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Pirates Promise Improved Version of DaVinci Code
Y'arr, Matey writes "CD Freaks is reporting that pirates are not happy with the quality of the DaVinci Code. According to the article, "A sales assistant at one Shanghai DVD shop said the initial copies were 'pirated overseas' and that 'better quality' versions would probably be available early next month.""
That the new version will be 0 minutes long.
Isn't it normal that the first pirated copies aren't top quality? I'm not sure how this is news.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
What, so they're re-filming it, this time with a better story???
People cam/telesync/telecine the movie, and finally a dvd ripped version comes along later. This happens to every movie, why is this news. Even if this was unique to DaVinci Code, this doesn't belong on the front page of /.
because pirates are renowned for the quality control.
serenity now!
That they're this blatant about their piracy...
Or that their customer service is better than most "official" DVD publishers.
I mean, how much work does it really take to digitally remaster Tom Hanks' mullett? Granted, it would've been easier in the actual production of the film, but makeup artists are pretty expensive...
Agreed.
I don't know if the news source can be trusted. And how come a few words that this average salesman said suddenly become news?
Pirates won't stop pirating movies and their quality always increases. They'll try getting the actual film from the theatres and rip it. Or even yet, get an "internal agent" which would work closely with the movie to leak a copy. Ah, so many possibilities!
As for the movie itself, I still have to force myself to read the book before watching it.
The hip way to get your IP. No ads, ever.
Was hoping it would say they were editing Da Vinci Code to make it more entertaining.
Alright, considering that what they're doing is illegal in the first place I don't think they have any right to complain.
This is like stealing a car and then complaining to the owner that it doesn't have air conditioning.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
If the Pirates aren't happy then the Ninjas must be pissed.
Most movie releases do this:
Cam - poor quality, sketchy audio
Telesync - better video quality, audio still sketchy
DVDrip - very good quality audio and video
Seems this is only a big deal because a reporter heard about it while in China.
This Slashdot "news item" was formulated overseas, and we anticipate a more newsworthy post within the next month.
I don't see why this story is relevant, because this person doesn't have any information that the rest of us don't have. For every release, there is generally a CAM version, then the telesyncs and telecines come as people get a chance to record the film. It takes time for the pirates to get access and the time to encode something like this, so as time goes by, the quality gets better.
So the pirates are in effect unauthorized value added resellers? I hope to be notified when this improved version is available. Maybe it won't have the movie trailers in the beginning.
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
The only way this story would be newsworthy would be if pirates saw the movie, were unhappy with what they saw, and decided to improve it by reshuffling the scenes around (sort of a Pirate's cut).
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
Arrrr, the post-production value of the film wasn't up to the same quality as other blockbustarrrr book to movie productions; here on the ship we're still parrrrtial to Mastarrrr and Comandarrrr!
...and a duplicate post within a day.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Oh come on people, it's a joke. Just look at the foot.
I mean, quality control from a piracy organization? Ha ha ha.
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
No, but the book was OK. I think they should forget the movie and copy the book...
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
When did people start "pirating" movies? And they started with DaVinci Code? Are these pirates anti-christian missionaries?
As for the movie itself, I still have to force myself to read the book before watching it.
I think the movie was just 'okay', and the book was awesome. My suggestion would be to see the movie first, and then read the book. That way you're not disappointed..
Aero
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
Audrey Tautou is now a pious, sock mending Socialist named Lei Feng.
The goverment has some room for improval, but I love the Chinese people.
I initially read that headline as people got hold of the movie and were going to chop out some of more 'hammier' scenes. Shame.
Mod me down, I don't have any relevant comment, this isnt' news.
I guess this means that global warming should start reversing itself...
- passion
the guy with the camera is not going to sit behind some chick with a Marj Simpson hair do!
Heh, The Pirate Bay has you covered...
Link
Aero
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
Scene groups and the bittorent community alike are also asking hollywood for a PROPER.
Will they be digitally adding a parrot on Tom Hanks' shoulder? Perhaps an eyepatch here and there? A peg leg or two (but not on the same actor)? Yarrr! Ye be havin' the holy bloodline!
If you can read this sig, you're too close.
They're going to take out Jar Jar.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Even those watching it for free aren't happy with the movie.
...but it does illustrate a point about the protection of content and the unauthorized distribution of said content. Look, these "pirates" have a copy - crappy though it may be - shortly after the first screening. And they're, apparently, selling (though no number figures are given for volume).
