The Two Towers Hits the Net 893
tfreport writes "The Drudge Report is reporting that The Two Towers has already began to be file swapped online. This is four months before the movie is set to debut! An executive in New York promised if this is indeed part of the film that they would be punishing anyone and everyone that downloads the film or distributes it to the full extent of the law."
This isn't good (Score:2, Interesting)
Now this is crap...
Useless (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Useless (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Useless (Score:2, Informative)
I've been using a gnutella servent on both win32 and linux platforms for a few months and there's an interesting phenomenon with the popular clients
90% of the peers you see are "near" you (on the same continent).
In the case of gnutella (I don't know about edonkey et al. and I don't want to start a flamewar), the "web" design of the protocol has the client preferably store the most responsive (closest) hosts it encounters, so usually you don't find a japanese machine in your peer when you connect from europe (YMMV, tel me, I'm curious).
My point is, when you search for LOTR in your gnutella client from the US, you won't find my friend Marcel who just downloaded it in France. Maybe after a 8-day search, maybe not. Maybe he has already deleted/burnt it on CD anyway, so the only proof remaining is a few erroneous search hits to a dynamic IP that will be hard to trace/repress.
One it's here on the net, it's lost to them. Sorry Hollywood. Lower your prices. There are still guys like me that love going to the movies, but we grow tired. Oh, and ban cellphones too
Re:Useless (Score:3, Insightful)
We survived without cell phones for the past 100,000 years, banning them in movie theaters (or just blocking them) is hardly going to cause the downfall of society.
Re:Useless (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Useless (Score:2)
Not just confiscate everything, confiscate everything and auction it off before the trial. This is a War, remember, and they've established with the War on Drugs that they're allowed to do that.
We would love to see this one (Score:5, Insightful)
Up to now, public awareness of the privacy and freedom problems posed by these two sectors of society is close to inexistent. The general public does not care much about this or that law, as long as some Britney has a new CD every six to nine months and the theaters have some new movies every summer.
Now, if you start jailing their sons and daughters, confiscating their properties and suing them into poverty for the sake of Disney, Sony and such other oh so poor companies, I believe we will see a backslash these guys won't forget for generations.
Some suggested the public reaction to the war on drugs should be seem as a sign that nothing will happen yet again. But I think these are two very different issues. Drugs and its criminal status are linked to issues like poverty, racism, mental illness and heavy health hazards. Britney is the opposite of it, as is Mickey Mouse. Jailing people for not paying a few bucks to very rich artists and companies will not be easily sold as a "Save the children" issue. Whose children, will ask John Doe, Hillary's? The Emperor's clothes will get pretty invisible here.
After that we will probably see the tide that will finnaly make some young executives sit back and start thinking about a new business model capable of keeping the money flowing instead of new laws.
Re:Useless (Score:5, Funny)
Executive: Look! There's another one...
Judge: *sigh*
Executive: I dunno who this 'Peer' guy is, but he's good at covering up his tracks.
Why do SLASHDOTers think is is okay to steal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why has this anrachaic "free love" notion got perverted in to greedy self absorbed and self justifed crimminal behavior.
Re:Why do SLASHDOTers think is is okay to steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why do SLASHDOTers think is is okay to steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Let us assume, for the moment, that copyright infringement is a perfectly moral thing to do. It isn't theft (and I personally believe that it is, but I am suspending that opinion for this hypothetical example), so the law takes no steps to prevent it occurring. In this hypothetical world, Blockbuster rents you the DVD burner along with The Two Towers. You get the blank DVD media for free if you rent TWO films. They are making money, you are happily making your copies, and no one suffers at all.
Erm, except for perhaps Peter Jackson, and the hundreds of cast and crew members who spent years laboring to make the film that you didn't pay for. Of course, I'm sure that Ian McKellen and Sean Astin and John Rhys-Davies and Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee are all philanthropists: they don't care that you deprive them of a sizeable percentage of their livelihood.
If you really don't care that such films are made again, download and copy away. All of the rest of us will be so happy that you are "sticking it to the man" that we won't lynch you in the streets as our own act of civil disobedience when your actions cause such films to no longer be made. Really, we won't.
