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MPAA Ruins Own Films As Anti-Piracy Measure
WCityMike writes "Steve Kraus, a Chicago film projectionist, noted in this week's Movie Answer Man column that movie studios are quite purposefully putting 'large reddish brown spots that flash in the middle of the picture, usually placed in a light area' in order to ruin computer-compressed pirated copies of films. Among recent films that feature these spots are 'Ali,' 'Behind Enemy Lines,' '28 Days Later,' 'Freddy vs. Jason' and 'Underworld.' (I guess they had to destroy the movies in order to save them ... )"
They've been doing this for years. It's a simple plan: make movies so bad no one will want to copy them.
lysergically yours
Judging from the few movies I've seen this year, I'd say the directors had already ruined them. The brown spot is unnecessary.
I just watched 28 days later the other night (loved it). I didn't even notice that the film was ruined. Just to be sure though, I should probably download a copy and see how much better it could have been w/o the spots?
So we have the cigarette burn marks...what's next?
:)
Pictures of a big, fat, cock spliced into family films?
no comment
The red dots were the best part of some of those movies.
How lucky for them that all compression formats are fixed in stone and can never be changed.
Also that the pirating industry doesn't have any resources it could dedicate to changing said file formats.
my password really is 'stinkypants'
I mean, how exactly does one RUIN Freddy v Jason? Isn't that kind of like trying to invent whiffle lace?
You are not the customer.
they should blast the audience with emp energy. take out cell phones and cameras alike. no cameras = no piracy. maybe they can even make one for loud annoying kids.
"Let's see how we can piss off and ailienate our customers some more. Oh I know, let's give them even less of a reason to buy, view or care about movies. That'll teach em."
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
I've been saying for years that the big studios are just flinging shit onto film. Now we have more direct evidence :)
It's just Tyler Durden messing around again. Look closely and you'll find it's a penis.
And in other news the MPAA will require people to duct tape their eyelids closed before entering the cinema. A MPAA spokesperson was quoted saying:
- "In order to produce decent movies we have to make sure noone sees them".
Bet the MPAA comes back in a week singing another tune:
Those stupid dots ruined Gigli!
If they were handling these reels appropriately, according to their cinematic quality, then they would be wadded up and covered in brown streaks.
I can see the fnords!
This is not the first time something like this has been done. ITC was quite purposefully putting large white spots that flash in the middle of the picture, usually placed in an area around the perimeter of the island, ruining any chance of No. 6 escaping.
Your average film is 125,000 to 175,000 frames. Get busy.
You would need to decode teh DIV/mpeg/etc to a raw frame-by-frame format (a few hundred gigs for the average movie), then edit the individual frames, then recompress.
then apple came out with the dual g5 just in time.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Somewhere just beyond the asteroid belt, Jupiter is on the phone to its lawyer...
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Why can't they just put big infrared projectors behind the screen? Wouldn't that knock out 99% of the CCD camcorders?
How about a picture of Natalie Portman, petrified, and covered in hot grits?
(It's a joke, laugh.)
In other news, the RIAA is replacing all their songs with white noise.
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
I've seen some of these movies and never noticed the dots. On the other hand, I have been drinking more 7up. Coincidence?
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
Would that be the experience of buying 20 cents worth of popcorn for $3.25 or the experience of reliving your old college frat parties as soles of your shoes stick to the floor that hasn't been cleaned since late last week?
Or maybe you mean the thrill of shelling out $8.75 for the latest "blockbuster" sratting Pauley Shore?
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Seriously. Takes a bit longer to d/l and also need a DVD burner but they last longer, look better. And it also feels more like stealing!
Trust me, you're not losing anything.
Especially for Batman.
lose conciousness from chronic brain death
I suppose no one can rightfully argue with you on the point that death is chronic.
Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
I would rephrase that as a "no real loss" compression method.
Yes, I bought their album. I am a long time Metallica fan (since the beginning), and the only reason I bought it was because my wife had several gift certificates for Borders, and she wanted to use them up. I have listened to that album twice, and I could barely get through it both times. What a stinker. It also came with a DVD, which I haven't watched, and some special code to get free music over the net (which I haven't used). Why would I want crappy, free music? I paid good money for my crappy music, thank you very much.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Those fuckers!
*ducks*
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Why the hell are you paying for your girlfriend's ticket? We're not living in the fifties anymore, you know.
That's not ruining the movie. It's pre-advertising for Mr T's big comeback later this year.
m,yeeeasss. Those were the marks we inserted into the reels delivered to the Aztec theater in Springfield.
So how is it going in Springfield?
Debunking the "59 Deceits"
Those brown spots are actually subliminal messages to go and try some of the fresh fried poo served up in the lobby. "Let's go out to the lobby, let's go out to the lobby, let's go out to the lobby and get ourselves some poo!"