Revenge of the Sith Bittorrent Discussion

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

So about 3 hours before ROTS the first torrents of the movie were available on various torrent networks. The video, essentially the whole thing is a master disk that had to have come from inside ILM. The top of the screen has a clock counting down the run time and there are some sound mixing issues at points. The MPAA however is using this opportunity to slam Bittorrent and the internet, internet freedom advocates claim that its Lucasfilm's fault and problem. My take is that since  Star Wars is such a huge movie and that the torrent is as flawed as it is it will have no impact whatsoever on the box office sales or on the DVD release. Essentially a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Still it doesn't bode well for the future of digital media and it does point out a flaw in the system. It takes a movie like Star Wars to bring the rebel out of people I guess. Lucas essentially dared pirates to try and copy his movie in prerelease touting his new ability to encrypt the master DVD's and well paid security. I guess many bothans died to get the master disk of Sith, but now its out in the wild and nothing can stop it. Im not sorry, Lucas is still rich, Star Wars Ep III is going to be the highest grossing movie of all time and everyone is going to get what they want out of this.

But Im curious what your thoughts on the subject are.

[fuzzyoctopus]

I agree that it will have no impact on the box office sales.  Star wars is the kind of movie you go to see on the big screen because that's part of the experience. If that were not the case, the reissue in the theaters of the first three movies wouldn't have made millions of dollars.

Basically I agree with you completely.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I might even hazard to say its a huge advertising point too...
" Come see the whole thing on the big screen!" "Be part of the experience, not a recluse!"

[Spriggan]

Who ever did this is a moron, not becasue they released it on Bit-torrent (you allready know how I feel about that stuff) but becasue the timestamped version will be easly traced back to who ever placed it on the net.  These versions are have numbers that say who was working on them.

You can bet Lucas and Fox are going to hit this person (or persons) very hard.

[JP Dogberry]

See, as far as I'm concerned:

I plan to see it three times at the Theatres

I plan to buy the DVD.

Can anyone really fault me for watching a torrent version to tide me over until the DVD is realesed, should I want to do that? Which I don't by the way.

It won't affect sales at all. I only think it's a bad thing because it makes bittorrent look bad.

On that thought, it was probably a deliberate leak to give reason to  try and shut down bittorrent.

Corporations are evil. The Man is evil. The western world is a facist state.

Down with Government! Up with Anarchy! Down with Hierarchies! Up with Freedom! Down with Bush! Up with miniskirts!

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

and yet they seem to be more interested in the transmission of it than the person who released it,... on the surface at least. Its as if they did it on purpose to feel out how fast and where it would spread.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Who ever did this is a moron, not becasue they released it on Bit-torrent (you allready know how I feel about that stuff) but becasue the timestamped version will be easly traced back to who ever placed it on the net.  These versions are have numbers that say who was working on them.

You can bet Lucas and Fox are going to hit this person (or persons) very hard.

I agree, and I personally think that it's fine.  You're dumb enough to leak info from the a company like that that you're affiliated with you're gonna get fired.

and yet they seem to be more interested in the transmission of it than the person who released it,... on the surface at least. Its as if they did it on purpose to feel out how fast and where it would spread.

And what else is new?

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

2 interesting points.
The first is a digital protection bill is being lobbied in congress, and this is the poster child for shutting down or attempting to criminalize Bittorrent
and
the other interesting point is that 95% of all internet users probably wont be able to get ROTS as a torrent because they dont have connections fast enough to allow it. Unless the number of internet users with high speed internet has gone up dramatically.

Downloading a movie can take days... ROTS is 1.5 gigs of data, which with a good connection could be 18 hours or so of straight downloads, but 32 or 38 for average and days or weeks for worse connections.

Then the downloaders need a way to play the media... after all on the computer is ok, but on a TV would be better. One of the two cuts (yes its 2 now) of ROTS is now set up as a DVD, (I checked, so we could discuss it) while the other (a filmed version from a theater) isnt.  

So if I download it I need a DVD burner or some decent software to play it. For Joe average its just not realistic. Joe Techno however wont have any problem. The question is how many of all of them are going to download it? All of them 50 % or much lower.