If you take something from me without my permission, and against my will, then you are a thief, pure and simple. That "something" doesn't have to be tangible. However, what we are talking about here IS tangible: the profits that you are depriving me of. Or Christopher Lee of. Or Peter Jackson of.
Any other argument is pure bullshit, even if the perpetrators have lied to themselves, self-brainwashed, I would call it, to justify their theft. Remember, it is possible to justify almost anything if you lack morals and you feel that your need is greater than that of your victims.
Just my
Re:Why do SLASHDOTers think is is okay to steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Property itself is an invention of society. IP is a more recent invention. Property rights are enforced for the good of society.
Property is an essential part of capitalism, one cannot have a functioning capitalist society without strong property rights.
The concept of IP [copyrights, patents, trademarks] is enforced to bring IP into capitalist framework. It works fairly well, however the fact that IP can be copied for free makes a big difference to the optimal balance that can be achieved.
Capitalism is successful principally because it is a good mechanism for optimal distribution and use of scarce resources. If the resources aren't intrinsically scarce, introducing artificial scarcity [through IP laws] might not be the best option.
As the world advances virtually the entire output of society becomes IP. With nanotech and replicators the IP content of material goods will be even more significant component. In such a world, allowing everybody access to all IP would make everybody massively richer.
Then one is left with the problem of incentive. Without IP laws what incentive is there for people to create new stuff. However, in post scarcity society, one would function in a gift economy anyway. Once basic needs are taken care of people do stuff for sense of worth and status, creative types are not just going to sit on their asses even if IP is abolished.
For the moment this just seems a bit far out, but in a 100 years it will be obvious [probably]. It helps to understand that this is a desirable direction to move in, even though we're not quite ready for it yet.
Re:Why do SLASHDOTers think is is okay to steal? (Score:4, Interesting)
There is no requirement in American law than a crowd of protesters sign in at the beginning of their march.
Re:Why do SLASHDOTers think is is okay to steal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not that hackneyed old BS again. The Money that you would have paid for the services that were performed in creating the media has a very real aspect to it. when you take the media without paying for it, it's theft of services, and no different than an employer that refuses to hand out a paycheck to a programmer after a month of coding because it's just ones and zeros on a hard drive.
Sometimes I really wish there were a -1, Dumb Analogy moderation. I could use up a lifetime's worth of mod points in a single thread with that one.
Here's the deal. Try to follow along as best you can, please. I personally own quite a few legally purchased movies and music albums. I also openly admit that I own quite a few "illegaly" obtained [1] movies and MP3s.
Lets start with the "legal" copies. These are movies and music that I purchased (albiet at a fairly high price) because I believe that everyone involved in the production process of this content--from writers to editors--put a lot of hard work and dedication into the creation of the content and deserve to see the results of their work in terms of sales and royalties.
Now on to the "illegal" copies. These are copies of music and movies and whatnot that, 99% of the time, I have not watched or listened yet to but am at least curious enough to try it out. How many people in this slashdot discussion are seriously wealthy enough to go to a movie or CD store and pay $20-$30 for a single title that only might be worth it? Please. That's ridiculous. I choose to download "illegal" content not because I'm some sort of cheapass, but because I want to be able to sample what's out there without completely breaking the bank.
How about this factual scenario:
A friend on mine on IRC offered to send me a mix tape of Tori Amos [toriamos.com] music, an artist who I previously had no knowledge of. Under current US copyright law, this is a completely illegal act. I listened to the tape, decided that she was a brilliant artist, and now have well over $100 worth of her albums in my "legal" music collection. That one "illegal" copied tape earned the record compay a decent chunk of change and ended up getting me the kind of music that I wanted... the very cornerstone of a capitalist economy.
This is not an isolated incident. It happens all the time, and continues to happen for me. So before you all you moral holier-than-thous start screaming "piracy!", you might well consider the nearly direct correlation the past few years between the increase of online file trading and the increase of the record and movie studio profits.
(And, btw, I do have a bone to pick about the relationship between content distributors and artists, but that's a different thread altogether.)
----
1. Yep, obtained from The Devil Himself!
Except its not stealing. (Score:4, Insightful)
And you missed the point, its the music and movie industry who are the greedy, not the users.