What is interesting is that the unauthorized distribution chain is well organized enough that a typical time frame can be placed on the "next" release of the film. It speaks volumes about the actual control content producers have on their material.
In this day of first weekend hits which fizzle or stay on the charts for such a short time, and the inevitable surfacing of the video in the "pirate" channels - both physical and online - is it really advantageous to the bottom line to spread (a) the theatrical release from the home video release by several months and (b) the theatrical release across continents by several months. In an age of essentially world wide communications and market size, and with the ability to distribute and screen content digitally, why not release the films one weekend, and the home version the following Tuesday? Have a blockbuster you think will have staying power and want to try and get a repeat audience? Delay the DVD 2-3 weeks. Get your hype budget right up front, and make sure the patrons who liked the theatrical screening can pick up their own copy before they forget about it.
All the laws and controls the studios have bought from the various governing bodies in the world won't stop the people who make a living doing this kind of stuff. And, unlike drugs or arms traffiking, we're not talking about societal crimes and social unrest. It's a God damned entertainment flick. Quit trying to constrain these "pirates" with rules they won't abide - beat them at their own game. Get the real discs into stores and into consumers hands before the "pirates" do. Crappy copies are no fun to watch. And I don't know about you folks, but if you've ever tried to get a movie of any decent quality off of the usenet you know it can be a royal pain. Quite honestly, it's not worth my time to futz with it if I can have Amazon deliver it to my door for $15. And I pay for good usenet access, so my dowloads are easy and fast. Provide the goods and take away their business and reason for being. Sure, you'll still have to deal with the snot-nosed teens who pirate stuff for the thrill, but those folks aren't going to be buyers (by and large). Write them off.
FWIW, I have unauthorized copies of Star Wars (IV), The Little Mermaid, and (on VHS) Song of the South. I have since purchased Ep. IV, though it had been out for a while (heck, I already "bought" a copy, right?). TLM is "in the vault". I couldn't purchase one from Disney if I wanted to, so some Malaysian pirate got my $20 - I'm claiming fair use since I own the VHS (with the phallic cover, no less). SotS will "never be released", though having watched it I can't quite figure out why. The NAACP has nothing to worry about in the portrayal of of the slaves, but caucasians should be appalled at the portrayal of the plantation owners in the film.
IMHO, the movie cartel actually keeps these shady shops in business. That's what the story really is.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
A few years back, someone re-edited "The Phantom Menace", and called it The Phantom Edit. Some people thought it was an improvement over the original. About 20 minutes of Jar-Jar was cut, which didn't hurt.
Judging from the e-mail address on the submitter's name, I'm guessing the point of the article is actually a political statement meant to make the RIAA/MPAA look stupid for (a) their obsession with DRM and (b) suing file sharers when actual for-profit pirates are so brazen.
You are sad because the movie has been pirated, or because the movie exists in the first place?
Say nothing...
Pirates apologizing for the quality of their work!?!? Hilarious.
It should be possible to merge several cam conversions into one good copy.
From any one cam, some video fields will be junk taken during a film frame transition. Get enough cams together, and you can get every frame of film.
If you want high resolution, zoom in. You can patch together a full image from multiple cameras. It's like doing a panorama. See panotools for a great example.
As is done in astronomy, one can use multiple images of the same thing to reduce image noise. This works for the sound too.
If you record from different theaters, you can deal with the problem of theaters cutting out damaged sections of the film. You can also identify and remove watermarks.
Note that this kind of software has legitimate uses for home video conversion and for various fair-use reasons. Feel free to start a project.
I actually really enjoyed it. They stuck pretty close to the book (at least what I remember) and I enjoyed the fact that it was almost entirely dialogue driven. It reminded me more of an older thriller in some ways. I also enjoyed the "lectures" more than the action sequences and I loved the cast they chose.
It seems to have become a joke to attack the movie and it seems like even the critics are copying each other. Most of the horrible reviews are either attacking the story or how dialogue driven it is. Both of which are basically just attacking the book...
The fan rating on Rotten Tomatoes is 73% and it is 6.5 on IMDB. That's not great but its not horrible either, especially with an arithmetic mean of 7.0 and a median of 8. 27.6% of the people who saw it gave it a 10. Its just pulled down a lot by the 10.4% who gave it a 1 and the way IMDB tries to adjust to minimize the fanboy effect. Oh, and it seems to be much more popular among females... At least on IMDB.
