A new law is being pushed forward in New York that would make the crime of recording movies in theaters an actual crime. Go figure.
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was joined Monday by Tina Fey and a couple of other movie types for the unveiling of the “Piracy Protection Act,” which would make piracy either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on whether you’re a first-time or repeat offender, and punish it with actual, y’know, jail time (up to a year for first-timers). They’re hoping to have the law in place within the month.
I agree with laws against video piracy. I will admit that I have toed that line a little too often but it just isnt worth it. The quality sucks, (even the “good ones” are crap) and they lack the special features that movie buffs like me want. But more importantly you are not supporting the filmmakers to begin with. Rant all you want about how much money they already have, but my purchase of a movie isn’t about their money. Its my vote and nod of approval to the creators.
You can download or buy yourself a ripped copy of a movie and the person you give your cash to (or not if you are downloading it) is not giving ANYTHING to the people who made the film.
The money you give your local retailer for a good solid copy of a movie is well worth it in my opinion. I have seen pre-release stuff and dvd rips and the poor to “near perfect” quality just isnt good enough for this movie fan.
So finally someone is taking the RIGHT move to fight piracy. Arrest the filmers.
The guys on the street pay very little for the shitty copies you buy, and if they get caught selling them they typically just take them away from you. Maybe a fine, and then the fencer is just going to go back to his stash and get another pile. Arresting these guys will do nothing.
Chop off a hydras head and another springs up in its place.
But if you cut the source of these videos THAT will make an impact. NY is a hotspot for this type of crime and the penalties are likened to that of a permit fee. The money these guys make for producing their half assed copies is the real crime. Give them a fine for $250 and they would ask you who they write the check out to.
They still have people running drugs which is met with stiff penalties, so I don’t know that this will curb pirates sneaking video cameras into a theater, but it will give the pause.
Slushie, the AVP2 example is exactly what I mentioned about Academy Screeners. DVD copies are created for academy voters to preview for the upcoming awards. AVP2 coming out so close to the end of the year means it wont hit dvds on the shelf until its too late for the voters to do their job, so the studio creates piles of dvds and sends them out.
Someone who knows someone makes a copy and its suddenly everywhere. DVD quality, days after release.
This happens all the time. The reason I isolated the discussion to cams at the theaters (which is what I expressed my opinion on in the post) was that was what this law is intended to target.
Thats all.
“You cannot make a dvd quality version of a film AT the theaters.”
I’m not saying they’re made AT the theater, but they’re made of movies that JUST CAME to theaters. I really don’t understand why you’re having such a hard time understanding me.
Let me try to sum it up:
Cams are pretty much dead. DVDRips are coming out while the movie is still in theaters, after only being in theaters, for a month or less. Why would anyone watch a cam when they have that? Exactly, not very many people, thus cams are heavily on the decline, so stopping cams from getting out is attacking too little too late, as they’re next to extinct as it is due to the higher-quality Rips that are being released JUST AS early as most Cams.
Example: AvP2 came out Xmas day in theaters. There were DVDRips of it out to download by January 4th. It’s similar for ALL bigger movies these days. Of course there are exceptions, but on average, that’s pretty much what it’s like now.
Back in the day, there were dozens of Cams out for a single movie, each of varying quality. Now it’s rare that there’s more then two, at most, due to nobody wanting to waste the time and effort to get it done when a perfect quality DVDRip will be up within a couple weeks.
i cant wait for this law to get into motion, i get all my bootlegs from the Chinese people anyway so this doesn’t effect me anyway and this will only make the pirated copies better quality. Nobody is gonna go to jail for a shitty dark screened copy of a movie. I can only see good things come from this
Anything against the law is a “crime” but the original offense is a minor misdemeanor. No criminal record, and no jail time, just a fine. You can get fined more for speeding.
Calling it an “actual crime” is just for emphasis as the new law will actually make this feel more of a risk than just getting thrown out of the theater and MAYBE getting a fine.
Oh… i thought it was a crime already.
Slush… those rips were acquired by people on the inside getting paid off. Airlines have copies they show on planes that are on dvd and staff have been charged with making copies of those dvds.
And the studios send out dvds of movies not yet out to Academy seat holders to preview, and those manage to get out too.
You cannot make a dvd quality version of a film AT the theaters.
“That is what the article was about. Making stronger penalties against people who film stuff in theaters.”
