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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

Bootleg Star Wars AotC Debuts on Internet 575

Posted by CmdrTaco from the goes-with-the-territory dept.
Arctic Fox writes "Matt Drudge is reporting that bootleg copies of the new Star Wars movie have been appearing on the internet one week before the movie's big screeen debut. The article says that they have used a tripod mounted camera at a pre-screening to tape it. Not known is if anyone is seen walking in front of the camera." I gotta admit, I find this amusing, although I'd never bother downloading it: I've had 12:01 tickets ready to go and there is no way I'm gonna spoil it watching a low quality divx.
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Bootleg Star Wars AotC Debuts on Internet More

Bootleg Star Wars AotC Debuts on Internet

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  • VCD (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 10, 2002 @09:58AM (#3496397)
    Just for clerification, it is a VCD not DivX, therefore it is MPEG1. It is also 2 CD's in size and was released by FTF. You can see the .nfo of the release from www.isonews.com

  • Better Info here (Score:3, Informative)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:02AM (#3496419) Journal
    Matt Drudge is citing the report in the LA Times (free reg required)

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-051002starwars. story?null [latimes.com]

    which is rather extensive, but is somewhat of a showcase of antipriracy arguments.

  • AP Story... (Score:2, Informative)

    by silent_poop ( 320948 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:03AM (#3496426)
    The AP is also running a story [yahoo.com].

  • Re:Hey now (Score:2, Informative)

    by russx2 ( 572301 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:04AM (#3496437)
    It is if the source medium is shite - which it is!

  • will have no effect on box office (Score:5, Informative)

    by dioscaido ( 541037 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:06AM (#3496453)
    Will this have any impact on ticket sales? Obviously not! I would dare anyone who would trade a grainy 320x200 shot of the movie for the real thing in the movie theaters.

    LOTRs was out on Morpheus before the movie came it, and it still had amazing revenues.

  • Re:Prove it ... Where is it ... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:26AM (#3496592)
    It's out, it's real, it's not very good quality but it's not a DIVX. You may find it in DIVX form but it was not released as such. Yes 99% of the DIVX crap you find on kazaa / gnutella / whatever is mislabeled but that's just because p2p networks blow.

    As for quality, I would post a screenshot but slashdot does not allow attachments so I'll simply tell you how it was made. Someone took a high quality digital camera, put it on a tripod, attached a direct audio feed (no hollow theater sound), and recorded.

    I have no intention of watching it in this form, quality isn't good enough but I am very impressed by the early release. Nice job FTF.

  • Re:Prove it ... Where is it ... (Score:3, Informative)

    by ymgve ( 457563 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:28AM (#3496599) Homepage
    Look here. [vcdquality.com] It's real, but crappy, like you'd expect it to be.

  • Link to quality of bootleg (Score:5, Informative)

    by mh_tang ( 307188 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:40AM (#3496692)
    It looks like the article got the Drudge Report got their screen capture images from VCD Quality [vcdquality.com], a website that reports release news for pirated movies in VCD, SVCD, and DivX formats. Drudge even snipped out VCD Quality's URL from the image... Pretty shady reporting.

    But from the reviews, it looks like this bootleg of ATOC isn't worth your download time. It's currently polling at 5.7 out of 10 for image quality, and 6.2 out of 10 for sound. Even for a VCD, that's pretty low. And of course, the JPG screen cap looks like a blurry mess. However bad the quality is, it is impressive that FTF was able to release SW Ep2 so early. Check out the comments forum to see what people (well, if you consider "5kR1p7 k1DDi3z" to be actual people) are saying about this bootleg.

  • Re:hmm (Score:3, Informative)

    by ChazeFroy ( 51595 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:54AM (#3496751) Homepage
    Here's a link [isonews.com] to the group's NFO file that released it. The only thing of value in it, aside from the usual cast, plot, etc:

    SUPPLiER....:[TEAM FTFVCD] SiZE:Cd1:xx/50 CD2:xx/45]
    RUNTiME.....:[132 min] FORMAT....:[NTSC VCDTS ]

    We are pleased to bring you this early release of One of the most anticipated movies of the summer. We enjoy helping the scene out wherever we can. Haters don't bother us, fans we appreciate.

  • Re:Bootlegs are a Way of Life in Asia (Score:5, Informative)

    by mh_tang ( 307188 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @10:56AM (#3496762)
    This is not exactly the case of someone sneaking a Sony HandyCam into a theater and taping among the audience. According to VCD Quality [vcdquality.com], the FTF release of AToC is a TELESYNC, which basically means that it's a high-end camera pointed at a screen, with audio recorded from the source (to eliminate audience noise). So it's better than most Cam recordings that you're alluding to. Check here [vcdhelp.com] for definitions of how movies are bootlegged.

    That said, it's still a pretty crappy release in terms of quality. I'm sure that within a week, they'll have at least SVCD screeners or workprints available for downloads.

  • Upon Analysis of the Sample Video (Score:5, Informative)

    by NeuroManson ( 214835 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @11:27AM (#3496976) Homepage
    This is either a prerelease screener for review or for movie theater employees (I'm guessing the latter)... It's good quality, not fantastic, obviously made from a quick and dirty optical print dubbed to VHS... Not shot in a theater or with a camera...

    If you look at the sample MPEG, you'll note a fuzzy edge to the bottom and right side of the video, which indicates masking that normally occurs in a film to video direct transfer- They usually invest more effort in making retail versions cleaner...

    A camera captured version would usually be a little off kilter, chop off a significant portion of the screen, and as was mentioned, occasionally have another audience member either walking through a shot, or coughing, or their cel phone would be going off here and there...

  • DMCA != DMCA (Score:3, Informative)

    by yerricde ( 125198 ) on Friday May 10, 2002 @12:41PM (#3497533) Homepage Journal

    The DMCA is not the solution here.

    The DMCA is not the "DMCA".

    There are two laws both called the DMCA. One DMCA consists of 17 USC chapter 12 [cornell.edu], which prohibits cracking 8-bit XOR encryption used as an access control device. The other DMCA consists of a takedown procedure (17 USC 512 [cornell.edu]) that ISPs can follow to maintain a safe harbor. There are also several riders on the DMCA that reverse MAI v. Peak, protect vessel hulls, and affect some operations of the U.S. Copyright Office. See this PDF [loc.gov] for more information.

    It is simply copyright infringment. Plain, old fashioned copyright infringment. Its illegal, period.

    I agree 100%.

  • Re:Prove it ... Where is it ... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 10, 2002 @01:23PM (#3497837)
    FTF-SWEP2.nfo
    FTF-SWEP2a.cue
    FTF-SWEP2a.bin
    FTF-SWEP2b.cue
    FTF-SWEP2b.bin


    try edonk

  • Re:Better Info here (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 10, 2002 @01:31PM (#3497895)
    A version that does not require registration is at

    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-051 002starwars.story [latimes.com]

    (Posting anon. to avoid charges of karma-whoring.)

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