FTA "When the reporter confronted the vendor on the street about the issue, he got a pledge from the "sales associate" on duty that the better stuff would be along shortly. I guess it's just the sheer audacity of the statement that makes it almost humorous..."
/. because is Funny ( if you don't like this kind of post you can config that)
:)
Is in
Besides that
The Copyright _MUST_ be respected.
I'm against the "piracy market" in some way, but what about the P2P? (or People to People
Always comes the same point: When i _SHARE_ a movie with my friend, I'll be breaking some laws... but keep in mind this: "I will be a better human being"
When your profit is directly related with the prohibition of something SO NATURAL like SHARE, YOU are fucked up.
The act of share a movie/cd/book always exist, now with the "new" technology, is easier and more popular. (The ria acts like a child when blames the "rules")
FTA: Apparently, a couple of really "hot" movie DVDs are being peddled in Shanghai. One title hit the bogus street shops just hours after the film held it's debut at the Cannes Film Festival.
AFAIK the ria doesnt have jurisdiction in China.. don't know for sure.
Rock and Roll
It's an evil plot by Opus Dei! :p
-Kinsey
It must be a Vatican conspiracy! They obviously hired the templars thru secret rites so the Davinci code steganographed in the movie wouldn't be available to the public! The secret must be preserved!!! HACK THE PLANET!!!
Using (pirated) PC-based video editing software, enterprising movies pirates have issued a new, improved version of the Da Vinci code. A plot summary follows:
Middle-aged Harvard professor Robert Langdon is giving a lecture in Paris when he is confronted by a police detective, who shows him a picture of a man who has been murdered in a gruesome fashion. Langdon, who has been living in an airport terminal, takes off in search of the holy grail, which has been stolen by a young Leo di Caprio. A gratuitous time warp takes him back to WWII to save Matt Damon from being killed by Nazis. Returning to the present, a slingshot around the moon reveals his presence to vengeful mobsters, who are unimpressed by his skill at ping-pong and shrimping. Escaping from them via Fed-Ex cargo plane only leads him to a close encounter with a volcano and a young Meg Ryan, with whom he has a cheesy and banal romance that only a woman could appreciate. With a newfound attitude towards the fairer sex he agrees to coach a group of weepy baseball players, but mysteriously, without even sleeping with any of them, he contracts AIDS and dies. But that doesn't stop our hero. He returns from the dead, bangs a mermaid, and brings joy to millions of kids before returning back to Paris where he started, which makes you wonder why the hell he left in the first place.
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
Pirates re-cut DaVinci Code on ship to be more appealing to the masses. Aaaarrgh!
30% off web hosting. Coupon code "SLASHDOT".
I'm for that too. I'm sure they could tighten this whole mess up a little. I mean, if folks are going to pirate movies (which they are), it would be cool if they could actually improve the package in the process.
Check and Check
A blog about stuff.
After seeing Dan Brown's foray into crypto (Digital Fortress) I wonder if that Sicilian capo with the cipher "you'd use to keep out your little sister" couldn't improve his codes...
I think the most inane thing, in a very inane book, was when the world-renowned linguist/prodigy who spoke umpteen dialects and was consulted by the NSA for his Chinese expertise couldn't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese in less than thirty minutes. Oh, but it gets better (at least, if you have any clue about either of the two languages): apparently, Japanese being written only in kanji is a) possible b) easily confusable with Chinese and c) not intelligible to a reader of Chinese.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
... that a Chinese black-marketeer is blaming outsourcing for his quality woes?
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
... that this wasn't moderated Flamebait.
Didn't know there was anyone who thought the book was good, let alone awesome... people everywhere bash it so rightfully and so unanymously...
I'd actually thought the movie couldn't be worse than the book, especially in the infamous Croatian translation... but from the sound of it, maybe they put Croatian translators to work on the movie.
Ignore this signature. By order.
A little from column 'A', a little from column 'B'...
Believe it or not, it never occured to me until just now that people that don't practice a religion that involves goddess worship would not like the book. As a follower of the 'Old Religion', I found the book really interesting because of all the small details in the book about goddess worship that were true.
Aero
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
I am truely sadened that this made it onto Slashdot. Are we openly praising these people? I have digitally edited your post for the better quality appreciation by the consumer market: ARR!1! Ye murderous pirating trolls would befoul the pristine intellectual spaceways of ye noble Dot, will ye?! Ye scoundrels deserve no less of an intergalactic keel haulin' than the scrofulous scallywags of the HMS Digital Millenium Falcon herself!! yar!