And what I’m saying is that doesn’t matter. There are DVDRips of movies IN theaters, within a month of their release in theaters at the latest. Not copies of DVD’s that are already out. Like for example, Rambo. After being in theaters for a week, there were DVDRips of it up to download. It’s like that with every major movie now. Nobody watches cams (stuff filmed while in the theater) anymore because of that, and so you take the cams away, it doesn’t affect ANYTHING, because unlike a few years ago, cams aren’t that common anymore, because a PERFECT quality DVDRip version will be out within a month at most, in almost all cases.
CIB3k, you missed my point. I was referring to the cam shot versions of pirated movies out there. I am well aware that there is also a thriving business of illegally copied versions of legitimate dvds.
That is what the article was about. Making stronger penalties against people who film stuff in theaters.
Also your proposal to boycott the studios and distributors is flawwed. Without them these movies would never get made or shipped out to the public market
“The quality sucks”? Dude, you have no idea of what’s even out there. Yeah, everything filmed inside a theater looks crappy and the quality of the dvd rips released by most well known groups is average – but there are several groups (mostly asian) that release movie rips of amazing quality. They’re now using hi-def codecs to compress a DVD in a quarter or less of the original size, and you can’t tell the difference. There are HD rips that look as good as the original but have one tenth of its size. Even the old compression codecs have improved and when properly used they lead to amazing results. If you don’t believe me just go to a site which has screencaps from various releases and compare them – like the divxplanet forums, for example.
Also, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but dvds released in different regions are usually different in quality. Some have better colors, sharper image etc. It would be a real pain in the a$$ to have to get information about how good the transfer is for each version, before deciding to buy online one released in a specific region – which you’re not supposed to do anyway, you’re supposed to stick to your region. Thanks to the rips available on the internet, you simply get samples from each release, compare them, then you download the best one.
I agree that you have to support the creators – the problem is that THE DISTRIBUTION IS NOT RUN BY THEM. The distribution system is WRONG. Movies are overpriced and the whole region thing and the differences in quality are just wrong. As much as I want to support the creators, I want even more to boycott the studios and distributors.
Also, for example, for most people who like asian movies but live in a different part of the world, it’s often pretty difficult to get certain titles, small movies which you do want to see but are very difficult to buy online. Again, the rips available on the internet make this a simple task.
Oh, and most special features are also available online. You just have to know where to look.
To conclude, I’m all for supporting the creators and against people filming in theaters, but until everything will be legally available on the Internet at decent prices, they won’t have a chance fighting against piracy.
This won’t do much, if anything at all.
Take a look at some torrent sites. Cams aren’t that common anymore. DVDRips come out quick now (Just about every major movie since the fall has had a DVDRip out within a month of it’s theatrical release, at the latest). DVDRips are NOT recorded on a camera in a theater.
Bravo to the minds behind this law, took them long enough to do it, but cameras recording movies in the theater haven’t been big in over a year now, so it’s kinda too little too late. The only cam I’ve watched in the last almost 2 years has been The Ruins, and that’s cause my theater never got it. When I download movies, I normally just wait the 2 or 3 weeks for the DVDRip to come out, which is PERFECT DVD quality, and watch that.
Back in the day it was different. DVDRips would never come out until a week or two before the movie hits DVD, with the rare exceptions, so Cams were all you had until then, but for the last long time DVDRips have been getting released earlier and earlier and cams have been slowly getting fazed out.
I have been to and lived in China several times, and I have to say the DVDs there are a serious issue. I’m guessing far worse than NYC.
Here’s the issue for me though; I WANT to buy the real thing. I really do. If for no other reason than to reward the people who make good movies, in order to get people to make more good movies.
However, when the price difference is what it is in China (Roughly $1.30) how am I supposed to ignore that? They can afford to make a profit selling it at that price?! It’s insane.
I understand there are many people involved in the process when it’s legal, and I’m willing to pay more, but when it’s a difference of over $20 I get pissed. Someone is screwing the customer over. The DVD itself cost them pennies to make.
So yeah, punish the pirates. They ARE breaking the law, but also do an investigation into DVD sellers themselves. If they could make DVDs $10 for new releases, I for one wouldn’t even consider buying pirated copies.
Maybe that’s impossible, but I get the feeling they’re making a killing as it is now…
Drug dealers are around because there are people that want/need the drugs, the same goes for the pirates. The everyday people that choose to purchase these stolen movies or download them from torrent sites are the reason a majority of the pirating is being done. Society needs to be better educated on the subject. Thanks to this illegal pirating costs are increased and thus the very people that justify their illegal actions because of the millions of dollars spent/made by a movie are the ones fueling the fire.