Bruce Schneier comments on pirating movies

[obiron]

For anyone unfamiliar with him, Bruce Schneier is one of today's formost crytography and computer security experts. He publishes a free monthly newsletter called Crypto-Gram that can be found here: http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram.html.

Here is what he had to say about pirating movies:

Pirating Movies



Understandably, the movie industry is really incensed by the movie
copies that are traded back and forth on the Internet. The industry
has responded by trying to make DVDs harder to copy, citing consumers
as the culprit. But a new research paper out of AT&T Labs indicates
otherwise. The researchers collected 285 popular movies on file
sharing networks, and found that 77% of them were leaked by industry
insiders. These files include various warnings and messages. For
example, "Property of Miramax Films, for screening purposes only," or a
time code indicating a production copy. Indeed, most of the samples
appeared on file sharing networks prior to their official consumer DVD
release date.

One of the first rules of security is that you need to know who your
attacker is before you consider countermeasures. In this case, the
movie industry has the threat wrong. The attackers aren't DVD owners
making illegal copies and putting them on file sharing networks. The
attackers are industry insiders making illegal copies long before the
DVD is ever on the market.

The paper:
http://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/drm03.html

[BJ_M]

AT&T Lab's pub site seems partial to screeners and work copies - so it appears


someone there built up a nice litle collection of 285 films also ...

[ImaWeTodd]

someone there built up a nice litle collection of 285 films also ...

Just think of the time it would take to put 285 (out of sync, subbed, logo'd, xvid, etc.) avi files on a DVDr!

Really, how much is a matinee including popcorn?

[ImaWeTodd]

The artical doesn't know what's what.

Indeed, of the movies that had been released on DVD as of the time of our study, only 5% first appeared after their DVD release date on a web site that indexes file sharing networks, indicating that consumer DVD copying currently represents a relatively minor factor compared with insider leaks.

I'd say broadband still ain't there to support 5 gig files. Thank goodness for the MPAA.

They should ask NetFlix 'the avg time a disc is out'.

[Styro]

They should ask NetFlix 'the avg time a disc is out'.

The MPAA should ask Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, etc. for stats regarding one day renters and less than one day renters. That would give a better idea than asking Netflix/Walmart (USPS delivery inconsistencies skew any useful stats). Also asking for recordable DVD sales companies for stats might be useful (but only if you know what % are used for video, data, and wasted).

-- Styro

[The village idiot]

Notice that they don't consider cams as a big threat. Most of the good films don't get a screener released until 1-2 months after the film opens in theaters, by then the big boxoffice money is gone! And they only stimulate DVD purchases later. If the movie was good, a VCD or SVCD with time code or warnings or security IDs just isn't going to cut it, you will want the DVD with the extra stuff! And my feelings on the cams are that they only draw people into the theaters, if it looks really good from the cam, seeing it the theater will be worth the money. If the movie reviews say it sucks, you are not likely to go to the theater anyway, just wait for pay per view or DVD rental.

Downloading DVD's sucks! It takes about $7.00 dollars worth of allotment to down a single DVD (less with LARGE allotments) and it takes about 24 hours of maxing your DSL connection. That means no surfing while it's going, no nothing! If you have a 2Mbps or better, that would be different, but most people do not! Hell most people have daily download caps. A dvd does not fit in most caps, so then you have NO internet until time expires and your cap is reset!

The movie industry worries about nothing! They should work on getting better writers and turning out better movies! Maybe find some new actors that will not cost mega millions per movie, so they can reach better profits. It's there own mess, if they don't clean it now, someone will come up with a way to make good movies, for less money, and really steal the customers away! MPAA = Morons Pushing Absolute Abominations! It's all crap! The only movie I might see in theater is Return of the King, even T3 keeps me waiting for DVD, and all the rest are complete CRAP!

[ImaWeTodd]

That would give a better idea than asking Netflix/Walmart (USPS delivery inconsistencies skew any useful stats).

Good idea, but don't miss the point.

If Bruce thinks he can compare mp3 downloads to dvd downloads, He's wrong. One premise is consumers don't copy dvds. He supports this by finding they don't download them.

Maybe you should first know how/where you can be attacked before you worry about who is doing it.