Re:Bullsh**! (Score:4, Interesting)
NO! They are not! They are trying to rake it in, again and again and again!
I thought StarTrek:TNG on VHS - Does this mean I'm allowed to download an episode from the net? NOO. But I thought I had payed for it - what did i pay for? The tape? The plastic box? Very little it seems! Then they issue it on CD - I can't get them for free... ok i suppose its costs them a bit to make the cd, but the price is still very much more than what i payed for the tape! I think that's greed - and no amount of And no amount of rationalisation on your part is likely to change that.
And i don't know about your friends or whatever, but for myself, i support what i like: They have been showing The West Wing, and next month the first season will be out on DVD (here in Europe), and I have already preordered it - I know they are probably going to fleece me again, but this is such good tv from a country not really know for that, so i just have to support it.
At least this time I can be fairly certain the material will last for a long time..
Re:Why do SLASHDOTers think is is okay to steal? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Why do SLASHDOTers think is is okay to steal? (Score:4, Insightful)
To borrow your fireworks example - we don't invoke a curfew in surrounding neighborhoods to keep residents from seeing the fireworks.
Nobody here is arguing that artists shouldn't be compensated. We're arguing that the way in which the industry is seeking to get them compensated (forced pay-per-play through legislative manipulation) is wrong. We simply want to continue to allow property laws be shaped by the country's technological and economic environment.
Further, I argue that there exists at least one point in the progression of any technology at which the society / industry benefit curves cross - a point at which the benefit to society in total (directly and through potential new industries) becomes greater than that achieved by stifling technology to maintain the economic status quo.
Repeated, with context: If you lock down hardware end-to-end with DRM and prosecute everyone who shares a CD semi-publicly, don't be surprised when nobody buys the hardware and nobody uses the network.
And when that happens, at least for the sake of consistency, can you come back and do a "think of the children" speech about all of the out-of-work network/systems engineers?
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
4 months? (Score:5, Funny)
Spoilers? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:4 months? (Score:2)
Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well... (Score:2, Insightful)
Going after (and hence scaring off) the customers is their only chance. Otherwise, wherever there is demand, there will ALWAYS be supply.
Re:Well... (Score:2)
Copyright infringment should be a civil matter, not a criminal one.
I know who leaked it (Score:2)
Bet there getting the biggest bonus they've had for a while.
Agents Provocateur or Serendipitous Opportunity? (Score:2)
It isn't beyond the realm of possibility that the footage was deliberately released in order to create exactly the kind of stir Hollywood needs to push through legislation and FCC regulatory interpretations designed to take away the last of our digital freedoms and complete the conversion of the internet from an interactive medium of information exchange into a glorified Home Shopping Network.
More likely, the emberrassment of having "one of their own" exposed as the culprit would diminish the MPAA's political efforts, so while they view the breach as unfortunate, the also will use it as a fortuitious political opportunity, and frighten the restless masses back onto the couch where they belong.
Either way, these thugs have far more incentive to avoid cleaning up their own houses while forcibly breaking into ours.
Re:Agents Provocateur or Serendipitous Opportunity (Score:2)
Re:Well... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Well... (Score:2, Insightful)
If it is that good that pirate copies are in circulation, do they really need a marketing campaign?
Sheesh, dude, the LOTR geeks make up a VERY small proportion of moviegoers. If just the geeks saw the movie, it would be dismal failure. Marketing it to promote it to normal, once-to-couple-times-a-month movie people as well as the I-go-to-movies-when-there's-something-good people (I wouldn't be surprised if the latter is a majority of people).
Re:Well... (Score:2, Funny)
This is just pathetic... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is just pathetic... (Score:4, Interesting)
If this is legit material, than perhaps the movie industry should worry more about security than howling after the fact.
It's been said countless times, that the internet as broadcast medium could do far more positive things for the movie industry than harmful, if handled correctly. We all know how dense the people at the top are though...
I don't know what is more tragic. The fact that someone has the balls to smuggle this out, or the fact that the movie industry is too stupid to not capitilize on a medium that obviously their fans use daily.
Maybe the movie industry really *isn't* worried... (Score:5, Interesting)
[ conspiracy mode ]
Additionally, intentionally releasing a relatively clean copy of a movie that they know will be heavily traded provides them a great bullet point in presentations to Congress about how those eterrorist hackers are trading complete movies online and legislation needs to be immediately enacted to give them full search-and-seizure rights to your computer.