Im leaning toward a number like 8% which represents what kind of numbers in terms of Broadband internet users?

[Entsuropi]

Anyone else remember that thing with the Doctor Who pilot leak? How a internet PR company BBC had hired claimed it was a brilliant advertising ploy?

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I think its more like legal leverage when it comes up on the floor of congress...

[JP Dogberry]

Evil Evil Evil.

These people are trying to take away our RIGHTS to use Peer 2 Peer systems for legal uses, and to restrict the flow of ideas.

Ideas cannot be owned. There is no copyright. Restricing information leads to the darkside. It also leads to facism, dictatorships, one world governments,  corporate control, the abolishment of the individual, the collapse of society.

Ironic they did it with Star Wars 3?

"That's how democracy dies, with Thundering Applause."

Evil Evil Evil.

[Entsuropi]

It's also pretty stupid. When will governments learn that they can't regulate the internet worth a damn? Anti-spam measures barely work, and most internet users despise spam. They close down one type of file sharing program, and by the time they have finished doing that, 3 more have popped up. They are lagging behind so badly...

[fuzzyoctopus]

It's also pretty stupid. When will governments learn that they can't regulate the internet worth a damn?

At the risk of starting a flame war?

If they ever learn it at all they'll learn it when the OLD people of my parent's generation are DEAD, and kids who are about 12 now, who grew up with the internet, are old and running the governments.

[Oseleon]

it will have no impact whatsoever on the box office sales

I disagree
Everyone WILL Want to see it in the theatre.. true.
But, owning the leaked DVD will save people from going that 2nd, 3rd or 4th time.  
So, people who would have bought 4 tickets, will now only buy 1 or 2

Now, that said, The fault and the enforcement should come down on the leaker.  Not the method.  
BitTorrent has a Primarily legal and legitimate reason for existance.  It is the most common way that Open source software is now distributed.  
According to Sony vs Betamax, this means that BT is protected.  
However, the MPAA has been trying to reverse SvB for 25 years now.  They will play every dirty trick in the book

Remmember that They have several congress persons secure in their pockets (Fritz Hollings)
They will use this as a banner to convince elected officials who do not understand the technology, that it is evil and a great threat to IP economy (as much as I would Like to share Jam's idealistic view of completly free IP I recognize that there must be a balance)

The problem is that Massive organizations like the MPAA and the RIAA are moving mountains and funding campaigns to shift that balance in their favor away from the consumer.  
The Consumer has few such organized efforts in their corner.  
The one I put the most faith in is the EFF or the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  www.EFF.org

They are on top of this issue and provide help to alot of citizen victims of a legislature that is bumbeling inneptly through the new digital age.  

Keep in mind, when we get hurt by bad IT laws,  Its not the act of malice... like a bight from a carnivore.  Rather it's a clumsy error like getting steped on by a blind elephant.  
The Lawmakers need to be educated.  The EFF can help that
You can make donations and read more about the EFF at
www.eff.org

[Skar]

The world is changing.  New methods of doing business are becoming necessary.  By fighting the peer-to-peer revolution the corporate special interests are simply trying to stop the clock so they can continue to make money in the old way.

The RIAA (all of the same ilk) fighting the peer-to-peer people is the same as if the horse breeders and teamsters had organized to fight Ford. As if the wind-sailors had organized to fight steam power. Etc... Capitolism equates to survival of the fittest.  Unfortunately, under our current system "fittest" no longer really equates to business smarts, inventiveness, and flexibility but instead at legal acumen and pocketbook depth. (as expressed through suing your competitors and lobbying big government)

I recognize that their's a difference between peer-to-peer people stealing copyrighted works and steam-powered ships competing with sailing ships (the steam ships weren't stealing the sailing ships cargo out of their holds after all)  But information distribution is going digital and ease of copying is part and parcel.  If the RIAA tries to stand in its way instead of finding a way to work within the new paradigm it's going to go the way of the dodo.  Of course, none of us would shed a single tear if it did go away but...anyway.