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Eight Charged in Episode III Early Release
ewhac writes "Earlier this year, an advance copy of 'Star Wars: Episode III' was released to the Internet a day before the film's official worldwide opening. Yesterday, the US Attorney handed down charges to the eight people believed responsible. Using forensic markers embedded in the advance-release "screeners," law enforcement were able to track down the leaked copy and the people who came in contact with it. As a result of the early release, Episode III only managed to earn $380 million at the box office."
More like: "As a result of Episode I and Episode II SUCKING, Episode III only managed to earn $380 million at the box office."
Leave it to hollywood to blame everyone but themselves for a movie not doing as well as they wanted it to.
- AMW
Gee, someone broke the law, got caught and somehow it has something to do with "my rights online?"
Wow, it couldn't be that people were sick and tired of the complete and utter crap that was Episodes One and Two, that they never bothered with Episode Three?
:(
I saw it because my ticket was cheap. I was just going to wait for DVD.
- oZ
// i am here.
Everything that has transpired here has done so according to MY design!
And I thought it was because the movie sucked?
I'm out of mod points, but that is so true.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Didn't they suffer enough watching the movie?
"It's difficult to meditate on amphetamines." - Joe Walsh
It ONLY managed to make $380 million dollars....still putting it in the top 10 movies of all time. Now because of those "evil pirates" George Lucas might not be able to build another gigantic animation studio.
This just in. Hollywood legend George Lucas will NOT, I repeat NOT, be able to afford his new gold-plated shark tank this year.
Very convenient scapegoat. Let's change that to, "As a result of the movie being insipid, derivative trash, Episode III only managed to earn $380 million at the box office."
I would like to know who pays for these investigations. There are all kinds of crimes that go uninvestigated but somehow they have time and resources to use James Bond tactics to track down someone that released a movie on the Internet.
I'm a big tall mofo.
As a result of the early release, Episode III only managed to earn $380 million at the box office.
Nice editorializing there. Yeah, the movie made a boatload of money. That does not change the fact that the people who screened the movie violated the agreement under which they received the screener copies.
Personally, I don't think that the US Attorney should be involved in what amounts to a contract violation. This should really be a civil matter, but it is still wrong.
The movie would have made even more money if they hadn't stolen it and shown it to the whole world. They are lucky they aren't being charged with theft, destruction of property, and an assortment of consipracy charges. Those 8 people cost Lucas millions of dollars, they should be locked up for the rest of their lives.
The reason it "only" made that much is because all the die-hards went to see it, but having seen it opted out of going back multiple times.
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
Perhaps it only made 380 Mil because people started to relize the Star Wars Movies sucked.
Leaking Star Wars 3/6/whatever? What farking losers. Now if they can get an advance copy of BSG season 3, I'd pay for that.
As a result of the early release, Episode III only managed to earn $380 million at the box office.
means:
As a result of poor acting and direction, Episode III only managed to earn $380 million at the box office.
I'm not sure I agree with the logic that the movie did bad at the box office because of an early release on Internet. Internet releases tend to be of lesser quality and people who really like Star Wars will have gone to the theatre anyways. I think Lucas only has himself to blame. With the crappy Episodes I and II, it's no wonder there was no rush to the theatres to see Episode III.
Only $380M?? The movie industry is doomed! To think, all along the MPAA was right.
My world has lost all meaning.
"There are more important things than stopping terrorism. Upholding the Constitution is one of them." - Ars Forumer.
Actually, Episodes I and II were so crappy I didn't even bother seeing III. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way. Way to go, George!
Wouldn't embedding something in the movie and then giving the movie to people to watch--all while waiting for them to break the law... is this not entrapment?
Finance tutorials and more! Understandfinance
So, they spent how much of that $380 million to figure out that it was an inside job, like everyone already knew? Doesn't really matter; he can afford it.
I've seen a couple of posts already that seem to be confused by the "Only made $380 million at the box office" comment. Is the seventh highest grossing american film of all time.
So, sarcasm. For the record
WARNING!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!
.... and now there is nothing left for you to see but the special effects. Ha ha ha ha ha
Darth Vader is Luke's father!!!!
I saw SW episode 1 - it sucked really bad. I skipped both Episodes 2 & 3 because of that and I have been assurred that I missed nothing. Why would anyone have gone to see this in the theater? Why would anyone have even downloaded it for free on the internet?
I've seen better movies than SW episode 1 made by amateurs with a video camera and a free weekend.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
I find it interesting that the only people who are getting in trouble for Internet piracy are the ones who are doing the uploading, but the people doing the downloading do not get in any trouble like in this case. I seem to remember the same kind of thing happening to people on P2P networks. The ones the FBI (or whatever agency) goes after are the massive uploaders, not the downloaders.
Am I wrong here? If not, anyone know why they mostly go for the uploaders and not the downloaders? Are there different laws here? Just curious...
This is not a troll or flamebait in disguise, it's an honest question.
Whenever US mainstream media writes about piracy they use the word "illegal" over and over again. For example, the link in TFS, SFGate writes "illegal release". Same thing with NYTimes, Washington Post etc... "illegal filesharing" this and "illegal piracy" that. Whenever a new release group is shut down the media use these words along with "stolen", "illicit" (you get the idea).
