adds to the mood. And I'm so taken by the visuals of the trailer that I forget all about heroin..
Pop-cultural volume-setting rule: always amp any public situation in order to drown out the crowds of screaming girls who'll be there to see John, Paul, George, and Ringo. If you don't plan for a horde of crazed fans going hoarse screaming, you're only planning for failure. (Note to Miriam Makeba concert producers: hysterical fans are not going to threaten to drown out respected African folk singers.)
I'll see this in the theater, I love the event of it when it's actually a very decent movie. But you're right, the first movie was loud enough to sterilize the mice living in my theater's floorboards. Even the people who get a perfect copy in this Asian market are going to go home and crank the home theater system up to rumble the fittings on their bathroom sink. Loud must be better, right?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
There has been no sign of the TTT VCD on any of the VCD/SVCD release sites, like http://www.vcdquality.com and http://www.isonews.com nor on any of the Usenet newsgroups. I tend to believe that these reports are untrue. Episode 2 was out and all over the place 2-3 weeks before the actual theater premiere. The Two Towers, however, is nowhere to be seen except in reportedly in China in news releases and anecdotes only.
I don't believe it.
I wonder how much they got paid by the pro-alcohol/anti-drug lobbies to produce this trash?
When you acquire something that has value without compensating the owner, that is Stealing. When you do it in violation of the current law, whether you agree with that law or not, that is Illegal.
:
I'd use the verb benefit, else, well, you can acquire immaterials good but if you simply don't use these, you're just using your hard disc as a dust bin.
When RIAA/MPAA will notice that the loss they consider is actually lower as their estimation because people politely accepted to be "given" mp3/divx but just don't like these and don't use these, this is not really theft, but rather some potential publicity for the labels.
I however agree with the term illegal : the problem is the law but not really the philosophy behind.
Of course, I consider that any mentally-equilibrated people who enjoy some "pirated" stuff will finally buy it unless it is not distributed a decent way.
I'll take the Star Wars 4-6 example
I will only buy these if they come alone in DVD (I mean I *refuse* to pay for episodes 1-3 which will dramatically increase the bundle price as these were more expensive to create -despite the obvious lower entertainment they are- and also will still generate big bucks because of their lower age).
Trolling using another account since 2005.
I don't think this story is a lie. It sounds to me the movie studios have just as much problem protecting their copyrighted material inside their own organization. Why else would we get these movies released from illegitimate sources before the movie even comes out?
...and they want a censorship and control system (aka DRM) placed on the general public? It sounds to me that won't solve their copyright infringement problems at all. More likely the "pirates" will steal the footage before any DRM control is placed on it. Moreover they will equally be able to steal or aquire all the software / equipment / DRM keys needed to make their content appear with valid watermarks. The only ones who won't be able to publish are the legitimate everyday person who has been making "intellectual property" since the beginning of history.
Maybe congress needs to pass a law to increase the "security" of movie studios. (and hopefully put them out of business in the process) ;-)
I go to the theaters for any movie is because their screen is bigger than mine. I have the surround sound and great resolution on my computer but hands down a 60 ft screen is awsome. As soon as HDTV projectors drop to an affordable price I will get one and NEVER return to the theater again. And I imagine many of of the populus will begin doing also. The information age is finnaly settling into its own and businesses are starting to realize how big this change is. 100% of the media industry has to re-learn everything it knows about how is manages itself. It has been ignoring East Asia because it never had that market to loose. All our markets are turning from product based to service based. How good the movie of the week is does not matter anymore. How good the service gets that movie to me is what matters.
Where's the Amazon.com zshops link for these street vendors? Ebay? C'mon -- don't they know what kind of market they are missing?
Lots of petrified grits
Haven't you read the book????
Actually, what was available was "King of Circular Objects: Multiple Battlements" and not the two towers at all.
Shameful! Shocking! The movie is pirated even before it's released here! How could such a thing happen? Why, the only organization who has the film is the studio itself. Hmmmmm...