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
Where copyright means it was copied correctly.
Here in Beijing, there are CD/DVD shops pretty much on every block, and in none of then can you find "legal" products, at least not for non-Chinese stuff. In any place with lots of pedestrian traffic, you'll find "street merchants" with boxes full of DVDs. Stores that carry "legal" imported DVDs are quite hard to find, if you really want them.
Movies that are showing in the theatres will usually be in the stores a few days *earlier* than in the theatre; most often, they won't show in the theatres at all. And a few weeks later (about two weeks after the theatre premiere), you'll have the decent-quality DVDs, although those second-batch disks are typically either sans subtitles, with subtitles copied from some other random movie, or really bad "all your base" subtitles. The third batch are the actual DVD copies that come usually a few days before the "legal" DVDs are released in the rest of the world.
If you're a good customer, and the second batch is expected at some point in this same week, the clerk will sometimes even tell you, "no buy this, the better quality come tomorrow".
The Shanghai poster neglected to mention prices. A regular DVD costs an average 10 yuan, 15 or 20 if it comes in a box rather than envelope (not so much for the box, but because these are usually slightly better). A DVD9 ranges from 20 to 40 yuan. One USD = 8.14 yuan.
A good post, and all too accurate sadly. The post about DSL/Cable hogging is quite relevant too I thought (it certainly annoys me for many of the same reasons).
It seems it's always okay to use as much bandwidth as you possibly can or to copy media as you like, but it's not okay when it's your bandwidth or your software that's being abused.
I'm glad somebody else noticed that. I got about 40 pages into the "Code", then realized that I've already read this story before, only the last time it wasn't written by some Crichton-wanna-be hack. And then of course they had to get Ron Howard to direct...
Having just gotten back from China I can tell you that ANYTHING you want on DVD is available for a BUCK. High Quality packaging and everything with FBI warnings and disclaimers in place. They use to just make VCDs that everyone had players for, then they went to DVD-5 and compressed the quality of some movies a bit. Now they rip full DVD-9 and market it as DVD-9 or HDVD. The "Broke Back Mountain" rip I saw (my wife made me watch it with her, BTW BORING!) had the "For Academy Viewing Only" disclaimer scroll across the screen about 3 times, but he quality was great. In Guangzhou lot of people have 50+ inch plasma Hi-Def TVs. I'm sure they will pirate Blu-Ray when it comes out. I saw lots of PSPs in use while I was there.
I was sorely tempted to snap up DVDs for bootlegging before coming back home but resisted.
I'm not sure I have much of a point other than piracy is here to stay in China. Copy-protection won't matter one wit because it is done by professionals with the equipment to do it right, and it is so firmly a part of the society I don't know anyway you could stop it if you really tried. I for one like the fact that if things become too draconian here stateside I always have a source that can hook me up in the East.
Letter To Iran
So they'll fix the bad plot and bad acting and remove all the superfluous scenes?
/.
Oh, I get it now: doing that will require the latest in computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and image synthesis; that's why it's on
Yes we are openly praising these people. While it is wrong in some ways, it is one proposed way of getting the big movie companies to give the public fair fucking prices.
If the reported paid only 5 yuan, he could only get a pirated CD with bad quality. For a better one, or some people say, "the copy of the legal copy", you need to pay 7 to 12 yuan, depending on your bargain skills.
The movie was much better than the reviews I'd heard. It was fun and mostly well put together, and seemed much shorter than its 2 and a half hours. That said, I can see how the subject matter would cause many to recoil. Who wants to learn their divinely inspired sacred scripture was compiled at a conference that was at least as political and practical as it was spiritual, and was attended 100% by mortal men?
Play Command HQ online
In which case we'd only buy the (rare) excellent stuff from official sources. Everything else would be 'Eh, I'm waiting for the pirate version." Because everything improves with pirates.
Yes, I am anti-media (which, I suppose, you might term "pro-pirate"), but not without reason.
For example, a common mantra is "artists deserve compensation." I could point out, yet again, that they do not *get* this compensation, rather it goes to middlemen, eaten by crazy accounting practices where things make millions of dollars but no "profit" because of the money the studios & such charge themselves. And I could point out that DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Plato, Socrates, and a whole host of others did just fine sans copyright (or any other sort of imaginary property). However, that would not be directly relevant.