Why? I live in Sweden. Our mainstream media sure talk about piracy alot, but I have never seen them talk about "illegal" trading etc, even if it is against the law. I have never seen the word "stolen" in the context of piracy either, in Swedish newspapers. Is this something normal for US papers? Do they write about "illegal murder", "illegal robbery" etc too? Or is this just sligtly modified PR?
Thanks.
The article doesn't even say anything about that at all. The submitter is responsible for the editorial there.
The poster was using sarcasm.
That $380 million means it made the top 7 highest grossing films ever:
7. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) $380,176,196
Get it now?
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. -- Larry Wall
Very true. I think the little jab at the end about the early release was uncalled for(although not surprising) but the truth of the matter is these people violated the law.
This was not a case of simple bootlegging either. For those who never saw a copy of this version, it was an extremely good rip. Once some aspect ratio issues were corrected you pretty much had a DVD quality copy with an exellent stereo sound track.
I know in my area the bootleg was rather prevelant. Seemed like ever other person had a copy. People who weren't big Star Wars fans or hated the prequels got/bought copies to see it instead of going to the theater. And star wars fans got copies so they could watch it over again in their homes instead of seeing it again in the theaters. All of which I'm sure did in fact impact sales a decent bit.
Still, this certainly isn't the sole cause of th emovie not meeting expectations, but other slashdotters have already covered that to death.
You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
Only 380 million? I think those people need to get the maximum penalty. Its a shame that the greatest scifi of all time she make so little. :(
When asked if there were plans to indict or sue any more of the people responsible for illegally sharing this movie, an RIAA spokesman was quoted as saying "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Am I the only one who heard Roxette to sing "I'm gonna get blitzed for some sex"?
I keed, I keed!
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
Is this in reference to the early release with the time codes on it?
I can't believe anyone that wanted to see the film would have opted to watch that version. It had big time code numbers obscuring the screen. Even the adjusted versions that blurred out the areas where the timecodes had been were distracting.
I admit I downloaded the preview images of those releases to see what was up but I plunked down my money and saw it in the theater.
I actually meant to go back and see it again, but never got around to it. I think mostly because inspite of the good parts, you had to swallow the big horse pill of terrible acting.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
I think the interesting story here is the "forensic markers". Anyone have any insight into what technology is involved here?
I have never understood why Hollywood insists on reporting movies by the money they made. Ticket sales should be the criteria. Or how about a comparison with inflation adjusted movie ticket prices to modify the results? Perhaps they do it because its a number that is always likely to go up regardless of whether a movie generates a large response or not.
I actually don't think Episode III did that well, despite that seemingly large number. Here's why:
Episode IV cost me around $3 a pop when I saw it 5 times the summer it was released.
I saw Episode III once for $9.
Since I remember almost everybody seeing Episode IV at least twice that summer.
I suspect a lot more trips were made for Episode IV.
It has been said that by ticket sales, Gone With the Wind may have been seen the most, but I don't remember what the estimated number of ticket sales for it are.
There's got to be a felony involved in there somewhere. Wanton distribution of Clint Eastwood? Willful spreading of mawkish sentimentality?
Seriously, though, I like the way they imply that you can get arrested for giving away a copy of a DVD you finished watching. "Done with that copy of Harry Potter? Got a friend who hasn't seen it yet? Make them buy their own or go to jail!" I'm sure there's more information the journalist in question could have provided about why Redding wasn't allowed to give his copy away.
Convict me of copyright infringement and I shall become more powerful than you ever imagined.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=150
:P
I like the panel that says "part of my soul just died". Maybe this will explain the loss in profits
Any money lost by Lucas to pirates is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount he lost in his divorce. Not to mention that funding was lost at a crippling time in his creative life. It just goes to show you, don't get married!
Can someone mod this up I would also like to know who pays for this and why it is investigated unlike say someone stealing your identity.
NNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!111
---- I'll take you in a Hunt deathmatch any day.
...That something I had a hand in made 380 million. Especially for a piece of entertainment I helped to produce. Entertainment, not a necessity or valuable tool. Just to think of it; coming home after work, flopping down into my diamond-studded AOL CD throne and sighing "oh honey, the film only made 380 million at box office!".
If I were complaining about that then I'd have to say my life is pretty damn good.
How much were they projecting the film to make in the box office anyways? 500 million? A billion? The entire nation of Guatemala as a goods-for-cash exchange? I mean there's projecting profits and then there's expecting every man, woman, child, and household pet to go see a PG sci-fi movie.
For the record I saw it. I might not have if I hadn't seen enough clips to pique my interest though after the previous two movies which I didn't really enjoy.
Starkle, starkle, little twink.
In an unrelated case, Ronald Redding, 37, of Linthicum Heights, Md., was charged Tuesday with giving his copy of "Million Dollar Baby" to a friend. Redding faces a misdemeanor charge of willfully infringing a copyright by distributing the film.
Does this mean I cant lend a DVD that I buy legally to my friend?
"Won't someone PLEASE think of the film execs!?!?"
Yeah... so the title has nothing to do woth what I am about to write, but it does get your attention... anyways.