This could have been accomplished either of two ways:
These are the only ways that I can think of (reply with your own ideas, please!), and in either case, the piracy is due to the studio's own negligence and/or delusions of invulnerability. Bottom line: There's no way they can pin this on Joe Consumer and his tricked out VCR/DVD rig, or Joe Geek with his Linux box running DeCSS.
Perhaps we should believe them, and help them to understand where their problems really lie. Because I bet they're too thick to figure it out for themselves.
I'm anti-piracy, pro-fair-use, and anti-bullshit. Just like 98% of everyone else out there.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
I've seen three movies in the last year ("Phantom Menace", "Road to Perdition" (yeah, I know - wife picked it), and "Jonah: Veggie Tales" (daughter picked it)). All were really loud. Oddly, the Jonah film was so loud that my ears truly hurt, and I had to cover my (2.5yo) daughter's ears in scenes. I got to see much of the audience wincing in pain at the louder parts.
What's worse is that all three of the movies have been horribly out of focus. Sometimes, the little slide-show thing they run before the show is fine, but the movie I paid for has always been like a visit to the eye doctor.
Add to this the rudeness of the other patrons (turn off the phone - you're not that important) and the incredible shrinking popcorn bucket, and I've been seeing fewer movies every year.
Suddenly, a large TV hooked up to a computer and a DVD makes much more sense: free popcorn, sharp picture (usually), control over the volume, ability to stop the show, and the ability to kick out rude patrons. Every $30 (two tickets and popcorn) movie we DON'T see is money that can go to the home version. Yeah, we don't see them as big or as early, but I'm fed up.
What? No comments from Ryu2 yet about teen prostitudes in China?
Well, I don't believe anyone who really appreciates movies would want these. It's a similar mentality to those hordes of 14year old "gimmes" who download tons and tons of mp3s and DivXs because they can, and it's somehow "cool" to have it before anyone else. Half the time, they don't even watch them!
Did you ever stop to consider where that attitude might come from?
Who gives the elite screening copies of films months prior to the "unwashed masses?" Who releases a movie on one continent, then waits several months before releasing it on another? Who has encoded region-specific information on the current medium of their consumer-grade product to facilitate the continuation of this sort of behavior even in the digital age and the age of globalism?
Who has done everything they can, using everything from marketing to outright market manipulation, to turn time, and the date one can see a movie, into a status symbol so large the lemmings all run to the same theaters on opening night and cheerfully stand in line in sub-zero temperatures in the hopes of getting one of the few seats available?
Hollywood, that is who.
Which is why I have no problem with people who choose to time-shift their entertainment from the schedule the media moghuls are trying to lay down to their own schedule...even if that means timeshifting the film from six months in the future to the present, then going out and purchasing the DVD (or going to the theater, or what have you) when the opportunity finally arrives, months later and according to the industry's timetable.
The industry created this time-sensitive demand, and have systematically hyped and developed the sense of presige that getting to see something earlier than others seems to provide so many. Now they can enjoy reaping precisely what they've sown.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
"Psst! Eight Bits Gets You "The Two Towers" In China"
Now that's piracy! Huh? Huh?
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
Worst one I've ever been to was a showing of Phantom Menace - there was a blown midrange driver in the center section, so to make up for it, they turned up the overall volume... resulting in bass that could literally shake you out of your seat.
Remember, if it's too loud, you're not too old, you're just going to be going deaf by age 30. Exposure to 85 dB SPL for 8 hours will cause permanent damage. 95 dB SPL, you get 2 hours. 105 dB SPL (average level in the middle of a concert venue), you get about 20 minutes. 115 dB SPL (in the pit) and you get about 1 song (3-5 minutes). 120 dB SPL... dancing right in front of the speakers... you're causing permanent non-repairable, life-lasting damage every second you're there.
-T
Comment removed based on user account deletion
They'll just come out with a Special Edition later, and you'll have to pay again.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Apparently, most people don't realize what the movie theater situation is like in China. They don't exist for all practical purposes. The government caps the number of foreign films permitted into theaters to 10 per year. Then, all of these films are dubbed into Mandarin and released months later. I was in China for several months this past spring and they were just getting the first Harry Potter then. For those people who like to watch movies in their original language (or those people who are living abroad for a while) the rampant piracy is a godsend.