Rather, I should point out that no one *else* gets to do work *once* and expects to be paid many, many times for it. It is a form of "rent" that real economists know will get squeezed out of the economy... absent government intervention, that is.
Further, rather than sensibly giving us fixed terms, they've keyed them to the life of the author. At least (and ironically), *corporate* works have a fixed term. This makes it very difficult to find out if something is still under copyright or not. And the Copyright Office files can be waaaaay out of date, which doesn't help any. But no, it's still under copyright, and it will be for 70 years after they're dead. This is unreasonable, this is unfair, and this is stupid.
You don't agree? Well, it's also a great vector for stupid contracts of adhesion. You didn't know you could read this part first? Too bad, you *could* have known. This post is copyright to me (C) 2006. By reading it, or having any copy on your computer, however briefly (i.e. the copy you're reading right now), you agree to the following terms. If you choose not to agree, you owe me statutory damages for your infringement of my intellectual property ("IP").
From the desk of IANAL:
A) You may not use, make, import, acquire, help with, support, or otherwise assist in making, writing or creating any form of Digital Restrictions Management (often called "DRM", or less accurately "Digital Rights Management"). You are, however, permitted to do whatever you like in the way of disabling, circumventing, or bypassing it per the terms of this license. Obviously, this license cannot exempt you from applicable law to the contrary; the previous statement only means that the license does not prohibit such activities, the rest of section A notwithstanding.
B) To the extent you can be bound to do so under applicable law, you agree to vote for, politically support, endorse, or otherwise agree with pro-circumvention and anti-IP laws, policies, and statements. Clause B as a whole is void if it is contrary to applicable law, consistant with the severability clause of this license.
Non-Compete Clause -
You may not accept any job competing with licensor. This means that you may not do any pro-copyright work, such as lawyering on behalf of the plaintiff in a copyright case, drafting pro-IP laws or extensions (anti-copyright laws, filing DMCA takedown notices (putback notices are fine), including those which significantly shorten copyright terms, are acceptable), or anything else inconsistant with anti-IP principles. If applicable law requires consideration to uphold this term, you are entitled to 1/20th of one cent or something with equivalent cash value (i.e. any random cupon). If applicable law requires that it be limited in time and/or within some geographic area, the largest area and the largest time must be chosen. If it recognizes no specific time or area, this applies for the next calendar year and within a range of 100 miles from your current residence.
Severability -
If any part of this license is held to be contrary to applicable law, that section is void and the rest of the license stands. In choosing how much of the license to void, the smallest section of the license that leaves the license, as a whole, to be consistant with its anti-"IP" mission must be chosen.
Termination -
This license expires w
It wasn't even a good movie, couldn't they at least wait for X-Men 3.
This does bring up an interesting point, RIAA and MPAA are so busy suing average folk in the US that they don't really make any serious efforts against the huge pirates in China. Chinese pirates will continue to go about ripping off movies and software because the Chinese government would rather side with its people than some evil foreign capitalist organization.
Guys, can we lay off these DaVinci-code piggybacking non-stories, please?
I mean, if nothing else, can we at least pick a new movie to obsess about for awhile? Star Trek v. Star Wars or something?
barack to the future?
Why the fuck is slashdot giving these scumsucking leeches who illegally profit off the hard work of others recognition?
This sort of shit really pisses me off.. why the fuck did China gain admittance into the WTO with this appalling shit going on? They're not even hiding the fact that this is going on..
Sorry for the profanity, but this really makes me angry..
I am the maverick of Slashdot
Yes. As long as the movie companies maintain a monopoly on the industry, and continue to set prices artificialy high, I'll give props to anyone who rips them off.
At least this proves that at least one section of the entertainment industry is listening to its customers!
Its a shame that the two most progressive and customer centered sections of the industry are the pirates and the porno guys!
Are we openly praising these people?
Why not? The movie is openly praising Robert Langdon for violating the DMCA by circumventing the Catholics' encryption.
I saw this bootleg DVD a couple of days ago, as well as MI3. It is very unusual for Chinese pirated DVDs to be low quality, even on first release. The pitures were pretty grainy on both, the background sounds on MI3 awful.
What strikes me is that the MPAA/whoever must have kept pretty good wraps on all of the DVD screeners/cinema digital copies/critic released copies to stop these two films, both highly desired at the moment by the Chinese public, under wraps.