[
Re:Maybe the movie industry really *isn't* worried (Score:3, Interesting)
If they leaked different sub-versions, each with a special "marker" in it to track how far they travelled online.
Think of the potential marketing statistics and numbers they could churn out the next time they want to justify exactly what you stated, namely how all the eTerrorists are infiltrating their industry and causing such a downturn in the economy... (my heart breaks...
I'll say it again. The United States is NOT the center of the universe.
These people need to grow up, take a good look around at this world we live in, and realize that money doesn't solve everything.
The security cannot exist (Score:5, Informative)
I translated Episodes I and II for local release and I had them on tape several months before the U.S. release. Imagine the pressure when you cannot tell anyone. :)
Re:This is just pathetic... (Score:2, Insightful)
The logic of this is that if I leave my front door open and somebody steals all my videos, it is my fault for being stupid enough to leave the door open. The level of security breached is irrelavent, the fact that theft occurs is.
Re:This is just pathetic... (Score:2, Insightful)
You'll only screw yourselves... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd rather wait 4 months and pay my money to see it the way it is intended ! - BIG SCREEN, dolby surround sound, comfy chair, popcorn etc.
Did you watch it? (Score:2)
Re:Did you watch it? (Score:2)
The first one was excellent (Score:2)
The first one was excellent quality (divx) and good sound. I watched it on a 21 LCD at a friend's house and it was better than any rental video, not quite but almost on par with DVD.
That having been said, I too declined a copy when offered and am going to purchase the director's cut DVD when it comes out in December (it will be the first DVD I've bought in two years, and likely the only one, and the only reason I'm buying it at all is because I watched the bootleg and enjoyed it enough that I wish to pay something back to the creators.)
Don't kid yourself, if the quality is on par with the last bootleg I saw, it will be very good indeed.
Re:You'll only screw yourselves... (Score:3, Funny)
but... no smoking..
Re:You'll only screw yourselves... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:You'll only screw yourselves... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:You'll only screw yourselves... (Score:2)
That 6 month delay doesn't happen any more, big films are often released at the same time, others within a month or 2. And while you can play video cd (mpeg 1) on a DVD player, the quality sucks. If you can't tell, you need a new TV
Re:You'll only screw yourselves... (Score:2)
This is not to say that spreading around an unfinished movie is a good thing (don't they typically work on these right up to the end, or is that just Lucas??), but without seeing it, it isn't fair to knock the quality.
Heh... (Score:5, Informative)
Either way, plainly put, the quality is going to suck, the movie is worth seeing no matter what, I'll just consider the alleged posting (if I find it) as an appetizer before watching it on a massive movie screen with full Dolby Digital surround...
If one followed the logic of the idiots in Hollyweird, anyone who ever read Tolkein is already in violation of their hush hush rules...
I mean come ON now, who here hasn't actually read the books by Tolkein? Bueller? Bueller? We know how the story goes, the movie is just a way to see how well the books can be fleshed out... Kind of like Cameron's Titanic (spoiler alert: The ship sinks)...
Re:Heh... (Score:2)
I preferred the book of TFOTR - the special effects were much better (in my version at least) ;-)
Re:Heh... (Score:2, Informative)
I haven't. I did try, several years ago, but really couldn't get into it. It seemed to me that Tolkien spent far too much time trying to set the scene, and not enough just telling the story. With a film I can see the scene, and only have to follow the story. Although to be honest, I didn't think much of that either, after seeing it. Guess I'm just not a fan.
Re:Heh... (Score:2)
Re:Heh... (Score:2)
You're American, right?
Erm... (Score:3, Funny)
I think all this nonsens about ring to be vastly inflated, I was dragged along to see number 1 and wasn't impressed. I'll be dragged a long to see number 2 and i suspect I won't be to impressed there either.
And whats with this supposed power of that ring? I haven't seen any special powers, ok it makes Bilbo invisible, but that's it apparently! Does it shoot laser beams! Does it move mountains! Can it make them fly (hell no, they have to walk!) - face it, its just a cheap trinket Sauron had crafted to impress the chicks down at Ye Olde Drunken Dragon Cafe.
