April 14, 2008
Bootleg DVDs Off the Streets, Still Online
Last year movie piracy became a misdemeanor in New York, making it that much harder to watch a shaky-cam version of a summer blockbuster before it even closes out its opening weekend in theaters. Bloomberg has been cracking down on counterfeiters city-wide, and while he's brought equal attention to the fake purse racket, The NY Times focuses in on the blurry bootlegs.
Shari Hyman is the director of the mayor’s office of special enforcement, and has revisited Canal Street many times to bust some "businesses" -- and her job is getting harder. A year after the crackdown, there just aren't very many left. Where fake Fendis still sat pretty on the sidewalk, pirated DVDs had all but disappeared.
In a neighborhood full of blankets and sidewalk “offices” with everything a shopper might find in a boutique uptown, Ms. Hyman was coming up empty-handed. “We tried to buy DVDs,” she said, “but we could only get one woman to come out into the street, and she had them stuffed into her jacket.”Where did they all go? Piracy runs rampant on the internet still, and while the movie industry is fighting it, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks are costing them some serious cash. In 2005 it was estimated that around $18.2 billion was lost through piracy. While most of the operations are still amateur (hand-held cameras in movie theaters), there is web distribution, which "reduces the criminal’s capital outlay to near zero."In a February sweep, the organization checked out three buildings and 32 storefronts for bootlegged DVDs, and found none.
To stop the online operations, new technology is being created, including a program that finds the IP addresses of individuals who download the bootlegs. So if you just had to see Prom Night before it hit the big screen, your own horror story may just be getting started.
Photo of Spiderman bootleg DVD purchased on Canal Street the same weekend it opened, via mattza's flickr.
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People still buy bootleg DVDs when real DVDs are available 4 months after the movie comes out? Who wants to watch something taped in a theater?
great, my 500 word post about how most of the bootleg industry is far from "amateur" didn't post.. i'll run down the gist of it:
the majority of bootlegs aren't just a camera in the theater. bootleg and release groups are worldwide operations, and most include Academy members, critics, theater owners, and even people at studios. last year alone juno, there will be blood, and no country for old men all had DVD-quality bootlegs floating around while they were still in theaters.
Well, a good portion of bootlegs out are ripped from the DVD screeners studios pass out to critics and such.
Ideally, the worst you'd have to deal with is the occasional watermark on the screen.
Not that I'd know, but this is just hearsay...
In 2005 it was estimated that around $18.2 billion was lost through piracy.
And I'd guess about $20 billion was lost through lousy movies. If a movie is any good, does any exec think anyone would rather watch a dark, shaky cam copy with muffled sound and silhouettes of people standing up every once in a while, even if it's free?
Uh, News Flash Ms. Hyman: the bootleg DVD sellers are still alive and well underground. Walk through the Fulton St./Broadway/Nassau station or the passageway between 6th and 7th Aves. at the 14th St. station (just two places I've seen them recently) and see if you don't find your blanket full of DVDs, sultry looking woman ready to sell you some, and a couple of nearby kids playing on station fixtures.
If by "off the streets" you mean "wandering through the 4-train every single night" ...
Also, wtf? I went to Chinatown a couple of weekends ago and just getting up the stairs at the canal street 6 was a huge bitch due to all the bootleggers shoving DVDs in my face. Where did they go to try and buy DVDs?
"In 2005 it was estimated that around $18.2 billion was lost through piracy."
They always inflate these numbers to make it seem like a bigger deal than it is. Besides, I've seen about two movies in the theater this year. Stopping downloads and bootlegs won't boost that.
I mean it's all theory. I can make a case that I would watch more movies via download than via the theater, and then would find more movies I would like to purchase on DVD...and also find more movies to tell my friends to see. All increasing sales.
I just think the movie industry needs to embrace more downloading options (at least post theater release) and change the theater system which has floundered and remained basically unchanged for years.
If the industry decided to lower the price of DVDs, which cost next to nothing to make yet they sell for $15-25 then maybe more people will be buying it through legal means.
The music and movie industry is at Capitalism at its finest. All these people think about is the green.
Or they could stop with the remakes of Asian films (and remakes in general, really) and, y'know, be.. creative.
Bootlegs recorded in the theater are un-f'ing-watchable, you can't enjoy a movie that way.
However, I'm sure a lot of people who buy these bootlegs are doing so to avoid going to a loud theater filled with teens and people blabbing on their cell phones. I blame the theater owners, who still refuse to crackdown on this behavior.
Wouldn't you hear teens and cellphone blabbing on a theater-taped boot anyway? I don't think I have ever seen anyone on a cell during a movie.
the best bootleg ever was "AMERICAN GANGSTER". It was a dvd quality copy on the internet a full week before it hit the theaters. sadly, I didn't watch the whole thing cause the movie sucked. I have figured out that the Movie Industry has released shitty movies to combat piracy. There will be blood and No country for old men were shit. I wouldn't even pirate that crap.
re: robingee
see a movie on a friday or saturday night at either court street or the park slope pavilion and you'll get a sense of how movie theater etiquette basically no longer exists.
what really pisses me off is the amount of text messaging that happens in theaters. sure, it's better than someone yakking on a cell phone, but movie theaters are dark for a reason..i dont want to see the beam of light from your fucking phone in my periphery.
Sitting by the cashiers at my grocery store is a guy who sells bootleg DVDs. While he's got a nice selection, I'm really hoping he expands his business into selling more children's programming and documentaries. Or maybe even a snuff film or two, as my family's tastes are quite diverse.
This is silly. Shouldn't we be complaining about subway stewardesses or something?