I remember I was over there when both AOTC and Spider-man came out and you could find videocammed copies of new releases and DVD quality copies (Oscar evaluation copies) of others. I had a sweet copy of LOTR on DVD in April. This piracy is allowed because the government doesn't want to actually refuse people the opportunity to watch the movies but they also don't want to allow them outright either. With this situation they can crack down on some store if they feel like it and say it is because of some 'piracy issues.'
I'm quite sure that there actually is a copy of the Two Towers out there though.
Hahahahahaha, what?
I found "Star Wars 2002" (actually dune), "Toy Story 3" (knick knack), and "Home Alone 13" (don't remember) in Malaysia.
Yep, these pirates are good. Be afraid Hollywood!
The fact that the guy didn't spend the $1 to buy the DVD is more proof that it's a story that's been made up in an attempt to bolster the cause for movie studios to clamp down on these egregious acts! If the guy saw a copy he certainly would have a bought a copy and then had someone look it over in an attempt to determine its origin. It really stinks of FUD and will no doubt be used to sway senators and congressman when it's time to vote on legislation to prevent this from happening in all areas in the delivery of entertainment media.
http://tinyurl.com/3t236
There was a lot of music swapping between GI's going on back then.
<SARCASM>
So the US Army was full of terrorists?
</SARCASM>
DISCLAIMER: I do not believe the US Army are terrorists. I used to work for a DoD contractor, and as anyone who has read my posts know, believe that the US Army is a good organization.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Perhaps, perhaps not. My girlfriend is from Shanghai and there are a lot of movies out there that you can get that haven't even popped into Kazaa yet... done on DVD with Chinese subtitling even.
Also, while this might be used as an arguement against piracy, their main battle is against the filesharing services, which have nothing to do with this particular case.
Ah, no, Aragorn is not the "universal character" in the books. He is indeed the superhero type character (although I don't think he should have been able to fight off the Ringwraiths in the movie). He is the super-stud in the book, the kind of guy who can lead the Dunedain, manupilate the Palantir, lead ghosts and armies, kick Orc ass and have Eowyn fall in love at a glance. Maybe you should read the books again. Sorry, you should not look for the geek in this guy. For the ordinary-guy characters, look to the hobbits.
Aragorn comes from the lineage of elves (ageless) and Numenoreans (lifespan supernaturally boosted). This is the man that Arwen fell in love with at age 49. After becoming king, he lived an additional 120 years. He should look ragged due to his years as Strider, but no, he should not look to be "at the very last years of his youth".
Sometimes they clue in and give you good commercials though. I've found a lot of the ones in the theatre to be funny, or at least have effects.
Commercials on TV often suck because they're repetetive and thus irritating. Having a commercial in a theatre that makes me laugh (seeing it for the first time) is a good thing to me
DVD's cost anywhere between US$1 to US$6, depending on how familiar you are and how good you are at bargaining. If a film has been released on DVD or LD, then it is most likely a copy of the Hong Kong DVD/LD. This means no extras, making of, etc., which for some reason does not seem to be in much demand in the asian market.
If the film is only in theatrical release, then it is either a copy of a promo tape (in which case it will have hilariously ironic messages about an 800 number to report piracy scrolling across the screen), a pre-release (it will have the hh:mm.frame id on the bottom), a copy shot in an empty theater, or a copy shot in a theater during a showtime.
The PROC film board (I don't know the official name) limits the number of imported films to ten per year. Theoretically it's to prevent the local film industry from getting clobbered, but as a practical thing it makes it easy to censor politically incorrect films without having to single them out.
In addition to DVDs, Video CDs are quite common (probably even more common coz they're cheaper). Most VCD copies are put on two disks, some long shows take three. The Chinese Govt. tried to support the Super-VCD format, but DVD beat it handily.
