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Canada Responsible for 50% of Movie Piracy
westcoaster004 writes "Hollywood is blaming Canada as being the source for at least 50% of of the world's pirated movies. According to an investigation by Twentieth Century Fox, most of the recording is taking place in Montreal theatres where films are released in both English and French. This has led to consideration of delaying movie releases in Canada. Their problem is that the Canadian Copyright Act, as well as the policies of local police forces, makes it difficult to come down especially hard on perpetrators. Convicting someone is apparently rather difficult, almost requiring a law officer to have a 'smoking camcorder' in the hands of the accused. Hence, the consideration of more drastic measures."
I'm a Canadian. I'm honestly not sure if the law applies to movies as well as music (I think it does), but in Canada, it's not copyright infringement if it's for personal use. You are free to download as much as you like if you aren't going to do anything bad with it (like sell it). If you are just going to watch it or listen to it, it's all good.
But we still have the CRIA ads in our theatres saying not to pirate the movies we just paid to watch. It has a tendency to piss us off. I have a friend who downloads a movie (any movie) before going to a theater to see a movie on general principles. The general consensus in Canada is that the CRIA is pure evil, and are kept on a very thin leash. We try not to give them money if we can at all help it. But we like to go to theatres, and we like our boxed DVDs, so most of us have extensive collections and go to the theatre frequently anyway.
But that being said, I'm sure that the vast majority of us pirates would be more than willing to pay a fair price for movies, if the price was fair, and the profits went to the artists instead of a cartel of gangsters.
The Globe and Mail fell for this too, back on the 7th as Pirates of the Canadians
In fact, the majority of the actual copies are inside jobs, taken from "screeners" sent to reviewers and from copies made by distributors and projectionists. It's amazingly hard for a Montreal cop to catch a "camcorder" who isn't actually in the theater (;-))
Many are copied from copies destined for Quebec, as they include both the english- and french-language versions, and can be identified by watermarks as being destined for or actually sent to, for example, Cineplex Entertainment. Which may explain why Fox was threatening that particular distributor...
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
Recent movies including Children of Men, Borat, Night at the Museum and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest have been made available on the Internet days after they were released.
.PROPER. MAVENSSUPPLIER [xx/50]
Funny, Children of Men's release date was december 25th, whereas:
11/16/2006 2006 Children Of Men
Hardly days after they were released, more like a month before hand. This always happens around this time of year as prerelease dvd's get sent out to reviewers, so how the hell are they trying to blame us Canadians for this? Who the hell download's cams anyways? Certainly not I.
I mean, this statement:
As much as 50 per cent of the world's pirated movies come from Canada, prompting the film industry to threaten to delay the release of new titles in this country.
Worldwide?! There is just no fucking way. We don't even hold a tiny candle to what goes on in Asia.
Also, as we know, the vast majority of movies leaked do not come from camcorder screeners, they are direct rips, leaked from the studios themselves by employees or connected people.
What they are really mad about is - 1. fair use is basically intrinsically stated within Canadian law, so its almost impossible to appeal, and 2. it is actually LEGAL to bring a camcorder into a theatre in Canada. The establishment can certainly bar you from doing so - its their theatre - but there is no actual law against doing this. Its basically a FUD piece.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Many people in Canada have basically said "fsck it, if you're gonna charge me for all of my blank media, I'm gonna use some of it to make copies of your crap -- you're already getting paid, so I'm getting me a movie".
That's true. And copying movies & CDs for personal use is perfectly legal in Canada.
P2P downloading is less clear, but recent court cases have ruled against the music biz.
http://spikedhumor.com/articles/14355/South_Park_B lame_Canada.html
What a load of crap, most movies are not pirated by a guy in the theater, but are inside jobs.
a gs/task,view/tag,+movie+piracy/
Michael Geist gives a good write up on the one-sided BS of this statement.
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/component/option,com_t
.cn is the People's Republic of China. The TLD for Canada is .ca.
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
Its not just Canadian actors. After NAFTA, all North American movie studios, actors, directors, etc. got screwed by Hollywood. Related article on NPR.
Clones are people two.
"Worth" is relative.
To me, the entire LOTR franchise is worth exactly nothing, because Peter Jackson & co shat all over a cherished favorite book of mine.
But (for example), Disney's "Pirates" franchise is worth about $70 to me so far (saw the first movie twice in the theater, bought the DVD, and saw the second movie once). Hitchhiker's was worth $40 (two theater visits and a DVD). X-Men 3 is worth about $4, or a rental. And several movies are worth whatever fraction of my cable bill they represent. I don't give a rat's ass HOW much they spent to make them; they either have entertainment value for me (which I am certainly willing to pay for) or they do not.
I don't download (notice I did not say steal) movies, because 99% of them aren't worth the time or effort to bother watching.
And if the time has come to reshuffle the industry, well, nothing lasts forever.
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
TPB
This is total BS. Has anyone been to any country in South East asia? I've been to Malaysia recently, and I had a hard time finding legit DVD stores. 99% of DVDs I saw were pirated DVDs. When I found a place where legit DVDs and CDs were being sold, I immediately realized why people don't buy legit movies/CDs. They're WAAAY overpriced. CDs/DVDs were being sold for the same price as in Canada. I saw a CD for 45RM (which is about $15 CDN). Which is fine for me, but the average Malaysian makes 3 to 5 times less money than an average Canadian. Imagine paying $50 for a CD. That's what it's like for a Malaysian to buy a legit CD/DVD. Of course they're going to pirate. No one can afford to buy a legit CD/DVD.
"What specific forms of blank recording media are subject to the levy? Analog Audio Cassette Tapes:
CD-R and CD-RW:
CD-R Audio and CD-RW Audio:
MiniDisc:
Non-Removable Memory Permanently Embedded in a Digital Audio Recorder:
"
So as a Canadian, I believe in getting my money's worth from the Piracy tax.
most movies are not pirated by a guy in the theater, but are inside jobs.
The guy I most frequntly see selling movies in the subway boasts "no shakey cameras in the back of the theater, all my movies are direct scans. $5.00, you whole family can see it for less than a large popcorn."
We are all just people.
You might be looking for this. The DRM that you complain of relies on some quality of the disc. That quality can be copied, emulate, or otherwise duplicated easily in skilled hands. So, yes, your counterexample is no counterexample at all. Other DRM systems fail for similar reasons, owing to the basic rules of math that underly the system.