Now I realize why Hollywood is concerned! (1 Viewer)

[GarryW]

My daughter tells me that her new boy friend has a DSL conection on his PC and downloads current movies (Monsters, Inc.)to his computer, then burns the data to a CD. I guess you could play this on a DVD player?

I asked her how long it takes to download a movie and she said it takes him 2 DAYS!

Now I know why Hollywood is concerned! Is this why things like HDTV are moving so slowly?

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

This has been going on for several years. It can take alot less than two days also.
There are whole networks of people via ICQ, etc. that do nothing but trade films. On DSL, I'm actually surprised it took that long. I've seen it done much quicker.
The internet is like Hong Kong. Pirated films come out almost as soon as the actual prints are released!
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Todd.
"Ah, mercury, sweetest of the transitional metals..."
- Sealab 2021

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

2 days for a movie? Must be a crappy DSL connection. I've downloaded full movies in about 2 hours or less. Then (with the right software) you can burn them to VCD format and play them on your DVD player. However, the quality is just about VHS grade (often worse), so I don't bother anymore. Besides... I want it in widescreen and with surround, so it's better to just wait for the DVD.
But yes, Hollywood should be concerned. It's very easy to find full-length movies the day they're released to theaters (and sometimes before). However, much like MP3's, there is no way for them to stop this practice because there are too many uncontrollable venues for it. Luckily, most of the people downloading this stuff are people who wouldn't have paid to see the movie anyway... so it isn't really hurting Hollywood all that much.

 

[GarryW]

>>>Luckily, most of the people downloading this stuff are people who wouldn't have paid to see the movie anyway... so it isn't really hurting Hollywood all that much.

 

[Tony Lai]

> but I still don't think it's right
No-one says it's right, what he's getting at is that it's done by people who have no concept of ownership and quality.
They boot these movies to CDR (50c each) and they share it around. Clearly some people will never buy movies or software of CD's... so there is no monetary loss but it's silly to get upset over a few kids spreading DiVX movies on CDR. They're hard up buying new computer gear so $20-40 DVD's are hardly their first choice...
My attitude is like Marie Antionette - let them eat cake. And no one will lose their head over it unlike what Jack Valenti puts forward.
T.

 

[Holadem]

The internet is like Hong Kong. Pirated films come out almost as soon as the actual prints are released!

You don't need to go to Hong Kong to see that. You can get any movie on the sidewalks of NYC several days before their release dates.
--
Holadem

 

[Mike__D]

"You can get any movie on the sidewalks of NYC several days before their release dates."
You can add Philadelphia to that list too. Back in college, my roomate picked up Pulp Fiction on the same day it was released.

 

[Yohan Pamudji]

Considering these screener discs are usually camcorder footage of in-theater showings, it's definitely true that these people care nothing about quality of presentation. They just like to brag about being first. I would guess that the majority of these people wouldn't pay to go see the movie or buy the DVD anyway, so there's no harm done to anyone financially.
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This screen has been formatted to fit your movie.

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Sorry, I don't buy that comment. Piracy effects all of us, and this doesn't seem right to me. Now maybe a 17 year old thinks it's no big deal and the loss of revenue to Hollywood might be insignifigant, but I still don't think it's right.

Speaking as a 28 year old who has downloaded many pirated movies in the past, I believe quite the opposite. More often than not, if I really liked the movie I downloaded, I ended up buying the DVD. I originally saw THE CELL, THE GIFT, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME and many other movies on downloaded DivX-format MPG, and I now own the DVD's of those titles. The fact of the matter is... these were not movies that motivated me enough to actually go to the theater. Were it not for the pirated versions and their ready availability, I would never have seen these movies and most likely never purchased the DVD's. I mean... I see a lot of ads for movies that I wouldn't pay to see. But if I can watch it for free, even in crappy quality, then I'm exposed to the product regardless and then have the opportunity to decide whether it is worth buying.
The flip side of the issue is this: If a movie was shit, I knew it before the DVD came out and didn't make the mistake of buying it. To me, this resultant filtering of bad movies kept me from buying a lot of movies that I otherwise would have purchased sight unseen, and hopefully this sort of thing happening en masse will motivate Hollywood to stop making such rehashed tired bullshit movies. We've seen this paradigm already in other markets that are open to piracy, such as computer software and CD-audio. Both of these markets are fluorishing, despite the fact that piracy of these products is now easier than ever. The movie industry will be no different.
A lot of people don't realize... I've been able to download movies for over 3 years, but before, it was more of an underground newsgroup/IRC scene. Jack Valenti and his cronies think that this is a NEW problem, but it is really a quite old occurrence that has just now come to their attention. As such, it's far too late to ever stop it... and Valenti still can not produce any numbers that show that ticket sales or home video sales/rental have decreased because of it. Did you get that? THERE HAS BEEN NO EVIDENCE THAT HOLLYWOOD HAS LOST REVENUES DUE TO PIRACY. Their argument hinges entirely on the theory that everyone who pirates a movie was going to pay to see that movie if they hadn't... which is erroneous at best.

 

[Ray R]

I agree that Hollywood needs this kind of pressure. How many times have you seen a well crafted trailer with cut and past movie critic comments that have enticed you to see a film only to realize after paying outrages movie ticket prices that you have been conned?
It's legal for a studio to have it's own employees pose as movie theater patrons talking up a movie for a commercial, but it is illegal for someone to preview a movie to determine if it is worth seeing or buying. The damn movie patrons lobby doesn't seem to be doing its job in Washington.

 

[RyanDinan]

I agree -
Unless you're downloading perfect copies of DVD .vob files, and have a DVD burner (or enough hard drive space) to store them and play them back, the quality of these pirated movies is pure crap. They're WATCHABLE at best. Forget about decent sound.
Until DVD-R drives and media come down in price (600 bucks for a 1x drive, and 12-16 bucks per DVD-R disc) it's just not cost-effective, nor worth the time for people to make perfect copies of DVD's.
The mass majority of people (including people who are computer savvy) will prefer to buy a legit copy of the movie since most DVD's are cheap, and offer lots of content.
I don't think these pirated, hand-held recordings that come out before the film is release hurts Hollywood one bit. I went to go see Monsters Inc in the theater, because I knew it would look and sound 20X better than what I could find on the net....Those just don't do a movie justice...
Now, if there were nice DVD transfers a day before the release that people could download fast, and burn to DVD-R - Then I could see Hollywood worrying.
-Ryan Dinan
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[GarryW]

Ryan:
You hit the nail right it on the head!

>>>Now, if there were nice DVD transfers a day before the release that people could download fast, and burn to DVD-R -Then I could see Hollywood worrying