My fiance and I just got back from Beijing, a few weeks ago. While there, I was offered DVD's of both the new Harry Potter and the Two Towers. In the name of, ummm, research, I bought both.
Both DVDs were actually just copies of the last movie in the series (the Philosopher's Stone and Fellowship of the Rings) with fake cover cards. The quality of Harry Potter was fine, although it didn't have the DVD menus or bonus material. Just the movie. Fellowship of the Rings was a straight dupe of the 2-disk widescreen addition (not the newer platinum edition).
I paid 15 RMB ($2 USD) for Harry Potter and 20 RMB ($2.5 USD) for the Fellowship.
Since the "Industry Exec" didn't bother to check the contents. There's really know way of knowing what was on those disks.
Klerck was responcible for that. Klerck is a well known troll who enjoys getting people panties in a twist. He likes baiting Slashdotters and used to hang out at Shacknews until he got banned for life.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I did buy one of those "the 2 tower" bootleg tape.
Well, inside there was this ridiculous techno kung fu movie.
I didnt watch it till the end so ridiculous it was. The white guy, the chick and the black bad ass were ridiculous in their latex outfits, wearing sunglasses in obscure scenes of insane stunts.
The only thing in common with the lotr movie was the big 2 in the title.
Well said!
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
To check Kazaa and download one of these copies, I know waiting for the big screen experience will be worth it. I saw the first twice in theaters before I downloaded a copy (yeah yeah, you can take that with as many grains of salt as you wish.)
On the bright side, this does prove that you don't need DECSS to pirate movies. On the dark side, I'm not much into the idea of pirating a movie even before it's publicly available.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
When you acquire something that has value without compensating the owner, that is Stealing.
Really? I have a small collection of DVDs. I frequently loan them to my friends. Are they stealing? If not, why is it ok for me to lend them the DVD, but not ok for me to lend them only the information that resides on the DVD?
The problem with our current laws (and the way laws appear to be going) is that they fail to acknowledge that ANY use of pure information requires copying of that information, and all copying seems like it's going to be made illegal. There are all sorts of "fair use" things that you can do with a physical object that are ruled right out when you're talking about "just the information". I can borrow a book from a library, but I can't get any rights (even temporary) to read that book online, and that pisses me off. When I try to move into the online world, I've actually lost some freedom, which seems like a giant step backwards.
> Most of what's labeled as piracy nowadays is simply acting
> in accordance with the laws of information physics at possible
> detriment to the financial standing of companies that have a
> vested interest in maintaining the status quo with regards to
> content-centric business models.
How is that any different from saying:
"Most of what's labeled as burglary nowadays is simply acting in accordance with the laws of mechanical physics at possible detriment to the financial standing of companies that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo with regards to inventory-centric business models."
It's the difference between information and physical objects. If someone breaks into a warehouse and steals a television to sell to someone else, they hurt the company they stole it from in two ways:
1. They deprive the company of whatever revenue it could have obtained through lawful sale of that television.
2. They satisfy a consumer's demand for a television, which could cost the company another potential sale.
This scenario does not change if the television were slated to go on the market for the first time next week, or if it had already been on the market for a year. The possible monetary values change, but the logic stays the same.
Now, imagine that the same person, while working in a movie studio, makes a copy of the finished (yet _unreleased_) product on a DVD (with their own equipment, powered on their own batteries, during their lunch break). That person then makes many copies of the DVD and sells them for a "low" price. That person has hurt the production company in _one_ way.
-They have reduced demand for the information (the movie) when it finally comes out in theaters.
-They have _not_ prevented the production company from finishing the film by stealing key footage, equipment, or any other property.
This scenario does change if the movie had already been released to the public. Note that releasing to the public does not include playing in theaters as theaters do not allow customers to have unrestricted physical access to the information and thus cannot make perfect copies. Once the information has been released to the public in a form that gives the consumer unrestricted physical access to the medium storing the information, that information becomes freely copyable.