Only $380 million, man I wish I could make that much when I play connect the dots. I mean really, those people should be applaudded for trying to save us grief. I know fan boys are like "that was one of the best ones," but honestly outside of the FX, it sort of of blew metachloriene chunks. Who uses the tallents of James Earl Jones to yell 'NOOOOOOO!' Man, I am glad I saw it for free the first time. It only sucked more in the digital theatre I saw it in. All the sucking was even more defined. Haden sucked more precisely and the appalling attempt to make Yoda speak always speak verb- noun just blew. I better stop now. I am already begining to feel the flame mod. What can I say, Lucas has duh-duhda momment.
Go on and mod me down, I didn't want that karma anyway.
I eat Karma for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's why I don't have any.
Data from the Internet Movie Database: Gross of the three episodes.
* Ep I: $431,065,444 (USA) (30 January 2000)
* Ep II: $310,675,583 (USA) (27 April 2003)
* Ep III: $380,101,660 (USA) (18 September 2005)
--
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Okay so the screener's are watermarked. That's all well and good and it lets them trace where something came from... Here's a fun question then.
Lets say I get ahold of 2 different copies of the screener. I then decrypt them to my HD, and then do a binary diff on the two copies. This should tell me exactly where those watermarks are (right?). I then go in and proceed to mangle those bits mercilessly so that the watermark is now something completely different (assuming I don't break the mpeg2 format by doing this). Then after much compression and other video magic in "the black art of backing up DVD's" I the Evil(tm) Pirate upload said video from somewhere.
Wouldn't that render the entire watermarking process completely worthless?
Hoaglin is charged with one felony count of uploading the movie onto the Internet. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
Wow! Just wow! That's a lot of lovin' for a sneak peek.
That would be an impressive feat indeed, seeing how they are currently filming the 2nd half of season 2.
Nice start. Hopefully soon everyone else involved in the production and distribution of that awful thing will be spending time in the big house.
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
"Emotionally involving the audience is easy. Anybody can do it blindfolded: get a little kitten, and have some guy wring its neck."
-George Lucas
Yes, you don't seem to be thinking about who this really hurts. Now Lucas can only afford the gold plated toilet seats for his mansion, not the platnum ones. As as anyone can tell you, those gold seats can be a little chilly in the morning.
Perhaps we can hold a telethon for him.
--
this sig is in lower case to save space
380 MILLION
The average person could have 1/380th of that, put it in the bank and live on it just about forever (with intrest). If I could earn that much for making a crappy film I'd be over the moon
I like muppets.
1) people will steal anything, no matter how shitty it is.
2) you can still make a shitload of money putting out shitty stuff.
Didn't you mean fraking? What kind of BSG fan are you? :)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I have a challenge for all of you guys who love to sneer about how Star Wars sucked and those of you that cheer for the pirates:
Become a content producer yourself. You sure as shit seem to know a lot about it. Your knowledge is so deep that you ought to easily be able to write, finance, direct, and distribute a film that is more popular. Go for it! What's stopping you?
http://movieweb.com/movies/box_office/alltime.php
and then tell me there wasn't a rush to see the film.
it beat episode 2, falling just short of episode 4! No rush HA!
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
or the fact that the all three of the prequels were inferior films? I put thisin the same category as record companies saying declining sales are due to file sharing but make no mention of putting out crappy music for the last decade.
No one of consequence
Also Matrix Reloaded & Revolutions.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
... I say "Good!"
It wasn't their property to broadcast onto the internet. Whether their actions cost the studio $10 million in lost ticket sales or increased the the movie's profits by $10 million is irrelevant.
These bozos committed theft, pure and simple. Throw the book at 'em.
Strike while the irony is hot! -- The Freethinker
Episode 2 was released early a week early.. So by their logic every day it's released early loses them money right?
So now math time, 320 Million for Episode II Episode 3 gets 380... so each day a movie is out costs 10 Million.
So now let's apply that, there was a work print of boiler room I saw approximetly 6 monthes before it came out. By this math it's 1.2 Billion dollars that work print stole from that movie.
Every time that the MPAA claims losses for early releases and stuff like that I laugh, because it's ridiculious, don't they realize that it's getting meantioned for free by news organization, it means the film is wanted, I had a copy of Episode 2 5 days before it's release, I didn't watch it, some of my friends did, we all went to a Midnight (technically illegal, but they still don't stop those?) showing the night before of the official release and we still payed the over inflated prices.
Now let me show you true math, the effects of overblown hype.
Matrix 1 171 Million was received as a great movie,
Matrix 2 281 Million was received as meh.
Matrix 3 139 Million
So what do we see here? A great movie can overinflate the sequal by almost 200 percent. But a poor second movie will cut the profit of the hype by 50 percent or make the original numbers even lose money.
Now which is more likely? Episode II's early release lost it money, or the fact that Episode one was received as pure crap costed them almost 100 Million? (episode I easily broke 400, for 430 Million gross in america
And then Episode 2 was seen as a decent movie (not great so it's not going to double the money of the original) so 50 million MORE came in for episode 3?
Now proof of how a good movie helps?
Lotr Fellowship 315m
LOTR Two Towers 340m
LOTR Return 377m.
So which do you think is it? piracy or the fact that a movie wasn't as good as the hype? I think these figures start to show you a different picture.
And if anyone doubts this?
Daredevil 105m
Elektra 24m
All data was obtained by IMDB, it's Box Office Gross in America only.