Oh, and want a real spoiler? The ring did it!
DVD rip of FOTR (Score:2, Insightful)
If I recall correctly (and if I don't, I expect I will be politely corrected...) the rip of FOTR came from an Academy (read: Oscars) DVD that was circulated to possible voters. It came out quite a while after the cinema release of the movie itself; the first FOTR rip I saw was at a party in February, and that was from a camcorder.
Right now there is no complete TTT movie to send to Academy voters on DVD. There *might* be a rough-cut (no SFX, duff music, gaps with a whiteboard reading "big battle scene here") but that's all there is. Peter Jackson is still fine-tuning the release version (come on guys, you know what it's like trying to get finished code out the door...)
Look within, Grasshopper! (Score:5, Insightful)
But then again, maybe the recent availablity of Emniem on file sharing networks before the release, and the excellent sales has inspired your marketing department.
Scary stuff... (Score:5, Funny)
*shivers in fear*
Hopefully, no executives from New York dressed in black will come into my innocent house in northern Sweden to punish me to the maximum extent of the law.
Re:Scary stuff... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Scary stuff... (Score:2)
Well, that does it. I'll just have to keep a low profile then so I'm hopefully not be discovered until winter, when the peeps at Jukkasjärvi builds their annual ice hotel [icehotel.com]. I'll hide there until all this mess has cooled (no pun intended!) down a bit. Hopefully, hiding there will confuse the NY executives enough to not find me. Or do they look in ice hotels too? aaah
Cracked or leaked? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Cracked or leaked? (Score:2)
If this is the case, their network admin should be fired. No matter what resolution, that would have to be one huge file transfer to go unnoticed on a corporate LAN uplink.
Myself, I'm betting it may be a working copy but I bet a number of effects shots are either still low-res versions or simply missing. I have a real hard time believing the film is even done, considering today's effect shop deadlines seeming to back right up against the release date. Either that or some s00per-l33+ skr1p+ k1dd13 was simply bragging about having an animated version.
Attributing blame. (Score:5, Interesting)
You know, simply NOT allowing their staff to send emails full of huge mpg files, or carry out CDRWs full of company assets would seem to be a good idea, would it not? It'd certainly be easier to stop this sort of thing at the source.
Imagine if the mints (places that "make" money - not the sweets) had security this lax? Everyone in the country would be a potential criminal. Mind you, the RIAA already think this, so...
Re:Attributing blame. (Score:2)
Who wants to watch it anyway ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Who the hell would like to view an unfinished, probably mostly-SFX-free, score-free, unperfect version of the Two Towers ?
I want to watch it in the better conditions possible, not a shitty tiny pre-alpha version. I would watch that even if I was forced to. This is just ridiculous.
Cinema is art. You don't steal somebody's unfinished painting just to have a peak at it before anybody else, do you ? Let's wait for the final, fully worked movie. That's what we are wainting for.
Re:Who wants to watch it anyway ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Low points for me were having Frodo transported into Rivendell by Liv Tyler when in the source it is one of the defining moments of his character as he resists the Riders on his own, and the way that every journey appears to take exactly one day, and the film in total about a week, despite the source taking place over some months.
The film was made for people who are distinctly non-fanatical, people who have not read the books. Its only redeeming feature is that it may bring more people to read the books and come to see how poor the film is.
This is all relative to the books. On its own, the film is reasonably good, but by claiming to be a film of that story it is very poor.
Umm (Score:5, Informative)
I kinda get the feeling that Matt Drudge has been taken on a leeeeetle wild goose chase.
That is, unless anyone can reliably confirm that they have downloaded it and it is the real thing (something I seriously doubt, I would expect it to still be in post production at 4 months from release).
It's real. (Score:5, Informative)
And, yes, they filmed them all at the same time... though they didn't do the production work (touch-ups, choose which scenes, special-effects, etc.) on all three at once. It appears that they have just recently either finished production on TTT, or have come near enough to have a darn good movie available to us leechers!
We will punish EVERYONE! (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, I don't really have any desire to see a crappy copy beforehand. The first film was good enough that I'd like the full-on experience of seeing it in the theater. But I will go ahead and see if I can find the trailer somewhere, just for kicks.