The city in which I live (population 5 million) does not have a single shop which sells legal copies of Hollywood movies.
Oh.
I want my "Thieves Den" mod for Oblivion! The pirate ship STILL hasn't docked in the Bay!
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
This looks like news that should be reserved for a new domain, like slashdot.cn or slashdot.ru. I can't believe this got posted...
Sig sig go away come back another day
T.U.G.
Yes, it is amazing that Dan Brown went as far as browsing Wikipedia for five minutes to do his fact checks.
How much you pay for a DVD in Beijing, China, is up to you and is in part dependent upon where you shop.
In the area of town frequented by _lots_ of foreigners (bars over near the embassies), DVDs in boxes have a starting price of 20RMB.
The very same DVD can be bought for 10RMB out where many of the universities are. If you go exploring the parts of the city where there are very few foreigners, DVD prices can drop to 7RMB or lower (5RMB would not surprise me.)
Those prices, 20, 10, 7, are all for the *very same* DVD.
China is a market economy that is largely driven by how much the buyer wants to pay. Of course there are limits to how low they will go, but there is no limit on how high they will start at if they think you'll pay more.
The ratio of the number of legal DVDs of western movies to pirate version would be about 100:1 and the only one of note that I've seen has been The Matrix Triology - 20-30RMB for each region 6 DVD.
How much does a single Matrix movie DVD cost in a store in down town Los Angeles? I'll wager it is a lot more than $4. But ask yourself this - why should the (legal) Chinese version of a DVD movie be 1/5th or less of that in the USA or elsewhere?
If the local cost of DVDs in China is truely reflective of the manufacturing cost then people elsehwere in the world are quite seriously (and willingly, it seems) being taken for a ride.
Having lived in SE Asia until quite recently, and having seen high quality copies of everything from the Incredibles to SW 3 weeks before they hit the cinema, I am certain that high quality boots are available of DvC.
My guess is that he choose the wrong vendor.
I've read all the dan brown books, but from what I've heard of the movie, it's quite tedious.
smash.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Now if Hollywood would only admit that their current crop of films sucked and promised better ones next month, then we would be on to something.
There is a spellbook here; eat it? [ynq]
192 comments in a pirates story and no mentioning of the FSM??
You all should be ashamed of yourself
You cry; you play a plaintive tune on your stringed instrument of choice.
Sure. And one means of 'aiding the poor' is to murder 'rich people' in the street for their money.
Yesterday, I decided to buy and read the DaVinci code book and I visited a reputed shop. And surprise, he had stocked the pirated version of the book. The funny thing is he was of the impression that this was the original version. I have seen shops which sell pirated DVD containing three Star Wars Movies in one and it cost only 75 cents. And amazingly it is done in open and nobody cares. Of course whether the person will get the real satisfaction in watching the movie or not is entirely different thing.
I always stick to buying original even if I have to pay more for it. This is because then the author of the book or the people who slogged to create the product will get some returns. If I can't afford it, I would rather not buy the product than buy pirated goods.
Linux Help
for all things on Linux
You have tonnes of channels on mp3 servers such as shoutcast etc...
All you need to do is just record the whole lot with auto name splitting down to HD.
iRadio does a good job. And if the cut isnt perfect, edit it, you can 'splice mp3s' without re-encoding.
Just like recording digital tv or analoge vcr, but more automated.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Reportedly, the new version will have more action in it. And more humor. And more romance. And more puzzles. And they are going to give the protagonist a sidekick for more comic relief. Oh, and the pursuit of our heroes by the bad guys won't mysteriously drop off in the third act.
In fact, the pirate update has already been available for a while.
You are making the unwarranted assumption that people who commit/abet copyright infringement do so as a 'special' activity. For instance:
:)
frail nerds tell each other that they aren't bad persons
The thought that watching a copied DVD makes you a bad person never crosses anyone's mind. Someone brings round a copy of a movie, and they're like "Let's watch this," what I am going to say? Am I going to get up on a chair and go "NO! THAT WOULD MAKE US BAD PEOPLE!" No. Party because that would make me a twit, but mainly because, meh, getting up on the chair takes effort.
Or again:
you'll be lauded because you've provided moral cover for someone.
Nobody _needs_ moral cover. Watching that DVD would infringe copyright laws, I guess, like the first time I drank a beer or bought a pack of cigarettes infringed a law, and like the phone company overcharges me and people cross the road when the Walk light is really pretty well red but there are no cars around.