I thought about going to see Ep. III, but I just never worked up the motivation. Ep. I & II just didn't do anything for me, and I'm an avid sci-fi fan. So, I just never got around to going to the theater for Ep. III. However, I'll not look for a torrent to download. I'll watch it when the DVD comes out.
This is exactly what we've all been shouting that Hollywood should be doing all along. Read the article- these weren't file sharers whose Rights Online are being infringed, these were people who were involved with stealing a physical master tape. This is the "real" source of piracy, and the place where Hollywood really could make a difference in how quickly and often films get pirated- all without interfering with the Rights Online of anyone using any P2P network or ripping DVDs.
it kinda sucked.
The Darth Vader actor needs some lessons, and those PowerPoint-style transitions from scene to scene gave me a headache. It just kept on jumping from one location in the galaxy to another.
Waste of money.
The U.S. operations on English Law, which means that considering tradition is a natural aspect of consideration in legal issues. A side effect of this system is that if you say something long enough it becomes true. You are correct, and it is something that many us in the U.S. have tried to repeat, "Copying a work is not theft or illegal, it is a contractual violation;" however, saying "contractual violation" is not as neat (i.e. does not sell as many page views) as saying "illegal." Worse than the media's indifference is the RIAA and MPAA deliberate efforts to associate copying with theft. It has been a brilliant P.R. move to coin the term "piracy."
Only in America can you "steal" something by making your own copy and can a business "loose" money by not having their product bought. I am impressed that no resturant copy has sued another resturant for "copying their business" and their customers for not buying enough of their products.
Because America runs on traditional law, it takes a few generations for the new kids to put sanity into change. America (the fighter's of freedom and liberation, who only actually did so by the late 1960's) will have to wait for my generation to get into office to handle technology.
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
How can it be that how much money someone has determines if it is OK to steal from them? IT'S THEFT! Just because it's in an easily transferable format does not mean it is free.
Many of Lucasfilm's innovations have been adopted throughout the movie industry in the past. I dont know if these markers are a new thing, lucas or not.
Isnt it likely that more and more studios will prosecute leaks in this manner?
Depends on this outcome I suppose. Id expect to see these markers spread throughout the industry and effect source leaks everywhere.
It would be ironic if Albert Valente, the guy who shared his screener, were former head of the MPAA Jack Valente's nephew. If he is, Thanksgiving is going to be wierd.
I mean, Hollywood revenues are declining. They claim that it is due to movies being pirated. They say that the movies are as good as they ever were.
We say that the movies just suck, straight up, and that piracy isn't having that big an impact.
To this question, I submit the following:
If all movies were being killed by piracy, all movies would have below average ticket sales. That is not the case. Crappy movies, like "The Island" or "Stealth" did bad, but good movies like "Batman" did pretty well. Ditto "Wedding Crashers". I mean, if piracy was the only problem, shouldn't all of the movies this summer have done poorly?
MPAA: It appears that in your desire to spread this movie, you broke some laws.
The Accused: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Mr. T pitied this fool on 27 July 1992.
Trinity's really a man , baby!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I did a little Googling and found this Stuff article which talks about these cases. And, it appears, the article we were reading omits one vital word: Promotional. It was a promotional copy that he gave away, and in violation of a contract he had signed.
So it's really nasty that they're going after him for this, since no one ever asks for promo copies back, but they're within their rights. And it's a totally different case than if he had just given away a copy of a retail DVD.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Lets get a movie (eg. Ep3) that movie studios have spent alot of money on and think everyone will go to. lets not pirate it, lets not get the screeners out there, show the industry idiots that the movie sucks and they didnt get money because it sucks and no one wants to see it, theyll never be able to claim piracy since it never was :)
-NoRemorse
I wonder if any of the names listed were one the owners/uploaders/administrators of EliteTorrents.org? That BT indexing site was in the mainstream of the EP3 bust.
Seems ridiculous to serve hard jail time for these crimes, what the hell?
...didn't have the higher ground! As we all know, higher ground trumps everything!
Don't most advance screenings have audiences larger than 8 people? If so how was the list narrowed down to the guilty parties? Forensics != social engineering. I can imagine situation where there were some edits done before the can copy in which such a pre-release would have a small audience, but this was leaked the day before the debut...
Wah Sig!
One of the latest Underhanded Coding Challenges I read about happened to be placing a watermark in a picture. There was also a part that mentioned creating a way for that mark to last through jpeg type compression. The article about the movie pirates mentioned something about Forensic Markings on the screeners enabling more effective tracking of the movie's origins thus giving them the whodunit. I wonder, does anyone know what type of markings are put into those type of videos? Is it like the partially transparent station icon like the ones on TV channels in the corner of the screen, or is it something more intricate. It seems to me that if it was something hidden in the video, say every fourth or fifth frame had a small marker on it somewhere, that there would be a way to smudge that out or remove or disable it by say covering that up with the nudity masking fuzz (I'm not technically savvy to exact video terminology here) as you prepared to copy and pirate it. I'm not really trying to be deviant in anyway, but I'm just curious since it's now vaguely (or maybe specifically) known how they were tracked down using this mark, if the pirates are just going to get wise and learn to cover their tracks more effectively. I'd be interested in a little education on any of this if anyone can shed some light for me and I'm sure other /.ers as well. Thanks in advance.
GecKoGeneration Trance: What generation are you?
Women should have no rights.
