A Pirates Life for Thee

Today Warner Bros announced it will no longer preview films in Canada so as to stop piracy.

"Indeed, the company's senior vice-president of anti-piracy operations, Darcy Antonellis, said in the last 18 months nearly 70 per cent of the studio's titles have been pirated in Canada." (From the Above Link)

Now, they are not saying that 70% of pirated films online come from Canada, just that 70% of the Films have been video taped in Canadian theatres. They don't mention what % of their films have been taped in the US, or anywhere else. More to the point, they don't make any claim towards what percentage of film pirated worldwide originated from material recorded in Canada. Isn't that the real issue? So, Warner's, what's up?

"“The newly enacted policy represents the studio's response to the lack of legislation in Canada to curtail the growing wave of camcorder-shot (“camcorded”) films being trafficked around the world,” Warner Bros. said in a statement." (ibid)

Oh. Okay. I get it now. You don't like Canadian law. Well, guess what?

Too bad.

The fact is, Camcorder-ed films look like crap. If they are downloaded and viewed, and if the downloader liked the film, odds are they will go see it in the theatre, or more importantly, they will buy the DVD when it's released. So, Warner's, stop making shitty films and people will go see (purchase) them.

(Another point I'll make, based on personal experience, is that most films online are not "camcorder-ed" They are copied of dvd's that originate from internal sources. Maybe you need to fire that hot intern. I know it hurts, but take one for the company.)

t

EDIT: Opps. I guess Curtis and I were on the same page here. Just not the same time zone. Of course, once again, he's a little nicer about it.