How Many 2005 Oscar-Nominated Films Are Online Already?

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.waxy.org/archive/2005/02/07/pirating.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.waxy.org/archive/2005/02/07/pirating.shtml</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Last year, I published some not-too-surprising research that revealed all but one Oscar-nominated film leaked onto the Internet. Let's see if the industry's evolving efforts to plug the leaks were any more effective this year. Below is a list of every Oscar-nominated film, excluding foreign language and documentary categories, with the date of US theatrical release and the first date the industry screener was leaked to the Internet. The results? Out of 30 movies, all but five screener copies were leaked online by pirate groups."</i><br /><br />Are you surprised by these results? I was wondering what people's thoughts are on this subject. Obviously there are those (many) who download these movies which is why there is such a big market for it. But for those of you, like me, who either pay money to watch it in the theatre or wait until it is legitimately out on DVD, what are your thoughts on the subject?

[sub_tex]

Surprised? Not at all.

It's just further indication that in today's world, we want our stuff digital and we want it now.

The sooner the movie studios get their stuff online, the better. Quit complaining about digital movie download theft, and release them yourself.

$5 a movie would be great for an Xvid 700 meg file. I doubt any studio will be letting us grab gigs of uncompressed DVD video.

Of course, they won't go this route for a long long time--if ever. They'll make it windows only or some crap. Try and put limitations into how many times you can watch it/how long you can rent it, etc.

Which is just a useless fight. People will break EVERY protection scheme you can think of. Period.

If your prices and practices are good and reasonable, people won't bother trying to break them. It won't be worth the effort.

I look to eReader's DRM scheme. While I hate DRM period, their solution is most user-friendly I've ever used. No activations, no per-machine garbage.

And it's interesting that their's is the only DRm scheme not axtively being decompiled/cracked. Yet MS Reader .lit decompilers are all over the place as are locked PDFs (which I refuse to acknowledge as ebooks anyhow).

[TomB]

Your favorite film might cost $20 million to produce and $50 million to promote. The promotion with the film's cast is what drives desire for any title. If everything goes straight to net distribution, that all important promo period disappears. That is why what you suggest is not likely to every happen. As far as my personal experience. A friend's teen nephew picked up a copy of "Meet The Fockers" for three bucks. This was not from a screener but an in-theater taping and the results were unbearable. I had to see it, but left after the first ten minutes. I felt like I was watching a poor TV sitcom. I need to see the DVD when it is released but what I saw completely destroyed the viewing experience for me.

[Philip Colmer]

I must confess to being surprised - I thought that they'd introduced a different way of distributing the screeners so that the discs would only play on a specific player?

A couple of thoughts:

1. I'd be interested in TV shows available legitimately on the Internet. If I'm watching a series and miss an episode, I might be prepared to pay a reasonable amount - certainly less than a cinema ticket price - to watch that missing episode. There are quite a few series where I wouldn't want to have to buy the whole season on DVD just to see the one I missed.

2. I think I'll stick to watching the films in the cinema and/or buying legitimate releases on DVD. I'm not too fussed about the release schedule - I don't mind waiting.

--Philip

[sub_tex]

Your favorite film might cost $20 million to produce and $50 million to promote. The promotion with the film's cast is what drives desire for any title. If everything goes straight to net distribution, that all important promo period disappears.

I'm not saying they need to go straight to the net. After film release and before DVD sales, put it on the net. Heck, the week of release they could do it too (or after 2-4 weeks if they wanna milk the theater only). Though why you would wait on making more money makes no sense to me.

Your point stands if it was straight to net. But once the film is in theaters, you don't see people promoting DVD sales on talk shows.

This was not from a screener but an in-theater taping and the results were unbearable. I had to see it, but left after the first ten minutes. I felt like I was watching a poor TV sitcom. I need to see the DVD when it is released but what I saw completely destroyed the viewing experience for me.

In-thater vids have always sucked. The sort of people who watch those aren't movie lovers to begin with. The movies online are not in-theater recordings. They're DVD rips.

Heck, in the subways here in NY people burn those downloaded videos and sell them on their blankets for $8-10. That's the new bootleg. In-0theater recordings get no love.

[jgoode]

There is a new site that offers new and older digital films and digital media online. It is www.9thx.com and looke pretty cool. all of the content seems legal and copyroghted.

jgoode