It amazes me how people justify stealing by looking at the sales figure.
"But it sold 380million$ worth of tickets, therefore I can steal it."
What is the world coming to?
Everyone who downloaded that copy knows that it was crap. The video had the stupid screener numbers running on the top the whole time, the video and audio were poorly encoded, and it was in full screen. Hardly a way to see those awesome special effects.
I actually thought that screener was released by the studio because it looked so shitty. I figured they could stop good rips from getting popular on p2p networks by supplying a shitty copy to keep the good looking rips from becoming widespread; and it would encourage downloaders to go see it in the theatres.
I watched that rip for about 2 minutes before I stopped it, and decided I wanted to see the movie in the theatres first. I don't think the studio lost very much money. Greedy bastards.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. -Confucius
Does anybody else really notice those random patterns of red dots that flash on the screen for a split second every now and then through-out a movie? It is REALLY annoying to me, and I constantly see them to the point where I don't really enjoy seeing a movie in the theature as much.
Morphing Software
It wasn't wrong, that's an ethical judgement and RMS makes an interesting (though underdiscussed) case for why people should be able to share verbatim copies of all published work.
It was illegal. What is legal and what is unethical are different matters that we cannot afford to conflate.
Digital Citizen
Aw, darn. When I first read the headline I thought that maybe George and the crew were finally being dealt with. Wishful thinking :(
only $380,000,000.00 was what he made on that film... *tsk, tsk* It's a shame, the people who helped publicize the movie with a crappy MPEGged copy of it should do time. Afterall, I saw the movie 3 times just because I really like to get into my sci-fi...
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
Watching every Hayden Christensen movies repeatedly for the next 5 to 10 years.
In all fairness I haven't seen the third one. Even if I knew where to download an internet copy I probably wouldn't bother. It's playing at a local theatre here in Portland for $3, if I go I can even enjoy large quantities of some of the world's best beer because we have theater pubs here. That still is not enough motivation to get me in the door. The problem is that even though Star Wars may have some of the best special effects, it can't make up for the fact that its just bad SciFi.
Okay, so I'm not the first one to think...
...is quite the hyperbole. Ep3 earned less at the box office because of Jar-Jar Binks being in the first two movies. Oh, and the fact that I haven't seen Ep3 yet, so there's $8 right there.
As a result of the early release, Episode III only managed to earn $380 million at the box office."
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
No, I will not work for your startup
new here... ;-)
/. should have a topic for EVERYTHING imaginable, including a "Guys get busted for pirated Star Wars Ep III" topic. Complete with animated GIF topic icon of Jar Jar getting his head blown off.
Obviously,
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
There are three basic elements that a defendent must prove the defense of entrapment:
(1) The idea for the crime originated in the mind of the police officer
(2) The accused did not intend to commit the crime
(3) The accused was lured or induced into committing a crime he had no intention of committing.
Giving the defendant the opportunity to commit the crime does not constitute inducement...coercive or persuasive tactics must be shown.
So, your example of the cop saying, "Hey man, you wanna buy some cocaine?" and the hapless fool saying "sure" and handing him money, is, by itself, not entrapment.
Affording a person the opportunity or the facility for committing an offense is not entrapment.
However, this example is usually considered entrapment because the person usually claims that he felt intimidated by the police officer and felt that he had no choice but to say "yes" to him. Or, the cop uses his persuasive skills to trick an innocent person into buying the drugs. "hey man, want something that will make you feel good? come on man...i know you want it...u want it bad...its not gonna hurt you..." Thats entrapment.
"I want sharks with friggin' laser beams attached to their heads!"
BSG season 3? If they released BSG season 2 now on DVD at a reasonable price, I would buy it. If they released it on something like iTunes, I would buy it. As it is, living in the UK, I do not have any legal way of watching it. At least Lucas did simultaneous international releases - something much harder to do with film than TV, since there is the physical distribution problem and associated cost.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
At the bottom of the page from TFA I get a Google AdWords box saying I can download DVD Quality Episode III for only 99 cents. Hope that helps Lucas get his extra earnings.
Just think, only a few more tens of millions spent on legal wrangling and ROTS could have grossed upward of $380.001 million!
Of course, I'm sure that all these rabid Star Wars enthusiasts were quite content to sit in a desk chair watching this epic sci fi movie in degraded compression on a computer monitor. I'm sure none of them went to a theater the next day....
I just woke up, and for some reason I read that as Episode VIII. I was starting to wonder just how long I had been asleep!
When they were arrested, the suspects had only this to say:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Without commenting on how much or how little effect the leakage had on the box office, note that according to Box Office Mojo's "adjusted for inflation" list, ROTS is only #55 all-time. See http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm to see the adjusted list. The unadjusted list is at http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/, which has ROTS #11. Techvet
The real story here is how the leak was an inside job. Someone who was a trusted member of the limited circle of people who get pre-release copies of features, seeded the trading network.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Anyone responsible for an early release of that waste of celluloid (and pixels) should be put down and put down hard.
As seen in the Google Ad
It's all about blurring the lines.
Valente, now why does that name sound familar?
I wonder if there's any relation to Jack?
How loud do you have to say "INSIDE JOB" for them to listen?
F7 doesn't work, ignore spelling and grammar
I know. I should've seen the signs earlier. But despite the commercialism, the product spinoffs, I kept hoping that there would something semi-decent there, in Star Wars. I even saw SWIII in theaters.