P2P is just technology, not good or bad... (Score:4, Informative)
And the fact of the matter is.....Most people won't download it and t ones that do
will only cause a spreading oif the word as to whether or not it's a good movie.
Hmmmm, how much money could be saved in mass marketing if replaced with the word of
mouth die hard big file swapers?
Re:P2P is just technology, not good or bad... (Score:2)
Hmmmm, how much money could be saved in mass marketing if replaced with the word of mouth die hard big file swapers?
I'm a regular /. reader, typically munching through most of my pre-allocated 15 ad-free comment views per day of my subscription. I'm pretty die-hard geek; you have to be to do what I do at work (which I can't publically discuss until 2005, sadly). My wife is the only other real die-hard geek I know of at this point, and she's not into this whole file sharing thing either. I've been known to turn to Gnutella to snag a file instead of unpacking my CDs from my move. With a collection of 500+, unpacking and organizing each time we move is a chore. If I have a copy, I figure it's legal. Enough background. You know where I'm coming from. Suffice it to say that I've not ready any Tolkein novels after The Hobbit because of how much time I've spent on the computer.
I've never downloaded a cinema feature, whether or not I've owned it (how long would it take to squeeze through my horridly capped cable modem?). I sure won't download Twin Towers, and because of my limited exposure to other file sharing folk, I wouldn't even know it was coming out if it weren't for the expensive mass marketing you propose to eliminate. Sure, I'd read on /. about how this was the first movie to skip the expensive advertising campaign, but I likely wouldn't hear about the second.
P2P people tend to have an over-inflated view of themselves and the impact of their sub-culture. My unsupported personal belief is that the RIAA/MPAA heard of this P2P thing, how easy it was and how many download starts happened. They didn't bother to investigate how many of those were first-starts or how many were re-starts because of a failed download. Certainly the P2P generation is having an impact on the entertainment industry, but I don't think that it's as significant as everyone estimates. There was a time when everyone at work was checking it out, but strangely they don't have computers where they play music. Do normal lay-people have MP3 decoders in their cars, entertainment centers or work-out class sports walkmans yet? All that I know ended up listening to their pirated songs once or twice and then junking them, having investigated the novelty and realizing how much hard drive space they used up in the endeavor. Nobody I know of has the patience for the expected quality of a cinema feature download.
Already debunked. It's a fake (Score:5, Informative)
Rumour That TTT is on the Internet Appears False
The Drudge Report [drudgereport.com] has reported a rumour that
The Two Towers is already available on the internet. WinMX and Kazaa carry
several files purporting to be some version of the film, however they all
appear to be fakes. Thanks to Sir Mordred, Moses and several other Barliman's
chatters for helping me check these files out.
Why is it.... (Score:2)
I smell hypocrisy.
Re:Why is it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Can you point to one positively-moderated comment here that's "cheered" the theft of the movie? Maybe I missed it, but the closest I saw was someone calling the studios morons for saying they were going after downloaders instead of trying to plug the leak. And that's not close at all.
2. Despite what you may have heard, the people who post on slashdot do not share a mind. They may therefore have a wide range of conflicting views on any number of topics, including copyright law. That is not hypocrisy.
Does it matter? (Score:2)
I do predict however that the revenues on Part Two will be lower. This because of the perceived downturn in the economy and parents therefore less willing to shell out large amounts of money around december.
Re:Does it matter? (Score:2)
In order to combat the effects of piracy... (Score:5, Funny)
</tasteless>
The full extent of the law! (Score:2)
Good luck finding the IP address of every single person on Kazza or Gnutella who is distributing this, then downloading the file from them to keep as evidence against them and them proving it was actually that person who was using that computer at the time.
Re:The full extent of the law! (Score:2)
I don't believe it is. However, downloading of copyright material without the consent of the rights holder IS illegal.
And they don't need to d/l the file from them. It would be more effective as a scare tactic to warrant -> take the computer, and pretty easy too.
Don't shoot the messenger.
The movie experience (Score:2, Insightful)
Dammit, I've waited 30 years to see this movie done right on the big (not just large) screen, and I'll gladly pay the $15 for me and my wife to see it in the theater on openning night.
