Search Slyck
Anonymous
Welcome
Sicko Uploaders Sought
June 19, 2007
The topic of prereleased movies is hardly a new one. The arrival of prereleased movies has occurred more frequently since broadband became mainstream and commonplace. This situation gained notoriety on May 18, 2005, when “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” found its way online nearly a full day before its theatrical release.Star Wars director/creator/writer George Lucas was infuriated – much more so than when Attack of the Clones was prereleased nearly two weeks before its theatrical release in 2003. The matter was investigated by the FBI, who targeted the primary online source of the film – EliteTorrents. Within a week of the prerelease of “Sith”, EliteTorrents was shut down and its servers were seized. Although its servers were located overseas, EliteTorrent’s administrators are US citizens. Scott McCausland, one of the administrators of the site, pleaded guilty to uploading (seeding) a copy of “Sith” on EliteTorrents.
It’s unclear how Scott obtained his copy of “Sith”, or whether it was identical to the work print obtained by Albert Valente and his crew. Like Scott, Albert’s copy eventually found its way onto the BitTorrent network a day before its release.
Why the background story? Similar to “Revenge of the Sith”, Michael Moore’s “SiCKO” has also found its way online before its theatrical release date. The film was available in its entirety on YouTube, as well as P2P and other file-sharing networks. Although Michael Moore has said in the past he is fine with people distributing his films online, the copyright owners of his film are not. In fact, Weinstein Corporation has taken a hard line against those responsible for uploading the film, and has promised legal action.
"Every DVD screener that comes from the Weinstein Co. is watermarked and traceable," Weinstein Co. general counsel Peter Hurwitz said. "We are actively investigating who illegally uploaded 'Sicko' to the Internet, and we will take appropriate action against that person(s)."
This is where our background story comes into play. While Weinstein Co. is playing hardball, the reality of the situation is much different. The chances of Weinstein’s investigation actually finding the individuals who’ve uploaded it to YouTube or BitTorrent are very low. For the individual who was entrusted with the screener, however, there might be trouble ahead.
Scott McCausland got into trouble because he seeded “Sith” on an American-based BitTorrent site – and because he was American. If Scott was living in just about any other country outside the jurisdiction of US law, the difficulty in finding the individual responsible would have been compounded. Additionally, Scott’s judgment in being both a BitTorrent tracker administrator and an active participant in seeding files is dubious at best. His high profile actions lead to the near-immediate demise of his site.
Albert Valente got into trouble because he put too much trust in his friends. The workprint changed hands 8 times before it ended up with Marc Moaglin, who like Scott, uploaded the film one day before its theatrical premiere. Court records do not indicate what BitTorrent tracker it was uploaded to. Albert only faced a misdemeanor for his actions, while Marc was charged with a felony.
In order for Weinstein’s investigation to be successful, the individual(s) responsible must make several bad mistakes that would leave a trail obvious enough to trace. Considering the vast effort needed to track down “Sith”, this is no small task.
As Weinstein’s general counsel stated, most movies these days are watermarked. These watermarks are sometimes noticeable during theatrical runs, and appear as a set of prearranged dots. This technology is known as Coded Anti-Piracy. These watermarks typically contain information such as the theater the film is being played in. Screeners also have watermarks, usually identifiable to the film’s source – or the person entrusted with the film.
The lesson here is the original Oscar voter might have the most to worry about from this situation. The watermark technology could lead investigators to that individual. However, once the film is in the wild, the watermark does little good. Watermarking technology can’t differentiate who the individual shared the film with, or the identity of a BitTorrent/YouTube uploader. And if the uploader is experienced in defeating watermark technology, then all bets are off.
Albert Valente got into trouble because he put too much trust in his friends. The workprint changed hands 8 times before it ended up with Marc Moaglin, who like Scott, uploaded the film one day before its theatrical premiere. Court records do not indicate what BitTorrent tracker it was uploaded to. Albert only faced a misdemeanor for his actions, while Marc was charged with a felony.
In order for Weinstein’s investigation to be successful, the individual(s) responsible must make several bad mistakes that would leave a trail obvious enough to trace. Considering the vast effort needed to track down “Sith”, this is no small task.
As Weinstein’s general counsel stated, most movies these days are watermarked. These watermarks are sometimes noticeable during theatrical runs, and appear as a set of prearranged dots. This technology is known as Coded Anti-Piracy. These watermarks typically contain information such as the theater the film is being played in. Screeners also have watermarks, usually identifiable to the film’s source – or the person entrusted with the film.
The lesson here is the original Oscar voter might have the most to worry about from this situation. The watermark technology could lead investigators to that individual. However, once the film is in the wild, the watermark does little good. Watermarking technology can’t differentiate who the individual shared the film with, or the identity of a BitTorrent/YouTube uploader. And if the uploader is experienced in defeating watermark technology, then all bets are off.
This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
File-Sharing/P2P Related :: Copyright Issues
You can discuss this article here - 11 replies
| Giganews |   |
| NewsDemon | |
| Thundernews | |
| Binverse |  |
| Newshosting | |
| UseNetServer | |
| Astraweb | |
© 2001-2008 Slyck.com