..... individual is going to sue people because the movie didn't make as much *money*? Not because it sucked, or was stereotyped, or that watching Natalie Portman interact with what's his name was physically painful? It wasn't just the bad dialog, the stupid premise, or the utterly unbelievable story. We could tolerate that. But how does this moron (Lucas) manage to get two relatively decent actors (Natalie Portman actually acts fairly well in other movies) to play their parts with all the artistic talent of two autistic clams fornicating? How can anyone take a legacy so good and make the moment of dramatic tension so very very bad? It felt like watching the mindless fighting sequences was more interesting than paying attention to the "storyline".
But this....this is just unbelievable. Follow the imdb link....it gives all time boxoffice highs. For goodness sakes! SWIII is at number 7. Yes, $380M ranks 7th. Titanic is first, hell, the original Star Wars is ranked 2nd. Of the first 7 entries THREE are Star Wars! All 6 Star Wars are in the top 25! What the hell's he got to complain about?
And now this
But no, we're not gonna blame it on any of that. We're going to blame "eeevil internet pirates". Just a thought: did anyone ever watch interviews with this bastard? How he pontificates about the "mythology" of star wars, and the art, and all that crap? For someone who is supposedly a creator and an artist, doesn't he seem to care a wee bit too much about the whole money thing?
George Lucas is a complete hypocrite. I will never again EVER watch anything he has ever done or will ever do in the future. I will never spend any money on any product associated with Lucas, Lucasfilms, Lucas's games, or anything else. Yes, I know that ILM is part of the Lucas empire and they do special effects for other films... this will be tough. But honestly, this move is the last fucking straw. I encourage everyone else to forever boycott George Lucas. How do the Catholics do their thing?
-Do you renounce George Lucas and all his works?
-I do.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha.
Hope they all enjoy it in jail.
the translated English to Chinese to English subtitled pirated version was the only thing that made Episode III enjoyable to watch.
"NOOO^H^H^H^H Do not want!"
They version I saw on the internet still had the original time track on it for editting. I remember getting it weeks before the release. Are they going after the after production studio for releasing the thing on the internet?
[pirate] I bootlegged a copy of star wars that I got from work, I'm soo industry!
[bubba] oh yea? welcome to the darkside bitch, now bend over!
What kind of sentance do these guys really deserve?
A Jail sentance for (free) piracy is immoral imo.
Making them watch that horrible movie for 300 hours straight would be a bit more effective imo.
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
Hi and welcome to planet Earth. Let me explain how things work here: crimes are prosecuted with priority ordered according to damage to the ruling class. Murder of a prostitute in a suburb is irrelevant, unless it stirs fear and malcontent in the voting population and threatens someone's chair.
Jeopardizing the income of people who are highly represented in the ruling class (RIAA, MPAA, NRA, and so on) is prioritised, because if you don't lick the right asses you don't get money/promotions farting out of them.
So, until the population gets pissed off and the politicians get the cue that supporting certain lobbies makes them lose more votes than they gain through funding and consequent campaigning, things are going this way.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
Plus Episode IV has been re-released about five times, whereas Episode III is still on its first round.
The answer is in the question:
There is no legal murder, but there is such a thing as legal filesharing, thus the need for a distinction. IP law protects you in some cases, but you're free to distribute your own music at no charge if you wish, or movie, etc. However, in the context of movies I think the media is assuming that the populace is at least somewhat ignorant since, practically speaking, there is much less of a chance of encountering a "legally shared" movie (although it is common with short films and the occassional fan flick type thing), especially one that the public has heard of, whereas with music it's far more likely.
Even though it was shit and nobody cared.
I can't believe I'm posting this... but mod the parent post up!
Again with this "piracy hurts artists" bullshit. I realize that this was sarcasm, but "only" $380 M is exactly how the media will word it. It was, as many have said, one of the top ten highest grossing movies of ALL TIME. #7, if I recall properly. On the subject of piracy and theater patronship - Who else has seen Advent Children? Of those people, who would go and pay to see it in a theater anyway, just because it was SO COOL on a 17" monitor with some sort of computer speakers, now we just have to see it on the big screen with real 5.1 surround sound (and better subs, and maybe even good english voice acting, if we're lucky)? All that piracy of Advent Children really hurt Square Enix, didn't it? Especially since, if I'm not mistaken, there is no plan at this time to release in US?
There's an old saying that says pretty much whatever you want it to.
... was just a handy way for you to know exactly how much of your life you've wasted watching that piece of crap.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
actually, Skywalker Ranch is located in San Rafael, several hundred miles north of Hollywood. Its not really all that gigantic, either, but the art deco screening theater is to die for.
music lover since 1969
Check out http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/alltimegross?region= world-wide
;)
The whole idea of releasing a movie to the internet means that anyone in the world can grab a copy, not just people in the US, so global revenue is a more accurate figure to use.
The internet does not end at US borders ya know
Regards,
g@z.
We all should be so unlucky! Perhaps if 1 and 2 didn't suck so bad more people woulda seen 3? I didn't pay for it in the theater, steal it from the internet, or borrow it off a friend, and am blissfully 3-free to this day.
Want to find other gamers to play board and role playing game
Inmate #1: I'm in here for armed robbery, you?
