In the past, movie piracy bootleggers snuck video cameras into movie premieres and came out with grainy, recorded versions of new movies. Kids would then find these movies online and download them (for free) in mass droves. However, the MPAA has a more sophisticated enemy to contend with these days, as more and more near-perfect copies get pressed into cheap DVDs, which are then distributed online, giving the box office and DVD manufacturers a more legitimate run for their money. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “The Hulk” and “Star Wars III” have been some of the biggest upsets in recent years, costing the movie industry billions of dollars.
One approach to putting an end to the piracy of movies is to crack down harder on the source of the pirated copies. According to Executive director of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft, Neil Gane, “Over 90 per cent of first-release pirated movies originate from illegal recordings being made in cinemas.” He says they’re working closely with cinema management to combat new download and pirated DVD leaks. He adds, “We are also focusing on syndicates that download and manufacture in large quantities, looking to cut off that element of supply.” Recently, a South Australian man received a 7-month suspended jail sentence for possessing more than 10,000 pirated movies, as well as DVD burning equipment.
While movie piracy is generally cast in an unfavorable light, there are some movies that have actually benefited from file sharing. “X’s and O’s,” which is an independent film directed by Kedar Korde and distributed on Amazon in June, garnered no real public interest. Then someone pirated a copy on BitTorrent and suddenly 150,000 people watched the motion picture in one week’s time! “I joked with Kedar last week that he just made an $850,000 viral video…” laughed editor Christopher Hill, adding, “we’re pretty thrilled.” To capitalize off this increased attention, Kedar is re-releasing the film in December and is also considering a TV deal that popped up.
Combating movie piracy may seem like a basic issue, as people wonder, “Why not just clamp down on the people making the movie if all these new releases seem to be high-quality inside jobs?” Yet, on a big production, there could be as many as 500 people working on top movies from the film shoot to the editing suite to the distribution channels. Naturally, policing every individual is an insurmountable task. Once the first leak occurs, it’s even harder to track down the movie’s pathway to the masses as millions of downloads and file sharing transactions occur in mere moments. “We’re doing everything we can to keep up with the learning curve of technology,” says Keith Bolcar, a cyber crime FBI agent from LA, “hopefully just as fast as our criminal subjects.”
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