If that same person were to copy and resell a released DVD, the (potential) damage done to the company would be inversely proportional to the level of progressiveness in views held by the society towards information and the expense of the duplication equipment. I.e. it would not be damaging in a society where information physics are understood by all and copying equipment is cheap (the future, hopefully), but it would be very damaging in a situation where the physics of information are not understood by all, specifically the big media companies, and copying equipment is cheap (now). In the past, when copyright was originally provided for in the constitution, copying equipment was expensive and information physics was not understood. A single, small, yet unauthorized reprinting of a copyrighted book would have been moderately damaging. (It would hurt companies with business models forged in ignorance of infomration physics, but would hame limited effect -- recipients of the reprints would be unable to copy them without expensive equipment.)
What's the difference? Through reasonable legislation and reasonable security measures (i.e. not a police state and wherehouses don't have to be guarded by 1000 armed security personnel), the first and second scenarios can be prevented or reduced to the point where the activites of producing and selling goods and providing the service of creating valuable content can be profitable and productive ventures in a free society. You _can_ (mostly) stop people from stealing out of warehouses. You _can_ (mostly) stop films from being pirated before they are released (see above post re: information physics and secrets).
You _cannot_, however, prevent the third scenario because it is impossible to prevent people from copying information when they have unrestricted physical access to a medium that stores it.
In other words, media companies need to shape up and change their business model with regards to post-release revenue, not because it's the "moral thing" to do but because the method of obtaining post-release revenue they desire and a free society in the information age are mutually exclusive, and a free society is essential. Similarly, we need tougher laws to prosecute pre-release pirates (those who make consumer accessible versions of content available before the copyright owners do) and consistent enforcement. Again, not because it's the "moral thing", but because it's necessary for media creators to stay in business in the information age.
That's the most absurd statement I have heard since "Information wants to be free".
How about "Information wants to be anthropomorphized."?
That's one reason for the televisions with that sound-leveling feature that keeps everything within a given volume range.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
LENDING isn't the problem. It's your friends COPYING them when you lend them.
In the physical realm, these are two distinct things. In the digital, information realm, I simply cannot lend information without copying it. The way current laws are written, I can't even lend the information. As you point out, "LENDING isn't the problem," so why are current laws being written to prevent it?
Born 1890. Started franchising KFC when he was 65 years old. died 1980
So real yes, but dead.
Who's going to watch some crappy version of LOTR filmed by someone in the backrow of the theatre with a HandyCam? I'd rather wait the week and see it in the theatres, then buy the DVD when it comes out.
Now if it was a perfect digitial copy of the film, that might definitely cut into DVD sales! Oh, if only China had strong DeCSS laws this would never happen.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
I asked my girlfriend (who is Shanghaiese) about this:
her email back:
hehe, very interesting, but based on my experience, not only in front of that mall, anyplace where sells the pirate DVDs will have it.
I lived in Beijing for two years. I'm surprised that it took this long. It should be noted, however, that since February there have been people selling DVD's in packages advertising Lord of the Rings Two. Never bought one, but I'm thinking that it was actually The Ring 2.
Anyway, having lived there, I can assure you, it's real. I'm just surprised that there were only 40 vendors selling it.
(And besides, how did they expect us not to buy pirate copies there, since "Fellowship" took six months to come to a theatre near us?) Bought the pirate DVD, paid full theatre price to see it (twice), and bought the legit DVD. Don't see how it cut into their sales at all.....
-ex
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
If the counterfeits are not the critic's preview dvd (or whatever they are), then obviously the quality will not be very good. If people want to buy (to-bo) blockbuster movies at that quality and watch it that way then that's fine with me, but I prefer to watch a movie like the LOFR on the big screen. That's great, that the people who buy the counterfeit dvds, will know what happens, but what's the point. Movies are meant for entertainment, you don't want to watch low quality crap. Buying the counterfeit at that quality only allows you know know the substance of the movie, but in that case, why not just get the book.
What about intent? When you post an mp3 file on gnutella, your intent is not the same as lending a DVD to a friend.