Inmate #2: I'm in here for selling pot to grade schoolers, how about you, new guy?
Inmate #3: I uploaded a copy of Star Wars on the internet.
Inmates 1&2: That's just SICK! (slowly back away)
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
While I in no way defend or support the theft of property and subsequent distribution, both the Recording and Movie industries need to take some responsibilty.
I realise that in this instance Revenge of the Sith was a huge success and made number 7 in the top 10 grossing movies of all time. However, both the MPAA and RIAA continually push that priacy hurts them. In the case of Sith - let's all be fair and honest - the movie was absolute rubbish. Perhaps if they made better movies (and music) more people would buy them.
Another little tidbit..... revenues are going up for music - inspite of p2p distribution and other online sales stores. I wonder why less and less people are going to the movies??? It's a clear example of the market in action - you produce rubbish, people won't pay to see it. The number of people that would sit there and download movies is quite small compared to the worldwide audience of potential theater goers.
Make better movies, get more people into the theater, make more money.
How dare Lucasfilms claim a loss @380 million?
What of the concession stands, where the real money is made? Tons of unpopped popcorn going to waste, $9 cups of soda unsold, 80 year old boxes of Raisinettes languishing for another 80! What of the poor guys who's sole job is to stand in the lobby tearing your ticket in half, or the ones who's duty is to pregum the floors of the theater so your feet cling with just enough force to keep you from walking out on the movie? It's a madhouse I tell you! A MAAAADHOUUUUUSE!
So please, won't somebody think of the pimply faced high school students?
This message has been brought to you by the Pimply Faced Sticky Shoes Union Local 109.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
>>> "if they only went after the most serious crimes, burglary, arson, and assault would never be investigated because there will always be homicide cases"
/. isn't??) I think that the police could well respond to all reported homicides and still find time to do some of their other police work. My understanding of "went after" may be different to yours, but in the UK at least I think police investigate all reported criminal killings. I reckon it would be quite a story "bodies lying in street 2 weeks after report filed - police say: we'll get on it soon".
I have to disagree. Whilst it's pure conjecture (what on
If they genuinely only went after the most serious crimes, after a number of years those crimes would become less prevalent (but probably not eliminated - unless we're talking about something petty) freeing manpower to work on other lesser crimes. But the public wouldn't stand for 8 years without investigation into non-violent robbery!?!
Its this sort of reasoning... Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm. Lisa: That's spacious reasoning, Dad. Homer: Thank you, dear. Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away. Homer: Oh, how does it work? Lisa: It doesn't work. Homer: Uh-huh. Lisa: It's just a stupid rock. Homer: Uh-huh. Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you? [Homer thinks of this, then pulls out some money] Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock. [Lisa refuses at first, then takes the exchange]
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
In an unrelated case, Ronald Redding, 37, of Linthicum Heights, Md., was charged Tuesday with giving his copy of "Million Dollar Baby" to a friend. Redding faces a misdemeanor charge of willfully infringing a copyright by distributing the film.
Surely there must be more to this case than him giving one copy of a dvd to his mate? If not, how was he caught, did his mate dob him in or something?
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
As a result of the early release, Episode III only managed to earn $380 million at the box office.
It of course had nothing to do with the track record of the previous two films.
It had nothing to do with the overpricing of the "theater experience."
It had nothing to do with it being a poor film season in general.
It had nothing to do with us having seen most of what we wanted to see of the movie in trailers.
It had nothing to do with people wanting to wait to spend their hard earned cash on the DVD release.
Lets blame all of hollywood's woes on the early release demon!
What in the heck is the "forensic markers embedded"?
Take the $380 million of domestic ticket sales and add in another $467 million for overseas sells, and we are not even talking about the billion dollar brand merchandising and what the DVD sales are going to be....
But stealing is stealing and he confessed and plead guilty so it does not matter what the sales were (or were not).
I have a BRILLIANT idea! As a descendant of pirates I will copyright the word pirate, and every time the MPAA, Hollywood, RIAA, etc uses this word, I will sue their asses off for loss in bounty I should be collecting. I'll then use the money to buy my scallywag brethren faster, more powerful servers to distro their bounty to all the other privateers of the digital age. We shall sail the Cat5 Seas again! That and these assholes fucking with us will have no bounty and we'll gather around the RIAA and MPAA and laugh at them vigorously over the loss in revenue we caused them!
On a serious note, I'm fucking sick of this, let me take you on a walk down motive lane everyone, come along! Who the hell goes through the trouble of copying Star Wars EP III long before it was scheduled for theatres? There is only ONE person, star wars geeks, looking for cred with other star wars geeks. You know who actually goes to see the movie more than once (and by that I mean 10+ times just while it's in theatres, and then buys the dvd, then the extended edition, then the new trilogy boxset, then the six-disc set a decade from now)? Maybe you figured it out, maybe you didn't, but the answer is, only the most loyal of star wars geeks would actually fucking do this. You know who downloads and watches it before it comes out? Again, only the most loyal of fucking star wars geeks. You know what the problem with arresting these 8 guys is? I'm betting they've gone to at least one convention dressed as sith/jedi, I'm betting they were there the opening weekend, I'm fucking betting 9/10th of the people who downloaded it can tell you the home city of Twi'leks, name a chancellor or two, and give you some description of how the Jedi council works.