This is FAKE (Score:2)
Irony.... (Score:2, Interesting)
And now US companies are educating the world on the ethics and legal consequenses of infringing on their copyrights. Wherever the money is eh ?
COOL! ITS THE DVD! I'M DOWNLOADING IT NOW! (Score:5, Funny)
69,914,794 of 6,442,450,944 bytes
1% Complete
2,214,592 seconds remaining...
If it's 4 months before the release now, I'm going to be able to see it a full *3 months* before the rest of you suckers!
Laugh all you want, but I know whose door *you'll* be knocking on, come September 28th, once the download is complete!
-- Terry
You shouldn't waste your time downloading it (Score:3, Informative)
What I am confused about... (Score:2)
The movie industry needs to get its shit together.
What the article doesn't say... (Score:2)
Of course, the article wont't tell you that this is probably the same Madison Avenue marketing exec whose decision it was to release the "pirated" version of the movie onto the net to begin with. And what better way to call attention to it than to "complain" about it in the national media?
Seriously, hasn't anybody noticed that this kind of thing doesn't happen to the lower-budget and/or lamer flicks? Always the "highly anticipated" (by who?) "pending blockbuster" crap that gets splashed across the net and the news like this. The kinds of movies that have more than enough money involved to make sure these kinds of leaks don't happen.
The MPAA are downright experts on the uses and exploitations of digital rights management technology. Wouldn't it be child's play for them to fingerprint copies of the pre-release before dispersing them? What about asking why Bob over there is coming into the screening with a camcorder and a CD-burner? So why is their security so "lax" in these situations? Do I really need to spell it out for you?
The studio released its own "totally unauthorized" copy of the movie to build up yet more hype. It's actually quite cheap for them and effective on a consistent basis. After all, it's not like they have to pay sites like Slashdot to join in on the marketing bandwagon as well. Free advertising and teasing the raving fan(antics) as well.
Do the
Salivating Thieves: Stealing A Movie Not Fair Use (Score:5, Interesting)
"Rumour That TTT is on the Internet Appears False" (Score:4, Informative)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Informative)
It appears orinally on bbspot.com
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2002/05/spiderman2.h
Re:In other news... (Score:2)
I tried to find another comment to pirate, but all I could fine were some comments with the first five words repeared over and over.
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Interesting)
Normally I'm against blatent plaguarism; but in this case it's ironic - so no need for the mod-downs.
Admit it you just wish you'd thought of it first; I know I do ;)
Re:Already finished (Score:2)
IIRC All three movies were filmed in one go. So Return of the King is in the bag as well. There may be some final editing / soundtrack work to do, but there's probably a rough edit sitting on a disk in the studio already. So, how long before that's leaked? Can we see it a full year before release?
Maran
Why stories get published without checking (Score:2)
Since he's broken enough news that turned out to be true (thanks to getting on the 'A' list for leaks seeking wide distribution), he has enough credibility to turn out OK. And the traditional guys don't always do the fact checking they should, or in the case like this, they can report the fact that "Drudge is reporting that Two Towers has been leaked" which is of course 100% true.
Plus as you say, it sells more papers. In any case, the old adage holds: don't believe everything you read.
--LP
Re:Why stories get published without checking (Score:2)
(reference for the joke [lab.net])
Re:Possession of Stolen Goods (Score:2)
If you were to go into the studio and take a reel with the actual film on it, that would be theft -- you're physically taking an object that belongs to the studio. When you download it, you're not depriving them of property, thus it can't be theft. That said, distributing this would probably fall afoul of several other, unrelated laws regarding distribution of electronic material that you don't own the copyright to.
I don't pretend to believe that trafficking in copyright-infringing material is right -- but when you use the movie studios' terms, you're falling prey to their flawed logic.
Re:"The Two Towers" (Score:2)
Re:"The Two Towers" (Score:5, Interesting)
Please expand on this. Who is "they", and what are your sources?
From IMDB [imdb.com], the Internet Movie DataBase.
Re:"The Two Towers" (Score:2)
Warning, this video may be offensive and is not suitable for younger viewers.
Re:hands up... (Score:2)
You Are A Thief (Score:2)
Re:Postest with the mostest? (Score:3, Interesting)