I never said it was. The problem is that current laws, content formats, whatever, which aim to prevent that mass distribution also prevent me from doing all sorts of legitimate things. If you can come up with a scheme that prevents mass copying of a product but does not infringe upon my fair use rights, everybody would love to hear it. But right now, nobody has, and that's the problem.
DISTRIBUTING COPIES OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL SO THAT PEOPLE CAN KEEP THAT MATERIAL WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT IS ILLEGAL.
No need to shout. And I haven't disagreed with this point.
(pro-digital copy protection),
Once again, I must reinforce that your "copy protection" has now robbed me of a lot of the rights I had with the physical object. Your "pro-digital copy protection" is also "anti-fair-use", which is just one of the reasons it's unpopular. People dislike when you take their rights away. ("Hey Bob, listen to this song I just got." "Well, it depends, am I in the same room as you, or am I on the same chatroom as you. One's legal, one's not.")
If your stuff is just going to get distributed for free, then you either stop making your music (or movies, or whatever) or you change how you distribute it (so that you can insure you get your props).
Are you against free public libraries? I bet that you are not. But your argument seems to be against them, seeing as how libraries distribute copyrighted materials for free and decreasing the market for the material.
The major proponets of DRM have used the phrase "keeping honest people honest." This is so far from the truth that it should be "Making honest people Crooks." I don't need to remind slashdot readers about napster. Before intervention, CD sales were booming, After action to shut them down (before the recession even) CD sales immediately see a drop. So why is this? How do countries in asia manage to have cinema or software stores when pirate releases are available for $1? The truth of the matter is this. Honest people will justify illigitimate sources of material by _Buying_ the material they find to be the best, as much as they can afford. On the other hand, we have DRM, DRM makes you a 'crook' if you try to make a copy of your friend's wedding DVD. You, as an End user CANNOT burn a DVD-r that can be copied. The drives are and software have been crippled, so that even if the encryption were broken, and someone burned a commercial DVD to DVD-r and sold it to someone else that person wouldn't have the slighetst clue how to make a copy of the illigitimate copy. ..
So as a side effect, when you send out a DVD of your own wedding, it carries copy-protection flags, and can only be viewed, and never used to make a copy, without the same knowledge needed to make a copy of a holywood block buster.
Not to mention that 'honest' users feel they OWN anything they buy(as opposed to 'renting'), and they feel entitled to the right to copy it for thier own archival use. So an 'honest' user would find themselves force to become a 'criminal' because of DRM to do what they felt were 'legitimate' uses. If those users then start to look into the matter, it's quite logical that they could become Angry, and upset at the media industry. which Turns a 'honest' user into a Criminal. DRM... Making honest people criminals.
Oh and for what it's worth, in eastern philosophy it is common for intelectual property to be viewed as belonging not to any individual or group, but rather to society at general. So, realistically Asia isn't a land full of 'dishonest' pirates, but rather people who justify IP 'theft' by the principal that all IP belongs to everyone, and cannot be owned, reguardless of what the law says.
This parallels very well with moonshiners justifying thier actions by believing that revenuers are evil... and america has a 200+ year history (since the tax on distilled liquor started) of moonshining. So it's pretty clear that these kind of philosphies don't get rooted out. Not with DRM, not by sending armed police with the revenuers, and certainly not with laws.
The only way to win is to be more attractive to consumers than the alternative. If you do that, it doesn't matter what price the inferior product is available at, most people just won't use it, especially if they feel strongly that it is unethical to do so.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
China has become a second rate culture in the 20th-21st century, because they only seem to be able to copy, rather than innovate, whether it is movies or high tech. The few movie directors and actors who do become good migrate to the West anyways. China has tons of great ancient myths that would rival a Lord of the Rings triolgy if they'd put their minds to it.
What if the owner of said content didn't distribute it in your country? Should you be forced to move? What if the only means available to seeing certain media is to do so illegally?
Who gives a shit? The people making the content have every right to distribute it as they choose. If they only want to sell their movies to disabled homosexual midgets, that's their right.
There's no universal human right to watch the latest installment of Star Wars or LOTR.