Hollywood, you bite the hand that feeds you.
looks like the poster only showed US box office. Overall take of Episode III is 808 Million
why 2 different charges for doing the same thing? One of them having more severe punishment?
Without the reactions of an audience, making art is completely pointless. It is the audience responding to a piece that gives it meaning.
Yes, some movies get positive responses, some get negative. If everybody just shut up about what they thought about the movie you could put up ninety minutes of a man playing paddleball. Hell, you wouldn't even have to put up ninety minutes, because nobody would come out saying "That was too short. There should have been more paddleball."
That doesn't really justify piracy, but it's understandable that someone who is angry at a filmmaker for making a bad film might make exaggerated comments about what should happen to him. As these comments go, "His movie should be pirated" is pretty weak. "He should be killed" is about normal, and "he should be dressed up in a JarJar costume and fed to a mechanical Sarlacc replica" is extreme.
These comments reflect passion for the art of film. They're a good thing.
You release these things at public libraries or other public computer centers (that don't require a user-specific login of course).
Coz 1) to laugh at the poor acting, and 2) to watch that guy who plays Aniken *drools*. Even thought the whole movie was in general, crap, he made it slightly bearable...
Fuck, they shouldn't have just been arrested for bootlegging Star Wars. They should be executed for releasing that nerdy shit to the world populace over the Internet and on the streets! The last thing we need are our children to turn into gamma male nerds.
What ever happened to the gold old days of selling heroin to high schoolers just to make a buck? At least that way we get rid of the stupid people and not commit copyright infringement.
Jar-Jar Binks has been sued for RUINING episode one. "Me-Sa ruined tha movie"
I can honestly say that I've never missed seeing a film at the cinema due to seeing a pirated copy first, and I'm based in England so that does happen a lot more here, seeing as how we only get stuff half a year later. For me at least cinema is not in competition with home viewing - it's just a different experience from watching on a 28" TV. If the article blamed lower DVD sales on pirated copies I might believe it, but of course they're not out yet. Besides, I'm waiting for the new DVD trilogy, which should be out in a few years time...
So you give out copies of your movie so all your buddies can cream over what a great movie it is. Only problem is they aren't your friends. They give it out because they could care less about your movie and the money you will lose. Then you cry about lost revenue!!! That's like telling everyone about your invention before even submitting a patent. What these movie companies should do, especially with a movie of such "high caliber", is RELEASE the movie at the theater so we can all drool over the previews. That way we have to wait until the Russians release the Tele-Synch.
The movie bombed because it was 'shlock' and because of the lack of Ewoks.
Imagine how much more money they would have made if they had included a scene where Skywalker goes into a topless Ewok bar and see all the sexy caged fem-Ewoks teasing the punters with their tribal dances and sexy head shawls. My god, the movie might still be being shown in (certain) cinemas now.
Would anyone be interested seeing my 'concept art' for the about scene? Lucas never replied so I am willing to put them into the public domain.
Peace.
What you fail to realize is that copyright is supposed to be a tempoary loan from the public domain. Copyrighted ideas BELONG to the public, but are temporarily on loan to the author in order to promote the public domain. Read your Constitution.
Considering the totally unreasonable lengths and protections of modern copyright, I don't believe it is unreasonable that many people simply choose to flout it. Despite the rulings of the recto-cranial-impacted SCOTUS, copyright terms of the author's life plus an additional 70 years does NOT promote the useful arts.
The fact of the matter is that the law was designed to protect the revenue of large media companies. It was not designed for "We the People." Do you think for one second that if you created your own homemade movie and tried to get it published that the FBI would give two shits about your criminal buddy who "released it on the Internet" before you could commercialize it? Face it. Your rights don't matter.
Since we are dealing with hypotheticals... Suppose the loaf of bread would not have sold because the potential customer had only enough money to pay the shop keepers expenses, but not profit. Would the shopkeeper be better off with his expenses covered? Most certainly. Many stores sell excess inventory at or below cost because it is better than throwing it away.
Besides, stealing a loaf of bread or paying avoided cost is NOT the same as copyright infringement.
You tell me now. Do media companies deserve to deprive the public domain for 120 years? Disney made its fortune robbing the public domain. Now they refuse to contribute back and instead, purchase laws to protect their "property" like Pinnochio, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Wind in the Willows, ad infinitum. Maybe you don't mind puckering up when the media companies bend over, but don't judge the rest of the world when they won't.
The US is littered with bad laws that were only changed because public perception finally won out. Would you have so quickly supported Prohibition, Slavery, Segregation or miscongenation laws when they were in fashion with those who make the laws?
A similar situation recently occurred with the release of the latest Harry Potter book. Not surprisingly, the lawyers interviewed took a similar view to what you're expressing (including one statement saying the public has "no right to read") and RMS did not. Again, I find RMS' logic simply more compelling because it doesn't substitute market value or contract law as the measure of all things; his measure is human freedom to live life in a cooperative society instead of a dog-eat-dog jungle. Should we apply the view you express consistently we would inevitably apply it to something more socially important than either a Star Wars movie or a Harry Potter book:
I'm not familiar with the Half-Life 2 example you refer to, so I have no comment on that. However, I refer you to http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html to read RMS' essays on this (don't forget the linked essays for more explication).
Digital Citizen