It's all just stuff that makes ya go "whatever". It's hard to ban behaviour that doesn't _feel_ bad.
Of course there is at least one pasty-faced Slashdot troll who _does_ try and pretend it's a big moral issue: you. I dunno if anyone will go for that, though
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
The quality was excellent. Can't wait for Cry, Cry again
Movie companies are the only people making movies? Who would have thought it...
A monopoly is ONE company, not an entire industry. Nobody has a monopoly on movies. You might complain that there's price fixing going on, but that has nothing to do with a monopoly.
All your Davinci code are belong to US!
Of course copying information which someone has "copyrighted" is equivalent to murder.I like your logic.
AMV HELL is the funniest thing around! http://amvhell.com/
The Pirates, a Delaware based Limited Liability Corporation, recently announced their completion of ISO 9001 requirements. Captain Aarg, Chief Overseas Transportation Officer, said "with the extensive effort required to obtain and secretly move our products, quality isn't just an end result, but an important aspect of each link in the chain". The Pirates believe that customers will rapidly appreciate the improved quality of items they find in back alleys and under trench coats. Ling Mee Sin, a clerk with a The Pirates franchise, commented "You bring cash!"
When I read the headline I thought that maybe Johnny Depp would be replacing Tom Hanks in the leading role.
Anyway, it's good to see more pirating. Remember that every blow stricken for pirates is a blow against Global Warming.
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
Dan Brown's a crap writer.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
Not bloody likely. He'd be some multi-syllabyllic word meaning the same thing as smug.
That guy's got way too much vocabulary for his own good. (Loved Fouc, but it's the first book in 8 years where I had to look up words)
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
I thought they mean 'better version' as in 'The Phantom Edit'
Technoli
It's the English that kills, man!
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
In other news my dealer told me he was "less than satisfied" with the latest shipment of weed he got. He promised that next week's will be "much more dank". And if i could just bare with him during these difficult times, he would "take care of me" when the good stuff arrives.
This is frontpage news not because of anything to do with pirating. That's just the excuse. The real reason is that the editors and many readers, myself included, love to make religious types irate. Nothing could be funnier than seeing some self-proclaimed holier-than-thou type go all froth and spittle when their supposedly peace promoting fairy tale is questioned. Religious types have had to shut down major logic circuits in their brains in order to believe the unbelievable, making their attempts at defending their chosen sky-god particularly amusing.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I cannot read. Let me say that my attention span causes me to skim pages, skip words, go back and forth. Because of this, I end up reading with no comprehension if something goes more than a few pages. Character development is difficult for me to follow. Along comes Dan Brown with a writing style that has short chapters, little descriptive notation, etc. He has been criticized for his writing style, but I find it easy to follow. Admittedly, I listened to the 13-CD audio book for Da Vinci Code, but I read Angels and Demons and Point Deception (?) (the meteorite book). I can pretty much only read a Stephen King novel if I have seen the movie, but I can start and finish a Brown novel without difficulty. I did not finish Digital Fortress because I lost interest in the story.
Inaccurate information is what good stories are all about. I doubt there are many that bitched about the Indiana Jones trilogy for similar reasons. I enjoyed watching National Treasure, which was rife with errors. Any science fiction film -- don't get me started. For us computer nerds, I enjoyed many movies with tons of errors: Virus, Wargames, Sneakers, Lawnmower Man, etc. I think some people need to lighten up and enjoy a story every so often. Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction, building on convenient coincidences and half-truths. That statement describes half the history books I have read in the past.
Can't we all just get along?!?!
Click here or here.
I am amazed it is all worth it for less than a pound per movie. Maybe the industry can learn a thing or two about mass sales, customer demand, and proper product pricing.
Click here or here.
Sure. And one means of 'aiding the poor' is to murder 'rich people' in the street for their money.
Yes, that is one logical outcome of an unbalanced econonomy. When few are rich and most are poor the poor will steal from the rich.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
% Cry, Cry Again, Kramer is bootlegging. Kramer: (laughing) The French guy fell off the bike. Oh man, that's precious. (eats popcorn) % Jerry's apartment watching the tape. Jerry: No, no, no, no, no, no, no! What were you thinking when you shot this? Kramer: That's fine. Jerry: Do you even know what this scene is about? Kramer: It's about a guy buying a loaf of bread. Jerry: No, bread is his soul. He's trying to buy back a loaf of his soul. (Gesturing taking a loaf of bread.) Kramer: Wha? Where? Jerry: Kramer there is no way you're giving this tape to Brody and telling him I shot it. Kramer: Nah, he's not going to know the difference. Jerry: I don't care about Brody. I was up on 96th Street today, there was a kid couldn't have been more than ten years old. He was asking a street vendor if he had any other bootlegs as good as Death Blow. That's who I care about. The little kid who needs bootlegs, because his parent or guardian won't let him see the excessive violence and strong sexual content you and I take for granted.
A cartel is a group that engages in price fixing - I already mentioned price fixing. A cartel is not a monopoly - it has similar consequences, but it's a different thing. With a cartel you have multiple interests to take into account - it's only when those interests coincide that you can have monopoly-like actions.
The hell are you talking about? In the US, movie theater chains set admissions prices, not the "movie companies," and as far as I know, none of the movie theater chains are owned by the studios (maybe one--I think United Artists theaters still around. And I mean direct ownership, not "Studio A owns stock in Theatre B"). If anything, ticket prices are artificially low, and the difference is made up by high-priced concessions and on-screen advertising. In that sense, movie tickets are a loss-leader.
So what about the home video market? In the VHS days, "rental pricing" ensured that new releases were artificially high so that if you wanted to watch Pulp Fiction at home, you could either buy it for $100 or rent it for $3.50. But the DVD direct-to-consumer model broke that all to hell, which is why Blockbuster and friends hated DVDs for so long. Are DVDs "artificially high"? When you can buy a DVD for less than $20 -- cheaper than seeing the thing in the theater with a bag of popcorn, in most cases -- how is that artificially high?
Monopoly on the industry? Independent films are made every day, and some of them even get distributed to art houses near you! The only difference between the "movie companies" and your film-school buddy from college is that only one of these entities can afford Brad Pitt's 20-against-20 salary requirements. Anyone can make a god-damned movie, but because a select number of organizations can afford to so correctly, you cry "monopoly"?
"Informative" my aching ass. Can we mod the parent "ignorant and deluded"?
Please, Think of the Robots?
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Well thank you Dr. Semantics. Got anything relevant to add?
We weren't discussing theater prices, but ok, let's go with that one. If theater chains set pricing independantly, why do nearly all movie theaters charge the same price? It may not be a monopoly, but the prices certainly are fixed artificialy. I wouldn't be surprised if they were set artificialy low - it discourages private individuals from trying to compete. Home video market? Rarely will you find a DVD for below $20. The only ones going for that price are a) movies nobody wants or b) movies that are so old that even the DVD's are covered in dust New releases are always overpriced. Besides which, even $10 is unreasonably high for a DVD considering the manufacturing costs. It's a cost I'm personaly willing to pay, but it is still overpriced considering the cost of production and the potential market. And if you're a fan of indie films, I can certainly understand your disconnect with reality.
I bought the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD-9 at the time. Unfortunately they were the Special Editions ... they didn't have a DVD9 version of the originals (I've since downloaded DVD images). When I went to buy them the guy in the shop -- which was in a small mall, BTW -- the guy said something like "Good movies." I explained to him that I wanted to buy them because, believe it or not, you could not buy those movies on DVD in the United States. He seemed to think I was nuts, but I assured him that it was, indeed, the case.
Second story about that same shop that speaks a little bit to what other people are saying about DVD piracy in Asia. I went back to that same mall a few days later and the store was closed. This seemed strange, since it was some random weekday in the middle of the afternoon. Later someone else explained it to me: The store owner had been tipped off that the Copyright Police would be coming by for a raid that day, so he simply didn't open his doors.
This seemed to be quite commonplace. You would find guys selling pirate DVDs on the street in just about any major tourist or shopping area, and more than once I saw one of them answer his phone, talk briefly, then pack up his table and beat a hasty retreat. Copyright Cops are apparently everywhere, but it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem for anyone so long as they know which palms to grease. All it takes to avoid them is a well-timed phone call.
Breakfast served all day!
People stitch together panoramas all the time. They do this despite camera features like auto-exposure.
The software doesn't need to be lame.
You don't need stabilization in the cam.
For each film frame, pick the least blurry video fields. Pick ones that match up well, thus avoiding problems with people walking in front of the cam.
Lighting is not a serious problem. See the panotools project, which stiches together panoramas despite auto-exposure in the camera.